Why Coconuts mostly aren't 'vegan' (sad)
 

This will be quite shocking for vegans who have chosen to be vegan for compassionate reasons.
Monkeys are bullied, abused and used as slave labour to harvest coconuts, the oil of which is used in many 'vegan' food and beauty products worldwide. Coconut oil is considered to be a very healthy option. But unless the coconuts are ethically sourced, they involve animal cruelty.

http://allamericanvegan.com/2015/02/...-your-coconut/

This is a very informative short video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qJc8loYQac

A list of companies in the USA who state that they do not use animal slave labour/cruelly treated monkeys to harvest the coconuts used in their products:

http://allamericanvegan.com/2015/02/...-your-coconut/

And one for the UK:
http://www.eatplantsnotanimals.com/a...ed-by-monkeys/

I came up against that information about six months ago and was upset by it too. I use coconut oil a lot. Fortunately, as far as you can trust what you can't see with your own eyes, I found that the brand of coconut oil I use is on the 'good' list and I switched the brand of coconut milk I use to one that also is apparently from 'monkey-free' coconuts.

I was also already aware of that sad reality :(

Good thing here most companies selling coconut products (well the ones I consume) are on the 'good' list.

It's like palm oil....so many vegans refuse to talk about it and consider products containing palm oil or its derivatives vegan but when you see all the horror behind it, how could you? :/

Thanks for spreading the information!

Animal slavery is so widespread it would drive a vegan mad. I would wager it is part of so much of what we do, it just depends where you draw the line for your on sanity.

The day that we have animal freedom will be a day closer to world peace, the two are not mutually exclusive IMO. It is inevitable.

You're right Burntfruit. Seems like too many days, some new level of cruelty comes to light. There's so much hurt and hate in the world isn't there?

And yet, there are those in the spiritual community who strongly believe that we are at the cusp of change....and maybe they are right because at least every other week, I'm reading some new article about a new 'alternate' food product that eliminates the use of animals, or one more organization is beginning to acknowledge (for the sake of the planet and human health) the efficacy of a plant diet. Or a change in attitude and related laws, like Taiwan just banning the consumption of cats and dogs! That's huge in an Asian country I would think. That they make a law to protect them from harm!

So change will come, just not as fast as we would like.

Had absolutely no idea about this, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I always assume I am never 100% vegan because cruelty is inexplicably intertwined within our culture and slave labor extends to even humans which consists of a scary amount of the products I may not be aware I'm buying.

But, the information helps me reduce that amount the best I can. And that video of the slave monkey reminded me of a video game I use to play called Mother 3, where one of the villains used a monkey to do his bidding and consistently punished him. Didn't realize this was an actual thing.



(Not only that but, the villain ended up pushing consumerism and "happy boxes" to a moneyless society. The game was one of the two video games I have ever played to have a profound impact on me. It's prequel was the other one.)

I shared it on a dutch vegan forum.

Give me a break, coconut is not vegan lolz, stop posting stupid stuff without even thinking like that.

This is...wow! Our household went vegan just shy of three months ago and I'm still learning how entwined animal abuse is in everything, it's disgusting. Thanks for sharing this, will have to research our products.

Thank you for informing everyone, this is insane :( I don't really eat coconut oil but coconut water used to be something I'd have from time to time. No more unless I can verify it's 100% ethical!