Are you absolutely sure that you are a vegan? I am not so sure any more.

cvalue

I was so sure I am a vegan until just now when I just discovered that I am not because the white and brown sugar that I eat are processed using bone char from animals.

Well, disappointed! but I guess, nowadays one just has to be a reasonable eater while considering the wellfare of animals. But it's impossible to avoid them completely! Sugar are in most food that we eat such as in the bakeries, StarBucks coffee... everywhere ... So I give up!

Bone char, which is used to process sugar, is made from the bones of cattle from Afghanistan, Argentina, India, and Pakistan. The bones are sold to traders in Scotland, Egypt, and Brazil who then sell them back to the U.S. sugar industry. The European Union and the USDA heavily regulate the use of bone char. Only countries that are deemed BSE-free can sell the bones of their cattle for this process. Bone char—often referred to as natural carbon—is widely used by the sugar industry as a decolorizing filter, which allows the sugar cane to achieve its desirable white color. Other types of filters involve granular carbon or an ion-exchange system rather than bone char.

Bone char is also used in other types of sugar. Brown sugar is created by adding molasses to refined sugar, so companies that use bone char in the production of their regular sugar also use it in the production of their brown sugar. Confectioner’s sugar—refined sugar mixed with cornstarch—made by these companies also involves the use of bone char. Fructose may, but does not typically, involve a bone-char filter. Supermarket brands of sugar (e.g., Giant, Townhouse, etc.) obtain their sugar from several different refineries, making it impossible to know whether it has been filtered with bone char.

It would be virtually impossible for PETA to maintain information on the refining process used for the sugar in every product.

Read more: http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2007issue4/2007_issue4_sugar.php

grackle

@cvalue. I did a very brief google search. You might try www.veganproducts.org/sugar.html. There are several companies that claim not to use bone char in their processing.

seeker242

"Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose."

Yes, I'm sure.

cvalue

Thanks @grackle, but sugar are put in many foods such as cookies... and others. Unless we never buy any ready made food. It's impossible to avoid sugar.

I agree with @seeker242: "as far as possible and practicable".

matthewmartin

I started out as a vegetarian, because that was easy for me at the time. Decades later-- having learned how to grind nuts to make milk, half a dozen way to replace eggs, how to cook 100s of different vegan dishes, so now I'm nearly a vegan, I consume some milk products, but almost no eggs. I have been steadily getting better at avoiding purchases that entail killing sentient beings.

I haven't given up on account of the project being hard, nor have I given up and become perverse (delighting in killing sentient beings or convincing myself that it is somehow noble or essential to kill sentient beings) merely on account of perfection being impossible.

Perfect is the enemy of the good. Good is the enemy of the so so. Perversity and not even trying wants to be everyone's friend-- it's the easiest of all.

I can't remove theft from my economic consumption-- some percent of my purchases were made by modern slave labor and the whole world is made up of a land ownership patterns established by ancient, violent theft of land from one tribe or another. But I haven't despaired and tried to rationalize modern slavery as some how noble or essential.

Jeffrey

There are a lot of products involving animals such as cosmetics. And then there are leather items to wear. I saw a TED talk where a woman tracked all the uses of a pigs body. I think there were 50 that I had not remotely realized or thought about.