3 Mistakes Vegans Make That Harm The Planet

Vegans save animals’ lives, have a lower carbon footprint, and are generally pretty green. But there are 3 common mistakes most vegans make that harm the planet

By Jody McCutcheon

For many, veganism is more than a dietary choice; it’s a way of living. By not consuming meat, milk, fur or leather, vegans are making an eco-friendly choice  which is often thought to be one of the most eco-friendly choices a person in the modern world can make. Vegans are usually caring, nurturing people and express their collective identity through their choices in two key areas: food and fashion. Vegan products in here must contain no animals or animal byproducts, and should be sustainably produced. Yet within those two words–“sustainably produced”–lies the catch.

A closer examination of the production methods of common vegan foods and goods reveals some extremely unsustainable practices, however. The question, then, is: knowing the realities, how can earth-loving vegans adapt their diets and behaviour to become more planet friendly?

3 Mistakes Vegans Make That Harm The Planet

1. Ignoring Palm Oil

When Burger King came out with vegan foods, many rejoiced. But if you’re an ethical vegan (doing it for the planet and the animals, above all), you’ll want to avoid pretty much all fast food. Why? The short answer: palm oil.

Ignoring the palm oil found in most processed foods is one of the biggest mistakes vegans make. It’s in confections, nut butters, frozen foods, crackers, crisps, as well as many cosmetics, detergents and plastics. And its production process is terrible on the environment – and many, many animals.

Specifically, the whopping demand for palm oil means that 30,000 square miles of Malaysian and Indonesian rain- and peat- forests has been razed (17,400 square miles in the last decade alone) and replaced mainly with monoculture oil palm. The elimination of all those trees leads to additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, of course. But more significantly, the burning of felled peat forests releases carbon that’s been stored in the ground for centuries. One study suggests the razing of peat-lands releases 660 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, while the burning of them releases 1.5 billion tonnes. Hello global warming!

Killing animals to the point of extinction

And if that’s not bad enough, Malaysia and Indonesia’s clear-cutting bonanzas have placed several creatures on the brink of extinction. These include the already gravely endangered Sumatran tigers and orang-utans. The number of wild Sumatran tigers is down to about 400, from a 1978 census of approximately 1000, while fewer than 7,000 Sumatran orang-utans remain in the wild. And there is absolutely no doubt that oil palm plantations signify the greatest threat to Sumatran orang-utans. In Tripa, on Aceh’s west coast, for example, they could be extinct in just a few years!

Those are the biggest animals, of course. But there are also hundreds of bird, reptile, insect and other species of mammals that rely on these forests for survival. And there is nowhere for them to run.

Protected areas, which historically have offered a modicum of safety for endangered animals, are now also being clear-cut for oil palm plantations due to high demand. And a recent moratorium on deforestation in Indonesia has been undermined by weak legislation and lack of enforcement.

Palm-oil demand is expected to double to 40.5 million tonnes this year. The easiest way for vegan consumers to avoid palm oil is to avoid processed and fast foods altogether. If this is impractical, be aware that ‘sodium palmate’, ‘vegetable oil’ and ‘palm kernel oil’ on labels all mean palm oil has been used, and avoid those specific products.

Shockingly, some beauty brands that dare market themselves as ‘eco friendly’ contain loads of palm oil. These brands include Jason, Avalon, Origins and Aveda. The latter two are owned by one of the worst chemical offenders in the beauty world: Estee Lauder, whose La Mer, Clinique and other brands rank amongst the world’s least ethical.

Indulging in palm oils is for sure one of the worst mistakes vegans make. Click here or here for more tips to avoid palm oil, and to see a list of common products that contain it.

2. Shopping For Soy

Another of the biggest mistakes some vegans make is eating a lot of soy based products.

Worldwide demand for soy is massive. It feeds not only vegetarian and Asian diets, but is fodder for livestock too. In short, it feeds the world. And it should be added that it’s also fuelling cars that run on so-called ‘biofuel’.

Yet its production wreaks ecological havoc. As dictated by the tenets of industrial agriculture, soybean is grown as a monoculture crop, meaning it is the only crop planted over a large area, for many consecutive years. To create space for it, huge swaths of rainforest are clear-cut. Just as in the case of palm oil plantations, this destroys the habitats of many species, and contributes to climate change and the displacement (or even killing) of indigenous peoples.

Soy may be native to East Asia, but Brazil will probably pass the US this year as the world’s leading soy producer. Brazil owns the largest expanse of Amazon rainforest – two million square miles. And as of last year, 17% of it had been clear-cut, legally or otherwise, for cattle ranches and soy plantations. Put together, that’s an area the entire size of Brazil’s northern neighbour, Venezuela.

