The Canadian company makes bee-free honey using apples
A company that makes “honey” from discarded apples has won CAD $100,000 in prize money from Canada Post, the country’s national postal service.
Vegan honey is a growing market - Media Credit: Mindful FÜD
Mindful FÜD, run by Venessa Stonehouse, makes Bee Mindful Hunnie using juice and vinegar from apples that would otherwise go to waste instead of using bees. It offers the consistency and taste of honey while protecting bees and the environment.
The company won the Going Green category of Canada Post’s Tales of Triumph contest, which celebrates stories of small businesses. As well as the prize money, Mindful FÜD will get shipping credits, promotion across Canada Post digital channels, and will feature in national and regional marketing campaigns.
Success from struggle
Demand for plant-based honey is growing Mindful FÜD
Stonehouse began using apples to make vegan honey after her original Mindful FÜD site burnt down in 2021. In the wake of the tragedy, she spent time visiting a friend, whose neighbour had an unused apple orchard.
Bee Mindful Hunnie was born a few short months later. Stonehouse has since added a hot version to the range. Her products are now stocked in 250 stores across Canada and used in several restaurants.
“I’m incredibly honoured to have Mindful FÜD recognized in the Going Green category for Canada Post’s Tales of Triumph Contest,” Stonehouse told Plant Based News. “This win is a testament to the hard work, passion, and belief that sustainability, innovation, and deliciousness can coexist. Our mission has always been about creating real change -reducing food waste, protecting bees, and offering plant-based alternatives that don’t harm the environment. By giving bees a break, we’re helping preserve their vital role in our ecosystem.”
Avocados, usually cited as the reason millennials can’t afford to buy their homes, are now being questioned as a suitable food for vegans.
The creamy green fruit, also blamed for causing “avocado hand” injuries by cack-handed attempts to remove them from their skin, is, some suggest, not vegan-friendly after all due to the way they’re farmed.
The clip suggested that avocados, as well as almonds, kiwi, and butternut squash, technically shouldn’t be designated vegan because of a system called “migratory beekeeping.”
Commercial farms in US states like California have to shuttle bees between farms in the backs of trucks because there are not enough native bees in the region to pollinate the plants on which they grow, The Kitchen reports.
Still failing to see the connection? Well, many vegans tend to avoid honey because bees are exploited in order for the sweet substance to be harvested.
So, if the bees are being incarcerated in the back of trucks for long periods of time, maybe even mishandled along the way, then perhaps vegans will think twice about eating avocados. So goes the logic.
However, The Kitchen notes, that not every farm in the US uses the bee-move to pollinate plants, so purchasing produce from smaller farms may well solve the issue.
On QI, host Sandi Toksvig asked what can be eaten from a choice of avocados, almonds, melons, kiwis, or butternut squash, by “strict vegans.”
When one contestant answers “any of them,” Toksvig informs him that he is wrong, for the “same reason as honey.”
“Because they’re so difficult to cultivate naturally, all of these crops rely on bees, which are placed on the back of trucks and taken long distances across the country. It’s migratory bee-keeping and an unnatural use of animals and there are lots of foods that fall foul of this.”
According to the Global Food Security Programme, the UK gets most of its avocados from Mexico but also relies on imports from Peru, South Africa, Chile, Israel and Spain.
Vegan Food and Livingwrote about the avocado conundrum, and in its article examined whatThe Vegan Society, the creators of the words, ‘vegan’ and ‘veganism’ define that as. Veganism, it explained “is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all form of exploitation of, and cruelty of, animals for food, clothing or other purpose.”
Almonds have been scapegoated by everyone from Piers Morgan to the writers of ‘The Good Place’ - but how unethical are they really?
Over the last few years, there has been growing awareness of the huge impact our diet has on the environment. Study after study has shown that meat and dairy is destroying the planet, and the science is clear that we must move towards a more plant-based food system to avoid climate collapse. But despite this, society often chooses to ignore the impact of animal foods, and focus instead on demonizing vegan foods. One of its favourite targets? Almonds.
The furore against almonds can be largely traced back to the exploding popularity of almond milk, which took place in the 2010s. As more and more people went plant-based and became vocal about our food system’s problems, the media and popular culture fought back, deciding to blame vegans for eating almonds, rather than themselves for eating dairy.
