Can gelatin be vegan?

[guitaramole]

It is an animal product, but from what I understand, veganism isnt about avoiding animal products, but to not support the exploitation and suffering of animals for food and clothing ext.

But isn't gelatin a by-product of the meat industry? There are no gelatin farms where cows are breed and slaughtered to make Jello.

If everyone stopped eating meat, would they continue slaughtering cows and pigs just for their skin and bones? Or wouldn't they be force to use or develop a gelatin alternative because it would make more economic sense?

It doesn't seem to me that buying food with gelatin supports exploitation since buying food with gelatin doesn't create a demand for gelatin, but jello, which might not need gelatin if there a reason to use or develop something synthetic.

As long as I dont eat meat, then Im already reducing the use of gelatin since there is now less dead animals to turn into gelatin.

[brimstoneSalad]

These byproducts are only of secondary concern.
They do help subsidize animal agriculture, though: when these companies sell the gelatin, it makes them more profit, and more profitable industries have more money from the profits and get more investment for production consolidation and advertising -- which lowers price increasing demand, and increases demand directly respectively.

You'd have to buy a huge amount of gelatin to equal the harm of a single hamburger, though. Probably several hundred dollars' worth, maybe more.

There are plant alternatives to gelatin, mainly agar and pectin. From a health perspective, I'd probably recommend these over gelatin too, since they act as fiber (gelatin is pretty much empty calories and does not act as fiber). From a textural perspective, there are slight differences. Agar is a bit more firm and brittle, and in my experience tends to weep a little but you'd easily mistake it for gelatin.