Almonds, Avocados, and the Vegan Debate

Migratory Beekeeping Is a Human Issue to Solve, Not a Vegan Issue to Scapegoat

The fact that there’s so much buzz around whether or not avocados and almonds are vegan reveals two things: that vegans haven’t done a very good job clarifying what “vegan” means and that non-vegans love to play the gotcha game. In scapegoating vegans, we miss the opportunity to solve the biodiversity crisis that threatens our ecosystems and pollinators.

Photo by Ran Berkovich on Unsplash

“What can you eat if you’re a strict vegan?”

I remember when the headlines started popping up:

• Are avocados and almonds vegan? TV Host sparks internet debate (Today Show)

• Should vegans stop eating almonds and avocados? (ABC News)

• Sorry, vegans. If you don’t eat honey, avocados might be off-limits, too. (The Washington Post)

These headlines — and the myths they perpetuated — first emerged in 2018 and continue to circulate today. It all began in October of that year on the BBC panel show QI, a British comedy program that David and I had been watching for years (and still do). It features comedians answering obscure questions they’re unlikely to get right — which is kind of the point. QI stands for “Quite Interesting.”

The panel consists of four participants: three rotating guests and one regular, Alan Davies — whom I adore. (In fact, I planned the dates of our trip to Scotland in 2012 around a stand-up show that Alan Davies was doing in Glasgow. We went, I met him after the show, and was very happy to get our photo taken together.)

QI was hosted for 12 or 13 years by another one of my favorite Brits — Stephen Fry — before he passed the baton to the very capable Sandi Toksvig. And here’s what happened in that now-infamous episode.

On screen are images of almonds, avocado, melon, kiwi, and butternut squash. Sandi asks the panel, “What can you eat if you’re a strict vegan?” As you’ll see in the clip, Alan immediately answers, “Any of them,” and is promptly hit with the dreaded claxon — wrong answer. “Was one of them made out of animals?” he follows up.

“No,” Sandi replies, and goes on to explain,

So, almonds and avocados — all of them, in fact. It’s the same reason as honey. They can’t exist without bees, and the bees are used in — well, let’s call it an unnatural way. Because these crops are so difficult to cultivate naturally, they all rely on bees that are placed on the backs of trucks and transported long distances across the country. It’s called migratory beekeeping.

Before we get into the issue of migratory beekeeping, we need to pause and unpack the claim that avocados and almonds aren’t vegan “for the same reason as honey.”

Bee Pollination is not the Same as Honey Consumption

The way Sandi frames these issues misrepresents what it means to be vegan and reinforces the idea that it’s extreme, unrealistic, or even absurd.

To be clear, honey is a food bees produce for their colony — in a similar way a mother cow (or any lactating mammal) produces milk for her young; i.e. it’s for them, not me. I don’t consume honey for the same reason I don’t consume cow’s milk or chicken’s eggs: they’re not mine. A cow produces milk to nourish her offspring — not for me to pour in my tea. A hen lays eggs as part of her reproductive cycle — not for me to bake a cake.

In contrast, bees don’t produce almonds. Almond trees produce almonds. Bees simply assist in the pollination process that allows those trees — or any fruit-bearing tree — to produce fruit.

And this leads to another problematic thing Sandi said,

Almonds and avocado trees…can’t exist without bees, and the bees are used in — well, let’s call it an unnatural way. Because these crops are so difficult to cultivate naturally, [my emphasis] they all rely on bees that are placed on the backs of trucks and transported long distances across the country. It’s “migratory beekeeping” — an unnatural use of animals — and there are lots of foods that fall foul of this.”

She goes on to name all of the produce pollinated by these migratory honeybees, but what she doesn’t say is that before European colonists brought the honeybee to the United States, native bees alone pollinated all the wild flowering plants and the crops grown by indigenous peoples. That was before we replaced diverse habitats with monoculture — and almonds are a prime example.

There’s a reason the USDA considers these bees livestock — they’re being managed, moved, and monetized like any other farmed animal.

In other words, the reason these crops are so difficult to cultivate “naturally,” and the reason farmers rent honeybees — specifically the European honeybee (Apis mellifera), which is not native to North America — is because we’re wiping out native bee populations and relying on intensive monoculture farming.

Pointing out the so-called “veganness” of almonds and avocados completely misses the point, scapegoats vegans, and makes it seem like it’s about vegan purity — when in fact, it’s anything but. This is not a vegan issue. This is a human issue — driven by industrialized agriculture, sustained by monocrops, and rooted in our disconnection from natural ecosystems.

And it’s not going to be solved by vegans eschewing almonds or by people pointing out the so-called hypocrisy of vegans. It’s a problem that farmers, scientists, policymakers, and innovators need to tackle — and that citizens need to demand action on.

Migratory Beekeeping

You don’t have to look further than the almond industry to see a shocking visual demonstration of modern agricultural monoculture. Just drive down the Central Valley in California, where the majority of the world's almonds are grown. It’s both striking and unsettling to see row upon row of almond trees stretching for miles — and hours — on end. All of which displaced native flora (and fauna).

The almond industry is worth $9.2 billion to California’s economy. California almond trees typically require 1.6 million domesticated bee colonies to pollinate the flowering trees and produce what has become the state’s largest overseas agricultural export.

And — as Sandi points out in the episode, it’s not just almonds. According to the American Beekeeping Federation and the New Agriculturist, apples, avocados, beans, broccoli, carrots, onions, lettuces, tangerines, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, cherries, cucumbers, tomatoes, and hundreds of other fruits, vegetables, and grains all currently rely on commercially raised honeybee colonies for pollination, which is a real problem for native bees and the flowers they pollinate.