Piers Morgan regularly labels vegans “hypocrites” for eating almonds on his show. Publications often cite almonds in articles claiming that vegans are destroying the planet. A daytime show called This Morning once warned viewers not to drink almond milk if they had an “environmental conscience.” In the hugely popular TV sitcom The Good Place, a running joke throughout the series is that Chidi ended up in hell because he enjoyed almond milk on his coffee, despite knowing its “environmental impact.”
But why are almonds so notorious? And do they really deserve this reputation? Here, we delve into everything you need to know about the ethics of eating almonds.
The popularity of almond milk
Almond milk is growing in popularity Adobe Stock
Variations of almond milk have been around in some cultures for hundreds of years, but its popularity as a plant-based milk alternative started in the 21st century. Around a decade ago, in 2014, almond milk hit headlines when it overtook soy as the USA’s favourite plant milk. It maintains this title today, with soy and oat milk following behind. In just three months in 2021, almond milk sales reached USD $344 million. The global almond milk market is worth around $5.46 billion.
Almond milk is essentially a blend of almonds and water, and many brands add sweeteners or sugar, as well as fortifications of vitamins and minerals. Almond milk is popular in coffee, breakfast cereal, and a wide range of plant-based recipes. It’s now available at pretty much any cafe, supermarket, or restaurant you go to.
The environmental cost of almonds
The main reason why almonds are controversial is because they use up a lot of fresh water. Around 80 percent of the world’s almonds are grown in California, a state that regularly experiences droughts. Between the years of 2012 and 2016, a time when almond milk was first becoming mainstream, California experienced its worst droughts on record. Blaming almonds for these droughts has therefore been easy, convenient, and commonplace.
And, to an extent, almonds do deserve this blame. Tree nuts need a huge amount of freshwater to grow, and almond farming uses up nine percent of California’s freshwater. This is a substantial amount, and the fact that almonds have become more popular over the years has worsened the problem. Due to growing demand, growers have started planting almond trees in hot and dry regions, such as the western San Joaquin Valley, where water supplies are fragile. This means that a huge, and growing, amount of groundwater is being irrigated to keep these trees healthy in difficult conditions.
There is no doubt that almonds are using up water, and people are right to label them as not environmentally-friendly in that regard. The mistake society makes, however, is believing them to be worse than dairy.
Almonds VS dairy
The vast majority of media reports, segments, and popular culture moments that attack almond milk for its water usage fail to give any mention to the huge water use of dairy.
While nine percent of California’s agricultural water is used for almonds, around 16 percent is used to grow a crop called alfalfa, which is predominantly grown to feed dairy cows, as well as other farmed animals. A Food and Water Watch report published in 2023 found that dairy farming alone uses 142 million gallons per day. A study published in the journal Nature in 2020 reported that beef and dairy production is “the leading driver” of water scarcity in Western USA. A University of Oxford study published in 2022 found that dairy milk uses 628 litres of water per litre of milk, while almond milk uses 371 litres.
When assessing the environmental impact of a food, it’s not just water use that should be taken into account. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and land use the food contributes to, are all key indicators of how eco-friendly it is. In regards to these three categories, almond milk actually fares quite well.
According to the Oxford study, almond milk produces the lowest emissions of all plant milks cited, at 0.7 kg per litre. Oat milk produces 0.9 kg, soy milk 0.98 kg, while rice milk emits 1.18 kg. Dairy milk is by far the biggest contributor to greenhouse gasses, producing 3.15 kg per litre.
Almond milk also uses far less land than dairy at 0.5 square meters per litre, opposed to dairy’s 8.95 square meters. It’s worth noting that almond farming uses trees, which help remove carbon from the atmosphere, meaning its use of land is considerably more environmentally friendly than dairy’s. In terms of eutrophication (the pollution of ecosystems with excess nutrients), almond milk is the second least harmful of all milks studied.
Almond milk and bees
Another highly publicized issue with almonds is that they use bees in their production, as almond trees require cross pollination to grow.
