Philosophical Vegan Forum

fi0retheunic0rn wrote: Ughhhhh I live in Connecticut. I don't know where to look! I need food and I'm hopeless and I feel like a terrible person and I'm in the low middle f*cking class. Kill me.

I've you're that obsessive about it, you'll burn out in no time. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Please read this: http://www.peta.org/living/food/making- ... ucts-food/

And don't worry so much.

It is food?
Yes, good.
Is it meat?
No, good.
As far as you can tell by visual inspection, is it covered in cheese or egg?
No, good.
If you're hungry, eat it.

It doesn't matter what company made it, or if it has tiny traces of stuff in it, if it's 99.9% vegan and it's available and affordable and reasonably healthy, then don't worry.
You can always improve later, and work on helping the world in many ways, but first just worry about being healthy and keeping fed.

Obsessing harms animals more than sticking to veganism as well as you can reasonably do, and continuing to fight the good fight through activism and outreach, and advocating how practical veganism is.

WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO ACTUALLY DO WHAT I ASKED?! I'M SICK OF DOING RESEARCH. PLEASE!!

^Why buy from 100% vegan brands?

By showing non-vegan companies that you want a vegan option, they'll have an incentive to make more. If we boycott their vegan foods, they won't bother.

It also makes veganism look crazy to people who aren't vegan, and easier for them to dismiss. "Oh, that's what veganism is? That's crazy. I can't do that. How will I ever eat out?" etc. etc. etc.

And companies that only make vegan products still have non-vegan workers, so people might use the money to buy non-vegan things anyway.

fi0retheunic0rn wrote:WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO ACTUALLY DO WHAT I ASKED?! I'M SICK OF DOING RESEARCH. PLEASE!!

The only help we can give you is telling you that there is no such thing as a 100% vegan brand (or a 100% vegan anything, for that matter), and that it is okay to eat 99% vegan food instead. I hate to break it to you, but there is a high chance Silk and Daiya use produce that was grown with dung as fertilizer, or use sugar that was filtered through bones. We live in a society that is not vegan, and therefore it is hard if not impossible to find food that is completely vegan. That's fine, we're doing the best we can.

You can also grow your own food. That works I guess.

Silk (and So Delicious) are owned by the same company (WhiteWave) that makes Horizons Organic and Land O Lakes dairy products.

The obsession with parent companies boggles my mind, though. As miniboes touched on, find a vegan farmer who poops on his own crops. Or starve.

This is a pretty good video on the subject:
http://youtu.be/AmbJgctnC5g

brimstone: thank you for helping me understand that buying vegan items from non-vegans sends the same message that buying from vegans does

miniboes: thank you for linking me to that awesome youtube video

seitan_forker: thank you for reminding me of fertilizer and whitewave

I'll have you all know that I'm starting up again on my vegan product search from square one, but I'll keep all your arguments in mind. this website is a mindblowingly lovely resource for me and it wouldn't be this lovely without you guys. I can't thank you enough for dealing with my ignorance. you can count on me getting better!

Guess what I found! http://thevegantruth.blogspot.com/2013/12/100-vegan-ownedvegan-businesses_15.html?m=1 I didn't check the links though....

fi0retheunic0rn wrote:Guess what I found! http://thevegantruth.blogspot.com/2013/ ... 5.html?m=1 I didn't check the links though....

There are a few indexes like that, although they pretty much all contain the same companies (copying from each other).
A large number of those will no longer exist, since the list accumulates without seeing who is or isn't in business.

Most of them are just self employed individuals offering services. A few are restaurants, two or three are local grocery stores. Only a small handful are food manufacturers, and of those, they pretty much just distribute locally.

If you can search your area, you might be lucky and find a couple. If not, they usually don't have the ability to serve clients outside the area (unless it's a web based business).

If you can find a vegan business nearby selling something you want, though, that's amazing!

So I searched online for vegan and cruelty free paint companies and all I found was Unearthed Paints. They sell it as f*cking powder and I have to mix the water in myself. It's a ridiculous 50 dollars per gallon and I don't even think they sell to any stores so I would have to get it delivered. I can't even call them; All they have is a Twitter, email, and Facebook page. I feel like I'm being slowly ripped in half. All the other companies I found test some of their paints and excuse themselves because "they needed to." Can someone please help me?!