Exodus & Exoskeletons: A Journey Into Entomology

Sep 12, 2023

Join us for this class with David Lowenstein!

David has been a consumer horticulture extension educator with Michigan State University for 4 years. He has a background in entomology and has worked with managing invasive species, integrated pest management (IPM) of vegetable crops, and pests and pollinators in urban agriculture. Originally from New York City, he hold an MS in Entomology from University of Wisconsin and PhD in Ecology/Evolution from University of Illinois-Chicago.

Disclaimer: Shamayim: Jewish Animal Advocacy does not support the consumption of  honey. This is because of the ethical implications. The first issue surrounding honey is the amount of effort it takes bees to produce. Some estimates suggest it takes one bee a whole lifetime to produce just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey – considering the number of honey products available in any given supermarket, and the drastically declining number of bees worldwide, this seems like an unfair trade.

Beyond the effort it takes, large-scale honey production is usually not done with bees’ interests in mind. Some ethical issues which the Vegan Society identifies include:

• Clipping the wings of Queen bees to prevent them from leaving a hive and artificially inseminating them
• Selectively breeding bees to increase productivity, which narrows the gene pool and leaves whole hives susceptible to diseases which they might not have any immunity to
• Replacing honey made in a hive with a sugar substitute which is not as nutritious for bees to eat
• Culling whole beehives post-harvest to keep farming costs down

 

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