Migratory beekeeping refers to the practice of transporting hives of bees long distances so they can help pollinate certain crops. Beekeepers often make a significant amount of their income by renting out their honey bees for this purpose. Bees are sentient beings, and making them travel in this way is likely highly stressful for them. Many die on route, and huge numbers are also killed on farms.
According to a 2020 report by the Guardian, beekeepers renting bees to almond farms were seeing bees die in “record numbers.” High mortality is attributed to pesticide exposure, diseases from parasites, and habitat loss. Using honey bees to pollinate crops also wreaks havoc on native bee populations, as they compete against them for food and resources. They may also spread diseases to other bees.
Contrary to what some of the media says, almonds are suitable for a vegan lifestyle Adobe Stock
The assessment that almonds are not vegan because of migratory beekeeping is not true. Almonds, along with avocados and other vegetables, are suitable for vegans. The definition of veganism, as outlined by The Vegan Society, is about avoiding animal use and exploitation “where possible and practicable.” It would be both impossible and impractical to avoid all indirect harm to animals while living in a non-vegan world. Veganism is about minimizing harm, rather than avoiding it altogether.
That said, that doesn’t mean that vegans support migratory beekeeping. Many strive to buy products that come from farms who do not rely on it, and vegans also fight for a plant-based food system where crops are farmed more naturally, and migratory beekeeping is not viable or needed.
If you are using the bee exploitation argument as a reason to consume dairy over almonds, it’s worth remembering that migratory beekeeping is also used to grow alfalfa and other crops fed to farmed animals, meaning dairy consumption contributes to bee exploitation too. Animal farming is also the leading cause of biodiversity loss, which is having a significant effect on bee populations.
Drinking cow’s milk directly supports an industry that breeds, raises, and exploits 270 million sentient beings globally. Cows, like all mammals, must give birth to a baby in order to produce milk, and they are forcibly impregnated around once a year to that end. After they give birth, their baby will be taken from them after just a few hours. If the baby is female, she will likely suffer the same fate as her mother. If the baby is male, he will either be shot or sold to the veal industry. Illnesses like mastitis (a painful udder inflammation) and lameness are common on dairy farms due to the conditions in which the animals are kept. Dairy cows will therefore often spend their entire lives in pain. Once their milk dries up, they will be sent to the slaughterhouse.
The bottom line
There is no doubt that almonds are more water intensive than many other plant foods, and they are far from an environmentally-friendly food. Almond farming also causes harm to animals, contributing to exploitation and death of bees.
To some, therefore, almonds and almond milk are unethical foods, and should be avoided. This is a reasonable assessment to make, and it is absolutely right that almonds may not be compatible with some people’s lifestyle choices. If you are concerned about almonds but consume meat and dairy, however, it’s very likely that your issues with almonds are eclipsed by the products you are eating.
Over the last few years, almonds have gained a reputation that they don’t entirely deserve. Our society gives huge emphasis to the environmental and ethical costs of almonds and other plant foods, while largely side-lining or ignoring the significant costs of animal foods. This is misleading, and it gives the entirely false impression that almond milk is worse for the environment than dairy. Time and time again, however, almonds – and other plant foods – have been shown to be more environmentally-friendly, and more ethical generally, than animal products.
Founded by a former European honey industry veteran, Mellody delivers a complex vegan honey that has the potential to take the pressure off 20,000 honeybees with every jar. Here’s how to try it for yourself
Honey has distinct properties that can almost be mimicked by substitutes such as agave nectar but not quite. However, new vegan honey Mellody has unlocked everything consumers and chefs love about the sweetener but without harming bees.
That’s because it relies on microbial fermentation to deliver the complexity of honey often lacking in traditional vegan alternatives. And the vegan honey has found a partner in three-Michelin starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park to introduce Mellody to the world.
Eleven Madison Home
New at Eleven Madison Home—the consumer products arm of the restaurant—is a Tea & Honey box filled with three single origin In Pursuit of Tea loose-leaf teas (Himalayan Black, Thunderdragon Green, and Elderflower); a jar of Mellody; honey and oat shortbread cookies made with the vegan honey and dusted with sugar and strawberry powder; and wooden honey spoon to enjoy it all.
