Out of respect for my “Belgian” daughter, who first lured me into veganism, I’ve held off eating honey until I’d had time to mull the issue.
Today I decided. I will eat foods containing honey. I have two reasons.
First, I just don’t care that much about the lives of insects. I won’t stop riding in cars just because of bug-spattered windshields. I set out ant traps. I hang fly paper. I spray wasp nests on my porch. I swat mosquitos. Yes, I catch-and-release spiders, and I avoid running over wooly worms, because I’m gentle, and they’re doing me no harm. But I don’t otherwise care.
Second, I do care about the extinction of bees. They’re primary pollinators of more things than most people would believe. I’d like to see them stay around. And if my eating honey helps at all giving mechanized agriculture a reason to keep them alive, I’ll bite that bullet, so to speak.
As for you, what you choose to eat, and why, is none of my beeswax.