Just because it’s vegan… doesn’t mean we should buy it.

There was a time when being vegan was pretty darn rare. For those who have been vegan for many years, you may remember gruelling trips to supermarkets, awkward dinners with friends, met with constant ridicule and questioning over your decision. Now, it is increasingly common for people to already have heard at least one of a million reasons a person might become vegan, and to perhaps not think we are so crazy after all.

In the West, we have seen an exponential surge in vegan products on supermarket shelves, vegan approved cosmetics, vegan fashion… there is practically a vegan version of everything. But there are 2 sides to this coin, one side paints the picture of a world where humans are evolving to become more eco-conscious, whilst the other, darker side, hides behind the greenwashing of corporate power.  To them, we are just a new gap in the market.

Greenwashing is contaminating the vegan mission. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, it’s when a company presents a product as sustainable, when in fact the company or the product are far from ethically produced. Many large corporations, such as Nestlé, Mars, Mondelez, Tesco and Aldi have brought out vegan ranges. But if you look a little closer, many of these companies continue to slack in the ethics department, even when it comes to basic human rights… let alone animal rights and planet protection.

Despite having a selection of vegan products, Nestlé as a company care very little about animal rights, with cow’s milk continuing to be the raw material they most heavily rely upon. They provide no welfare information over the use of livestock and have made a sad pledge to stop using caged eggs by 2025. They do not have a clear policy on animal testing, stating that it will only be used when necessary…. Which in actuality is never.

Oreos, by Mondelez, continue to be a vegan staple, but the company has been under fire for it’s contribution to deforestation in Brazil alongside the unsustainable sourcing of palm oil. A good few years ago, Mondelez International, showed intentions to clean up their palm oil supply, with their website announcing that about 98% of the material came from traceable origins that follow published policies on sustainable practice, by the end of 2019.

In 2020, Mondelez was included in a list of large corporations that were failing to meet their deforestation targets. The Rainforest Action Network found that Mondelez, Nestlé and Mars, as well as 5 other major brands, were not taking necessary action to avoid ‘conflict palm oil’ in Indonesia.

[These findings are from WWF and the Rainforest Action Network, so they are not peer-reviewed, making the data questionable in accuracy. However, if you do a little research, it is clear that the palm oil industry continues to be incredibly shady with sustainable sourcing remaining a massive challenge.]

The Body Shop boasts a vast range of vegan cosmetics. In 2018, an 11 year boycott by Naturewatch was lifted from the company, due to the publishing of a clear animal testing policy. The owning company, Natura, continues to remain under scrutiny for bad reporting on greenhouse gas emissions, palm oil sourcing and for use of microplastics and liquid polymers.

Global supply chains are an absolute state. When something says ‘carbon neutral’ or even ‘cruelty-free’, we can’t just take it at face value… there is a lot of loop-holes in long production lines. The best way to consume green is to purchase seasonal and local produce, buy from smaller companies that are ethical to their roots (maybe even founded by vegans), and… to just consume less.

Reading a label to only check that something is vegan could be seen as the equivalent of a Christian who goes to church every Sunday and thinks it gives them a free pass to behave badly for the rest of the week. To clean up our economy, we need to read between the lines, ask questions, do research, support good companies, small businesses and get involved politically. These massive corporations can and should do better, but we have to demand it.

Oh… and check out Ethical Consumer, a great site to use and a worthwhile subscription if you want to dig up the dirty on these corporations!

Article written by Aisling Geraghty- United Kingdom