Try it for a day
This week the topic has been “vegan” on Reduce Footprints Change the World Wednesday challenge challenged everybody to go vegan for one day.
During my research into my post, I found this:
Hidden Animal Products
It is very difficult to avoid animals products in this ‘modern day and age’. Here is a list of some common things that surprisingly contain animal derivatives and others that are safe.
Casein: This is a product made when milk is heated with an acid, like lactic acid. This stuff mostly occurs in “no-lactose” soy cheeses like Soyco, Soy Kaas, AlmondRella, Zero-FatRella, HempRella, and TofuRella Slices.
The labels say “lactose-free” (lactose is another milk derivative), but that doesn’t mean they are therefore vegan, as we used to incorrectly assume. Soymage soy cheese is 100% vegan, but it’s kind of gross. Vegan-Rella is also totally vegan. Casein is also used in plastics, adhesives, and paint manufacturing.
Caseinate: Casein mixed with a metal, like calcium caseinate or sodium caseinate.
Chewing Gum: Some chewing gums contain glycerine. Wrigleys gum contains a vegetarian source of glycerine.
Margarines: Can contain fish and other marine oils. Many margarines contain whey.
Nougat: Usually contains gelatine.
Pasta: May contain egg, especially if fresh. Some pasta in Italy contains squids’s ink; this can easily be recognized because the pasta is black.
Pastes: Glues. May be animal or fish derived.
Pastry: Animal fats used in most shop-baked pies etc. Check ingredients.
Phosphates: Derived from glycerol and fatty acids. May be from animal bones too.
Rennet: An enzyme taken from the stomach of a newly killed calf. Used in the cheese making process. Look for rennin or the words “made without animal rennet”.
Shortening: Can be made from animal fats. Used in the food industry especially pastries and biscuits.
Stearate: This usually comes in the form of _calcium stearate_, and it is found in hard candies like Gobstoppers and Sweetarts as well as other places. It comes from stearic acid, which usually is derived from tallow, or animal fat. Stearate is also used in vinyls (like car seats) and plastics.
Sweets: Watch out for gelatine, eg.: wine gums. Nearly all mints eg.: Polo, Trebor, Extra Strong etc contain gelatine. See also Nougat.
Whey: Liquid part of Milk
What is cochineal/carmine?
Cochineal is a bright red colouring matter made from the dried bodies of a Mexican insect Dactylopius coccus. Billions of these insects are raised and destroyed each year for a red colouring that is used in desserts, some strawberry soya milks, clothing, etc.
An average two to three cows have to kick the bucket to keep you comfortable in the leather seats of your family car.
Enough to make you think.
Almost every facet of our lives is tinged by the use of animal products.
So if you are a vege or a vegan, remember when you hop in your SUV, or perhaps you have a ‘green’ electric rollerskate , the seats you sit in, the paint work the glue and other parts of your vehicle may well have animal derived products.
So, getting back to Small Footprints challenge; if you drove your car the day you chose to ‘go vegan’ then the chances are you failed.
Eco-Crap 
Posted by smallftprints on November 4, 2011 at 11:55 am
It’s true … animal products show up in the most unlikely places. And we haven’t even touched on their use in various processes. For example, bone char is used to process some sugars and shows up in filters. Here’s a good article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_char
For me, there are many issues surrounding the use of animal products which brought me to a vegan lifestyle. But if I look at it strictly from an environmental point of view, our overuse of animal products is inefficient and non-sustainable.
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on November 4, 2011 at 1:43 pm
@SF, I haven’t checked the link yet, but I will. It’s become a point of interest for me. I’ll do it while my fish & pumpkin are poaching in milk and olive oil. Not, vegan, but the pumpkin had to be used. I would be interested in determining whether the animals are being raised for their by-products, or the by-products are used as a result of the animals being raised for consumption. If the former, I would be rather against, however, the latter doesn’t faze me as long as the animals are grazed and not battery farmed nor corn-fed. I must check on the extent of battery farming and corn-fed beef here in Brazil, I haven’t heard of it but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
So my next question is… Is your car vegan too? Have you checked?
Thanks for the participation and ‘like.’
AV
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Posted by smallftprints on November 8, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Hm … a vegan car. Well, no I haven’t checked. I will say, though, that I don’t ever buy anything leather so no leather seats in my car. I don’t have a red car but I’m not sure about the blue paint used on mine. Glue … I’m sure that there is glue in my car but have no idea about it’s source. And all the “workings” of the automobile … I have no idea. So yep … an Eco-friendly, vegan car is definitely something to investigate.
I know that some animals are raised strictly for their by-products … alpacas, mink, hens for eggs, dairy cows, bees for honey. Often, as in the case with laying hens, their lives are spent in terrible living conditions … small, confined spaces with no room for movement. Dairy cows are separated, immediately, from their young so that they continue to give milk. Studies are now showing that this causes a lot of stress to the animals … in fact, dairies are now trying to find ways to reduce an animal’s stress (not for any concern for the animal but because a stressed cow gives less milk). On some farms, a cow lives it’s entire life hooked up to milking machines in a small enclosure … again, a pretty dire existence. I’m sure that some by-products are taken from an animal which is slaughtered for food … but many by-products come from animals who are raised for that purpose.
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on November 8, 2011 at 11:39 pm
@SF, I was interested that you mentioned alpacas having lived in Peru. Alpacas are shorn like sheep, they are also eaten. I don’t recommend alpaca meat it would be better off in the cobblers than in the kitchen. It is so tough and sinewy. I do not know of any other by-products that the alpaca would be raised for. Also having worked on a dairy farm in Bolivia, our cows were grass feed free range, only brought in for the milk shed and then back to pasture. Modern farming methods do stress animals and there is s resultant loss in productivity. We did not separate the calves from their mothers until they were weaned at an appropriate age. You mention the battery farming, which as you know I am fully against. And there is a lot of glue used in the trimmings of cars, it’s not just leather seats.
AV
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Posted by argentumvulgaris on November 8, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Damn, that should have been a reply. I still have probs with this WP
AV
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