The box ($150 each) is the only place where Mellody is sold (for now) and is available for nationwide delivery through Eleven Madison Home.
Vegan honey at Eleven Madison Park
In 2021, Chef Daniel Humm decided to reopen Eleven Madison Park—shuttered by pandemic-related issues—as a plant-based restaurant, a move motivated by the sustainability issues around animal agriculture.
Humm’s decision to partner with MeliBio—the parent company of Mellody—to feature the vegan honey across its offerings is another step embracing innovation that helps to create a more sustainable food system.
Why vegan honey? Conventional methods of commercial honey production involve exploiting bees for their pollination abilities, which results in a range of health issues.
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In nature, bees gather nectar from flowers to produce honey. They visit several flowers, gather nectar, and bring it back to their hives, where they transform it into honey by regurgitating the sugary liquid, reducing its water content, and leaving it to dry. This honey serves as bees’ primary source of carbohydrates and nutrition.
In commercial honey production, however, bees are deprived of their hard-earned honey. They are transported to areas where they only have access to one crop, from which they can only consume mono-nutrients. They are exposed to pesticides, no longer hibernate, and are fed sugar water, which lacks essential nutrients.
Bees also suffer from wing disease due to selective breeding and exposure to pesticides.
MeliBio founder Darko Mandich—a former European honey industry veteran—knows what happens to bees firsthand and founded the company to solve these issues, which affect not only bees but the global food system at large.
“I spent almost a decade in the traditional honey industry in Europe before deciding to change it, now from California,” Mandich tells VegNews. “I have fallen in love with the product and even more with the bees.”
“The more time I have been spending in the industry, I started realizing the damaging effects of the commercial honey industry,” he says.
In addition to its launch through Eleven Madison Home, Mellody’s vegan honey was also featured on a special World Bee Day (May 19, 2022) menu at the world-renowned NYC restaurant. Here, diners tried the vegan honey in six different ways: as part of two speciality beverages; three savoury dishes (as a drizzle, in broth, and sauce); and one custom “Oat Milk and MeliBio” dessert. The vegan honey was also served alongside tea and a strawberry dessert.
“Delivering on such high standards and expectations that Eleven Madison Park has is a true confirmation that our team can make delicious and nutritious products,” Mandich says. “We prove that our approach in crafting Mellody leaves no compromises in terms of taste and functionality.”
“Achieving all of the [benefits] mentioned while giving bees a break is the testament that the future of honey can be sustainable and that we can preserve our precious bees, therefore keeping our planet alive,” Mandich says.
Making honey with technology, not bees
Instead of bees, MeliBio employs patented technology and microbial fermentation techniques to produce genuine honey from plants and natural components, eliminating the need for bees.
The resulting product not only mimics the appearance and flavour of traditional honey but also offers comparable health advantages and can be effortlessly substituted in cooking applications.
By eliminating bees from the commercial honey production process, MeliBio is leading the way toward a more humane, plant-based food system that is not dependent on animal cruelty.
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“It did not feel right to me what my industry was doing and I could not be part of it anymore,” Mandich says. “The strong sense of responsibility and ownership were the signs that I should use my past career as a starting point for changing the industry I have been part of.”
“Now I am excited to see the world of possibilities that my team is making, all of that without exploiting bees,” Mandich says. “We can make the future of honey truly sustainable and bee friendly.”
Outside of its partnership with Eleven Madison Park, Mellody can also be found on the menu at Baia (San Francisco), Little Choc Apothecary (New York City) and Motel Fried Chicken (Philadelphia). Ultimately, Mandich hopes to make Mellody the top honey brand in the world.
“It will take time to get there, but we know that with every jar of honey that we replace with plant-based honey, we save the work of 20,000 honeybees,” Mandich says.
Parent company MeliBio is also building a platform to produce other disruptive products to create a better food industry which it will unveil to consumers through forthcoming partnerships and brands.
Bees are highly social and cooperative insects. They have a unique and complex form of communication based on sight, motion, and scent that even scientists don’t fully understand.
Bees communicate with each other through intricate “dance” movements. And research has shown that they are capable of abstract thinking, as well as distinguishing their family members from other bees in the hive.
But bees are perhaps best known for their honey.
