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100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:50 pm
by fi0retheunic0rn
I am a vegan American teenager in an omnivorous house. My family has a very annoying tendency to buy from brands that use/sell animal products even when they don't want animal products! This is why I need help. ///If anyone is out there reading this right now, I would like you to recommend some food brands that do not have anything to do with meat, fish, dairy, or eggs. The brands you recommend for me must have vegan parent companies or zero parent companies. "Vegetarian," by the way, is an UNACCEPTABLE replacement for "vegan."\\\ I know that the idea I can turn my immediate family vegan is insanely unrealistic, but I don't think I should feel guilty when my mum greets me on my way home from school with extra extra cruelty in shopping bags. It's depressing. So far I've concluded that I can trust earth balance, Daiya, and Silk. I need more than that. I need pasta, sorbet, and tortilla chips. PLEASE HELP ME!!

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:53 pm
by EquALLity
Silk is actually owned by a non-vegan parent company, and sells non-vegan things (it shouldn't matter though), and you shouldn't have Earth Balance because of the palm oil in it (destroys rain forests and kills animals brutally, along with coconut oil).

Why do you want to buy from 100% vegan companies with 100% vegan parent companies? If you buy vegan products from non-vegan companies, you are encouraging them to make vegan products with your dollar. But if we boycott all non-vegan companies, and vegan companies owned by non-vegan companies, they won't have an incentive to make vegan products along with their non-vegan ones. It also makes veganism significantly harder for the average person, and might put people off from veganism. I think it hurts more than it helps.

Welcome, btw. :D You should make an intro!
How long have you been vegan?

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:16 pm
by fi0retheunic0rn
Hello person! I've been vegetarian for three years, pescstarian for one year, and vegan for a few months. Silk and earth balance are out of my house for good once they've been consumed. Do you know if ANY palm or coconut oil is obtained without forest destruction or animal killings? I hate to say that I don't know much of what I'm talking about, but I don't. I'm an A+ student in health and nutrition class, but that's all I've really got. My mother was a veterinary assistant for many years and I and my brother used to play with the animals and take them for walks and we currently have two cats and a guinea pig, so I just don't consume animals. I have watched Earthlings (great documentary btw; I love your taste in film) and it made me very sad and helped me stay vegan in my laziest hours. I want 100% vegan products because if I pay the cashier, they'll pay their boss, the boss will pay the company, the company will pay the workers, and keep some of the money but not necessarily use that money for the product I bought, so there's a chance that if I buy from a non-vegan company I'm hurting an animal. I'll make an intro tomorrow probably. Thank you for the response!

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 1:44 am
by Cirion Spellbinder
palm oil in it (destroys rain forests and kills animals brutally, along with coconut oil).
I had no idea... That's awful. I knew they were unhealthy, but I wasn't aware that I was catalyzing deforestation. Could you cite something that states/proves this?

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:35 am
by thebestofenergy
Hi, welcome :)
fi0retheunic0rn wrote:Do you know if ANY palm or coconut oil is obtained without forest destruction or animal killings? I hate to say that I don't know much of what I'm talking about, but I don't.
If you use 'sustainable' palm oil, it actually makes no difference - as explianed by BrimstoneSalad in this thread: https://theveganatheist.com/forum/viewt ... f=17&t=818

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 4:18 am
by miniboes
I personally try to avoid companies that produce unethical products such as Unilever, but don't put much effort into it. If you buy a vegan product from such a company you are not increasing the demand for their non-vegan products, just the vegan ones. Thus, it should not really matter.

I'm in the same situation as you, and my father often gets misleaded by the cover of a product into thinking it's vegan. For example, he'd buy basically fruit flavored magnums because there was just a picture of berries on the cover, whilst in the ingredient's it's clear that it's mostly milk and sugar.

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 6:06 am
by EquALLity
fi0retheunic0rn wrote:Hello person! I've been vegetarian for three years, pescstarian for one year, and vegan for a few months. Silk and earth balance are out of my house for good once they've been consumed. Do you know if ANY palm or coconut oil is obtained without forest destruction or animal killings? I hate to say that I don't know much of what I'm talking about, but I don't. I'm an A+ student in health and nutrition class, but that's all I've really got. My mother was a veterinary assistant for many years and I and my brother used to play with the animals and take them for walks and we currently have two cats and a guinea pig, so I just don't consume animals. I have watched Earthlings (great documentary btw; I love your taste in film) and it made me very sad and helped me stay vegan in my laziest hours. I want 100% vegan products because if I pay the cashier, they'll pay their boss, the boss will pay the company, the company will pay the workers, and keep some of the money but not necessarily use that money for the product I bought, so there's a chance that if I buy from a non-vegan company I'm hurting an animal. I'll make an intro tomorrow probably. Thank you for the response!
No problem!
I'm looking forward to your intro. :D

100% vegan companies don't necessarily have only vegan workers, though, so I don't see how you could get around that.

And what miniboes said.

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 6:35 am
by brimstoneSalad
That's just a fact of contributing to an economy dominated by carnists in any way. It's an unavoidable thing, and as such, not really something you need to worry about.

There are vegan companies that are owned by larger companies that also own non-vegan companies and product lines. The only ones that are "pure" vegan are going to be small, and inherently local (which is a fact of distribution logistics). There are some vegan companies that operate online, but then you'll be paying so much for postage (and giving a lot of money to a non-vegan mail service), that it would seem to defeat the point of the endeavor you're talking about.

It's great to support these small vegan companies, but don't feel obligated to.

If you lived somewhere like Portland, where there are a lot of small vegan companies, you may be able to shop and pick up everything locally. Maybe somewhere like New York city too, where there's such a high density that there may be enough vegan companies within arm's reach.
Otherwise, you'd be relying on postage, as I said, and that would be expensive.

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 12:05 pm
by fi0retheunic0rn
thebestofenergy wrote:Hi, welcome :)
fi0retheunic0rn wrote:Do you know if ANY palm or coconut oil is obtained without forest destruction or animal killings? I hate to say that I don't know much of what I'm talking about, but I don't.
If you use 'sustainable' palm oil, it actually makes no difference - as explianed by BrimstoneSalad in this thread: https://theveganatheist.com/forum/viewt ... f=17&t=818
I checked the thread and found it to be very helpful. Thank you!

Re: 100% VEGAN BRANDS...where?!

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 12:08 pm
by fi0retheunic0rn
brimstoneSalad wrote:That's just a fact of contributing to an economy dominated by carnists in any way. It's an unavoidable thing, and as such, not really something you need to worry about.

There are vegan companies that are owned by larger companies that also own non-vegan companies and product lines. The only ones that are "pure" vegan are going to be small, and inherently local (which is a fact of distribution logistics). There are some vegan companies that operate online, but then you'll be paying so much for postage (and giving a lot of money to a non-vegan mail service), that it would seem to defeat the point of the endeavor you're talking about.

It's great to support these small vegan companies, but don't feel obligated to.

If you lived somewhere like Portland, where there are a lot of small vegan companies, you may be able to shop and pick up everything locally. Maybe somewhere like New York city too, where there's such a high density that there may be enough vegan companies within arm's reach.
Otherwise, you'd be relying on postage, as I said, and that would be expensive.
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.