Moreover, monoculture crop maintenance for both soy and palm oil employs heavy pesticides, like paraquat. A whopping 3.3 million litres was deployed throughout Brazil in 2009, and that number is growing each year. Pesticides contaminate the soil and water of formerly pristine rainforest areas, harming all life.

Since 2004, attempts to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon have partially succeeded, through levied fines and business embargoes. But food capitalists are again pushing the envelope. With strong demand from the biofuel and livestock feed industries, unfortunately for the rainforest, the rewards for producing soy are greater than the penalties.

Monoculture means GMO

While many vegans try to avoid buying produce polluted by pesticide, they should take note that all kinds of monoculture is growing more and more synonymous with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The growth of GMO plants can lead to the development of resistant superweeds and super pests, uncontrollable cross-contamination of crops, and multiple human health problems, including infertility, birth defects and cancer.

As of 2007, more than half the planet’s soybean crops (58.6%) were genetically modified, and that number has grown today to mean that virtually all soya grown in and exported from the USA, Brazil, China and Argentina is GMO.

The solution? Eating only organic soy is a must, but trying to avoid soy altogether is best. Oat milk latte, anyone? If you simply can’t live without your soya latte or tofu burger, ensure the soy based product you buy is rainforest friendly. Warning: these are hard to find, but most organic brands are ok.

3. Making Poor Fashion Choices

Another of the common mistakes some vegans make has to do with fashion choices.

Vegans indulge in traditionally animal-based fashion luxuries like leather and fur without suffering any of the guilt. But do a little digging and you’ll discover that while vegan clothing may contain no animal products or byproducts, it’s not exactly eco-friendly or even kind to animals.

The production processes for vegan leather and faux fur create toxic discharges that contaminate local air, water and soil. And since the plastic-derived products themselves don’t fully biodegrade, they end up clogging landfills, or worse, being incinerated. Garments that avoid incineration eventually break down, and the resulting micro-particles eventually are consumed by marine and land animals. In fact, even just washing synthetic clothing leads of plastic contamination of the water. Which, of course, hurts all aquatic animals and the animals that eat them.

Vegan leather has serious issues

What’s worse: much vegan leather is made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The manufacture and incineration of PVC-based synthetics release dioxins into the atmosphere. These toxic chemicals stunt the development of humans and other mammals, and increase cancer risks tenfold.

Due to the proliferation of PVC and PVC-based “pleather,” dioxins are found in the bloodstreams of most humans and many other animals, even Arctic polar bears. Another problem with PVC and other plastics is its use of phthalates as a softening agent. These chemicals are released into the food chain and the atmosphere once the plastic or PVC breaks down. Living cells don’t take kindly to these chemicals. Phthalates are a major cause of breast cancer, hormonal disruptions, birth defects and breathing problems. Not only in humans, but animals, too.

Some vegan leather comes from textile-polymer composite microfibers, like PU. Predictably, synthetic microfiber production incorporates noxious chemicals like acetic acid, which can cause skin and eye damage, and carcinogens like dimethylformamide. A few companies are trying to be more eco-friendly, making leather-esque items from fish and eel skins, which otherwise are disposed of during the food production process, but these are still taboo for vegans. Other companies are using plant-based leathers like cactus, pineapple or apple, but these too still contain PU and other plastics.

Faux fur is often no better, and it might even be harder on the planet than real fur. Consider that an estimated gallon of petroleum oil is used for every three jackets. Definitely not a sustainable alternative! And the production process for nylon, which constitutes many faux-fur garments, is responsible for over 50% of the UK’s nitrous oxide emissions, which contribute to acid rain and ozone depletion. Furthermore, synthetics take more energy to be produced than do natural materials: three times more is required to produce a kilo of nylon than a kilo of cotton, for example. Vegans need to take these realities into consideration before filling their wardrobes with clothing that potentially destroys more life than it saves.

Conclusions

I certainly don’t mean to pick on vegans here. Veganism is indeed be one of the most sustainable lifestyle choices people can make. But although animal-loving vegans are helping to make the world a better place, they mustn’t rest on their laurels. After all, animal-free may not mean animal-friendly. I

And the truth is: it’s important for anyone who loves animals and our planet to be aware of the issues above.

 Works Cited

1. http://www.dw.de/brazil-to-take-soy-lead-with-respect-for-rainforest/a-1654723

2. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/nov/14/brazil-amazon-rangers-farmers-burning

3. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3849-south-america-soys-great-homeland

5. http://grist.org/article/2009-08-28-palm-rainforest-kitchen/

6. http://grist.org/article/the-death-of-sustainability/

7 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/business/worldbusiness/31biofuel.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

8. (http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/palm_oil_final_5-27-05.pdf)

9. (http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/sumatran-orangutans)

Fashion pictures of the model in the coat: Vaute Couture vegan fashion

Do you know of other mistakes vegans make? Let us know in the comments!