And apart from the fact of a product being unethical or not vegan in terms of its impact on the ecosystem, other species and other people, the post also led my thinking to the basic question of what after all is food for the human species.

In the wild, animals have, as we know, a limited food inventory: they eat a few dozen different foods throughout the different seasons of the year.

It is as if the food in the ecosystem is the whole pie and every creature has been allocated a small share of it.

But while this is instinctively followed by animals in the wild, man has exceeded his own little share of the pie and considers almost everything on the planet as food.

In the era of the corporate control of food, people have been conditioned away from the natural standard of the specific food inventory for each species to the idea that the myriads of the food industry products (vegan or not) are food.

This in turn means that man is now eating the whole pie, thus disrupting the natural order and stealing the food and the habitat of the other species.

Perhaps a priority for the vegan movement would be to help clarify in the collective consciousness what is food for man. This won’t be an arbitrary view but it will be based on sound science: the digestive anatomy of man (frugivore) and the natural standard of the food inventory. Here the expertise of the raw vegan movement might be helpful.

I think this is a crucial matter that can hopefully demolish the speciesist conditioning of what people have learned to consider as food and advance widely the issue of anti-oppression as well as give us again control over our food.

It’s important to distinguish between a boycott against non sustainable, non fair trade, non organic palm oil versus something that is not a boycott: veganism.

Boycotts are a method of protest. Boycotts are temporary. Boycotts are about avoiding particular brands or particular products in order to encourage companies to change their ways.

Veganism is about avoiding animal products. Period.

If the standard for why vegans should avoid certain products is simply the harm they cause without any consideration given to intervening causes, indirection, intent, practicality, and long-term solutions, then virtually all products are not vegan. It wouldn’t stop at palm oil, coffee, sugar, chocolate (and other food items that are unnecessary and often not organic or fair trade). The boycott would go on and on and on.

But as vegans, we ought to consider what products we avoid because they are directly and utterly harmful versus what products are harmful only in some circumstances.

Boycott palm oil that is not sustainable or boycott all palm oil simply because it’s easier. But don’t say that palm oil isn’t vegan.

Avoiding these products/practices will be more doable for some people than others, but I think it helps to be aware. Even if someone isn’t able or willing to completely stop using palm oil — or animal products, or sweatshop-made materials — they can keep it in mind, maybe mention it to others and make their position known somehow. (There are people I know who are vocal against sweatshop labor even though they don’t [or haven't yet] completely boycott it. As vegans, we immediately think of a complete boycott, but there may be other ways to make one’s position known and still effect change.) In any case, denial never helps; thank you.