Philosophical Vegan Forum

Hi Guys,

There are new notes being printed in the U.K., however, they contain tallow. What are your thoughts on this? There is a petition here https://www.change.org/p/9043895/psf/offer?offer_id=677, but is there anything more I could do? It's ironic how we wish not to use or spend money on animal products, and we are using money which has tallow. I'm also not sure on how effective not using money would actually be, and using card/coins instead. I feel like I am being dramatic with my ideas but I'm not sure. What are your opinions on the matter?

Cheers,
Scott

Concern over this is probably one of the things that makes vegans look strange, since it is just a trace of it, and tallow and other animal byproducts are in a lot of things, sometimes from tires to the roads they drive on. Animal agriculture produces so much byproduct a lot of it is nearly given away; it's not a large profit driver for the industry in the way that primary products are.

Well, vegans and vegetarians complaining worked:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/30/bank-england-yields-vegan-pressure-plastic-fivers/

They will be looking in to plastic that doesn't include tallow or any other animal products in it.

Sapphire Lightning wrote:Well, vegans and vegetarians complaining worked:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... ic-fivers/

They will be looking in to plastic that doesn't include tallow or any other animal products in it.

Sure, but what's the impact of that, really, since it was just a trace?
It may be very small compared to the impact of making vegans and vegetarians look unrelatable. We'd have to see a survey of public opinion; I have to doubt that this really inspired people to go veg, which makes a bigger difference.

brimstoneSalad wrote:
Sure, but what's the impact of that, really, since it was just a trace?
It may be very small compared to the impact of making vegans and vegetarians look unrelatable. We'd have to see a survey of public opinion; I have to doubt that this really inspired people to go veg, which makes a bigger difference.

I do not know the answer to that question, but bear in mind that it isn't just veg*ns who had a problem with it. Certain religious groups (such as Hindi) would also not be too fond of there being cow flesh in their currency.

Sapphire Lightning wrote: I do not know the answer to that question, but bear in mind that it isn't just veg*ns who had a problem with it. Certain religious groups (such as Hindi) would also not be too fond of there being cow flesh in their currency.

Sure, but comparing veganism to unyielding religious dogma might not look good in the public's eye either.
Think of how Christians criticizing stem cell research looked.
Yes, that was about saving lives and this is about plastic money, but people may not see it that much differently. The calcium stearate used in production has utility, and the plastic bank notes will save money and possibly protect the environment too.

It's nice that they may be reformulating the base, but I'm just skeptical about how it looks form the outside that people were up in arms over this. There are traces of tallow in a lot of plastics, because the stearic acid used to make the calcium stearate may have come from many sources (plant and animal).

For an example of public perception, here's the first news article I found when searching:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/11/30/vegans-outraged-new-boe-5-note-contains-tallow-chill-folks-its-a-tiny-amount/