Many vegans won’t eat bee honey because it’s an animal product. According to Jeffrey Cohan, the executive director of Jewish Veg, many honey producers manipulate bees’ natural living patterns, including clipping the queen’s wings to prevent her from flying away, and replace the honey produced with less nutritious sugar water. Some vegans regard the process as cruel, exploitative and a violation of tzaar baalei chayim, the prohibition against causing unnecessary suffering to animals.
A common substitute for bee honey is date honey, which has Biblical roots. “A land flowing with milk and honey” refers to date honey.
“I think it goes great with apples, it goes great with challah,” said Brian Finkel, co-founder of a company that sells organic date honey. “I definitely encourage people to use it on those things, around the holiday time, to make the new year that much sweeter.”
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