Nature’s sweet sauce comes with unique properties. It appears in everything from cakes to cheese to tea (it was even once used as an ingredient in embalming fluid). Honey is linked to a host of health benefits, as it contains antioxidants that have been proven to help lower blood pressure.
But what exactly is honey? Are bees harmed to make it? And is it vegan?
Since honey comes from an animal, it is not considered vegan. As The Vegan Society states, “honey is made by bees for bees.” Just like cow’s milk and chicken eggs, the natural production of honey is not intended for human consumption. (Scroll to the bottom of the article for some of the best vegan honey alternatives.)
How and why do bees make honey?
Adobe StockBees collect nectar to make honey
Bees feed on pollen and nectar, but honey is their single source of food during the winter months. Alison Benjamin is the co-author of A World Without Bees and Good Bee: A Celebration Of Bees And How To Save Them. She explains: “When there are no flowers or it’s too cold to get to them, the bees will starve.”
And so, they collect nectar from flowering plants to make honey, which is then stored inside the hive for a rainy day (literally). “Nectar is the carbohydrates that fuel their flight. Pollen provides the protein they feed to their larvae so that they can develop into strong, healthy adult bees,” Benjamin explains.
A honeybee will visit up to 1,500 flowers to collect enough nectar to fill their stomach. When returning to the hive, the bee regurgitates and chews the nectar, turning it from complex to simple sugars.
This process is repeated thousands of times throughout the spring and summer. Yet a single bee produces just a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime – and every ounce is “fundamental” to their hive, according to the The Vegan Society. (Notably, it takes the pollination of two million flowers – and around 55,000 miles of bee flights – to produce a single pound of honey.)
“It is not an individual bee that the honey is feeding but the colony – made up of a queen and about 10,000 worker bees in the winter,” Benjamin explains.
How do bees help the environment?
The weeks and miles of work put in by bees benefits the ecosystem, too.
“When bees visit the flowers for their food, they transport some of the pollen from the male part to the female part of the flower, allowing it to reproduce seeds and fruits which is why they are so important for agriculture and the ecosystem,” Benjamin says.
“They pollinate one in every three mouthfuls we eat, as well as nuts, berries, and seeds for birds and mammals in the food chain, and the trees and other vegetation on the planet that sequesters carbon in the atmosphere.”
Kosolovskyi Vasyl / Adobe StockBees pollinate around one-third of the world’s food
Indeed, bees pollinate all manners of fruit including apples, cherries, blueberries, and cranberries. Blueberries and cherries are 90 percent dependent on bees, and almonds require 100 percent honeybee pollination at bloom time.
This is a contentious topic in itself; millions of honeybees are transported around the US to pollinate almond trees, according to Scientific American. The same practices are used to pollinate avocados.
Benjamin warns that forcing bees to gather pollen nectar from “vast swaths of a single crop deprives them of the far more diverse and nourishing diet provided by wild habitats.” Transferring the animals also “continually boomerangs honeybees between times of plenty and borderline starvation,” she notes.
A world without bees
It’s not just our food; pollinators play critical roles everywhere we look. “When we look at the benefit of pollinators to our natural world, the numbers are staggering,” maintains the Xerces Society, an environmental non-profit. “Pollinators keep plant communities healthy and productive … A nature walk or stroll through a garden would be a very different experience without pollinators.”
Professor Johanne Brunet, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shares a similar view. “Humans depend on plants and plants depend on pollinators,” Brunet says. “A balance must be maintained in order to sustain life on earth and protect human survival and health.”
Why are bee populations declining?
Adobe StockInsecticides are poisoning millions of pollinating insects, like bees, every year
There are more than 20,000 species of bees and more than 90 million beehives across the world, according to Statista. But bee populations are dwindling.
Out of the 2,000 wild bee species in Europe, one in 10 is facing extinction, The Soil Association states. And globally, an estimated one in six bee species is regionally extinct, whilst more than 40 percent are vulnerable to extinction.
Pesticides are one factor driving this decline; the insecticide neonicotinoid is thought to be the leading cause of falling bee populations. In fact, research shows the chemical can now be found inside honey itself.