When honeybee colonies are concentrated in high numbers — as they often are in agricultural, suburban, and urban settings — they compete directly with wild bees for nectar and pollen. That’s less of an issue when floral resources are abundant — but in areas with limited blooms (which is most areas now, thanks to lawns, pavement, and non-native ornamentals), wild bees are often pushed out entirely. A lack of native flowers is one of the biggest drivers of native bee decline, and well-meaning efforts like urban beekeeping often make the problem worse by increasing competition rather than alleviating it.

Honeybees are not a replacement for wild pollinators. Protecting native bees — and the plant life they support — means protecting the diversity of the entire bee community.

What Native Bees Need

The solution isn’t to eat fewer almonds or stop drinking almond milk.

The solution is to change the way we grow food and what we grow in our gardens — and that requires action from both the agricultural industry and individuals like you and me.

Farmers Can Help — and Some Already Are

There’s a growing movement among farmers to restore wild habitat by planting a mix of native flowering shrubs on fallow fields near croplands. Scientists have shown that such newly planted wild habitat attracts native bees, which increases crop yield by 10 to 15 percent and makes honeybees themselves more efficient pollinators. And the increased yield is high enough for farmers to recoup the cost of setting up new habitat in just a few years.

What you can do:

1. Ask your local farmers — especially if you shop at a local farmers market — what they’re doing to restore wild habitat around their crops.

2. Go to Bee Better Certified® to find producers who have made a commitment to protecting and expanding habitat for pollinators (meaning there are agricultural products you can buy help protect bees, butterflies and other pollinators).

3. You can also do a Google search — just know that some of what comes up will focus on honeybees.

Individuals Can Help — and It Doesn’t Take Much

As I discuss in Keep Flowers, Not Bees, some of the biggest threats to native bees are:

• Competition from honeybees for nectar and pollen

• Disease transmission from managed honeybee colonies (including backyard hives)

• Loss of natural habitats as honeybees push wild bees out

• Use of pesticides and herbicides that harm bee populations

• Removal of native habitats, such as fallen leaves and brush piles where bees might nest or forage

• Non-native ornamentals and lawns that replace diverse, native plant species with plants that provide little to no nourishment for bees

In other words, habitat loss, pesticides, and decreased floral diversity are taking a toll on these little animals. It’s not enough to set aside special pieces of land — a few isolated national parks we think will suffice. Bees can’t just appear for a week, pollinate plants, and disappear. They have to have something to eat the rest of the year, and a place to live.

We can't "save the bees" by conserving little bits of habitat here and there. We have to include space for them in our agricultural lands, city parks, and — wait for it — our own yards.

Yes, even someone with a postage-stamp yard or balcony can make a difference. Are you willing to make the effort?

What you can do:

I discuss all the things we can do in this article, Keep Flowers, Not Bees, but here are just a few:

• Learn 5 (or more) plants native to your area. Plant them!

• Resist and avoid ornamental non-natives

• Halve (or replace) your lawn

• Remove invasive species, especially the low-lying weeds

• Ditch the pesticides

Focus on the Real Issue: Native Bee Decline not Vegan Purity

The problem we have at hand isn’t vegans (or non-vegans) eating avocados. Or almonds. Or squash. The problem is that we’re wiping out native bee populations. The problem is that crops are intensively farmed. The problem is monocrops.

These are not vegan problems. These are human problems.

The fact that there’s so much buzz around whether or not avocados and almonds are vegan reveals two things:

• that vegans haven’t done a very good job clarifying what “vegan” means, and

• that non-vegans love to play the gotcha game.

First of all, there isn’t a vegan overlord deciding what’s vegan and what’s not vegan; second of all, imperfection is built into being vegan — because imperfection is built into being human.

In the 26 years I’ve been vegan,

• I’ve been drinking water that has most likely been filtered through animal bone char

• I’ve been eating organic produce that has most likely grown using animal manure, bone meal, and blood meal — all derived from animals kept in intensive confinement and killed in industrial slaughterhouses

• I’ve been buying wine and fruit from purveyors that most likely kill birds and mammals to protect their orchards

• and I’ve been eating crops — namely avocados and almonds — pollinated by migratory honeybees

…and none of that makes me less vegan.

The idea that we should do nothing because we can’t do everything is illogical and self-defeatist. Should I eat foie gras because my organic kale was grown in soil amended with chicken manure? Should I eat steak and chicken wings because fruits and nuts are pollinated by insects? That makes no sense.

There’s a lot we can’t control in this world, and there’s a lot we can. Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something. Anything.

---

More Resources for You!

👉 Work with me 1:1 – Get personalized guidance to build healthier habits, cultivate self-compassion, communicate with conviction, strengthen emotional resilience, or whatever you are looking for.

👉 Read A Year of Compassion – Daily inspiration to help you live with intention, kindness, and clarity

👉 Listen to Food for Thought – Inspiration for living compassionately, sustainably, and healthfully (18 years strong!)

👉 Travel with me! I host animal-friendly, luxury, all-inclusive vegan trips around the world, specifically curated to ensure high-quality, high-touch premium experiences. Check out our upcoming trips, and let me know if you have any questions.

👉 Because the publisher took The Vegan Table (and Color Me Vegan) out of print, I am able to repurpose all of my recipes for which I own the copyright again. Please check out my Recipe E-Books and my library of On-Demand Cooking Classes for more recipes, including bundles for Easter and Passover!