I’ve corrected the term to “plant-based.”

Sure, no hostility at all — people who favor a plant-based diet can do anything they want! Wear leather, eat honey, whatever, it doesn’t make them bad people! But words have meanings. And ‘vegan’ means something. It means a person who does not eat or use animal products. And bee pollen is an animal product. There’s just no way around that! When we are loose with the definitions of words for our own edification, things can get messy…

veganism, like any other lifestyle, diet, or set of values, is not a blanket ideology (or at least, it shouldn’t be). some vegans choose not to consume animals/animal products because they are against factory farming, and those people may not believe that honey + bee pollen promote the factory farming industry.

here’s an article arguing that oysters are vegan, even though they are classified as animals: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2010/04/consider_the_oyster.html

veganism is a lifestyle based on a set of beliefs/values, and if you are able to consume honey and bee pollen in a way that doesn’t go against your beliefs and values, you can call yourself vegan. pretty much every pescatarian i’ve met has referred to themselves as vegetarian, and they still eat fish. are they vegetarian? not really, in my opinion. is it worth calling them out over? not really, as it’s unnecessarily hostile, their personal labels don’t hurt anyone, and being exclusionary prevents people from wanting to try veganism and veegetarianism.

http://www.shessobright.com