Mass bee deaths
Whilst investigating for her book, Benjamin discovered millions of honeybees had died due to pesticides, parasites, and poor nutrition. This is, in part, due to the intensive farming methods adopted by humans. “In the US, large-scale beekeepers regularly report at least a third of their colonies die each year,” Benjamin notes.
“Lack of nutritious food is also a problem because the bees will be transported to one monoculture after another to pollinate – often thousands of miles apart in the US – but it’s not providing them with a healthy diet, so this again will also make them weak.”
Oftentimes, beekeepers replace the honey they remove from a hive with a sugar substitute. This practice prompts honeybees to overwork themselves to replace the missing honey. Meanwhile, the sugar replacement lacks the nutrients, fats, and vitamins in honey that bees need to be healthy.
Is honey production cruel?
PETA UK’s director, Elisa Allen, maintains that the honey industry “abuses bees for profit.”
“They’re subjected to genetic manipulation, their hives are smoked out, and their wings and legs are torn off as they’re pushed out of the way, all so that humans can steal their honey – which is their fuel and their life’s work and rightly belongs to them, not us,” Allen says.
“Many beekeepers use inhumane methods to ensure their own safety and to reach production quotas, including cutting off the queen bee’s wings so that she can’t leave the colony and killing drones to extract semen in order to inseminate the queen.”
Michal Bednarek / Adobe StockMany bees are mistreated or killed in the honey industry
Royal jelly, also called “bee milk,” is a substance similar to gelatine that is used in cosmetics. It’s harvested from the glands of queen honeybees. Benjamin says this is the “most cruelly produced” product as it can only be produced on an industrial scale by bees “treated purely as royal jelly machines.”
11 vegan substitutes for honey
There are lots of natural honey substitutes out there. You can also purchase vegan honey products online. Read on for 11 swaps for honey that are bee-free but just as sweet as the real thing.
1. Maple syrup
Tapped from maple trees, this sap is a sweet-tooth’s delight. Bake with it, top your pancakes with it, or add it to your favourite marinades for sweet perfection.
Agave nectar comes from agave plants, which are succulents native to Mexico. It has a neutral flavour and works like honey in many recipes. The syrup contains less glucose than refined sugars and is the perfect way to sweeten a cup of tea.
A sweet and sticky natural sweetener made from whole grain brown rice, rice syrup is a macrobiotic staple. The flavour may be too strong for tea or atop pancakes, but use it just like you would honey in recipes.
It has a higher glycaemic index than most other sweeteners, and can be purchased online.
4. Barley malt
Like brown rice syrup, barley malt is the concentrated sweetener from whole grain barley. It’s great in baked goods, too.
5. Coconut nectar
The Coconut CompanyCoconut flapjacks made from coconut nectar
This nectar comes from the sap of coconut trees. Minimally processed, it is widely considered purer than syrups made from coconut sugar. You can find coconut nectar made by The Coconut Company here.
Add it to dried fruit, dates, and oats to make these vegan Coconut Flapjacks.
6. Date syrup
Dates are frequently used in cakes and sweet treats. Additionally, they can be made into syrup by soaking, boiling, and sieving. Biona makes an organic date syrup, or try your hand at making your own using Lazy Cat Kitchen’s recipe.
7. Molasses
A naturally rich source of plant-based iron, molasses is exceptionally sweet. It’s got a strong bite to it, too, making its flavour distinct. Use in your favourite baking recipes, but ideally halve it with another more neutral sweetener like rice syrup or agave nectar.
8. Sorghum syrup
Sorghum syrup is made from the grassy sorghum plant and resembles molasses. It can be used to add sweetness to baked goods.
9. Vegan honea
Vegan honea is an alternative which often contain prebiotics, which can help improve gut health
Honea is often made from natural flavourings including apple juice, lemon juice, and molasses. Some vegan honea products – such as those developed by Plant-Based Artisan – are made with prebiotics proven to support gut health.
10. Fruit syrups
Concentrated fruit syrups can work as honey substitutes in baking recipes. Or, mixed with maple for a sweet topping to your pancakes, waffles, or French toast.
11. Raw sugar
Swapping out liquid honey with raw sugar in baked goods takes a bit of finessing but can be done. You typically just need to up your liquid content.
