It struck me earlier today…
Lush Yummy nut butter is most prolly vegetarian.
After some more thought, and making doubly sure, I realised, this is indeed the case.
But wait, if it’s vegetarian, surely it must be vegan too, right?
How far is the jump?
One packet of plant-based sausages?
Apparently it’s not that straightforward.
Let’s dive in, but first, I want to shout to the world where I stand on the issue.
I am not vegetarian, much less vegan.
How anyone can say no to a succulent piece of lamb, beef, pork, chicken or fish, is beyond me.
You’ve got to get that stuff between your teeth and your jaws moving.
Give your taste buds a reason to rejoice in belonging to you by enjoying the juicy flavours inherent in a good piece of meat. If you don’t, you’re missing out BIG time, and for no good reason.
You’re not saving the planet by taking what you believe is the higher road, and you’re believing others who say they are saving the planet.
That makes you doubly naive.
Back to Lush Yummy nut butter.
All the ingredients in the current iteration of the product are inherently vegetarian, since none of them are derived from animal meat.
Strictly speaking, that means they’re vegan-friendly, but, as mentioned before, it’s not that straightforward.
Because of one product, honey, the end result is not vegan-friendly.
Some vegans consider bee farming an exploitative practice, and opt for alternatives like maple syrup, date syrup, or agave nectar, supporting the exploitation of plants, but taking a firm stance against the exploitation of animals.
Apparently it’s an issue of ethics, as if choosing between one type of nut butter source and another is black-and-white, and one is just evil, and another just good.
Here’s a question…
Vegans who only eat what they consider ethically sourced ingredients, do they refuse to complain about the pain they feel from the elephant in the room sitting on them, or are they so stubborn that they won’t admit that there’s an elephant in the room in the first place?
Actually, there’s a herd of elephants in the room.
The first one is the issue of whether companies who say they source their ingredients ethically, actually do so, or whether they’re simply saying that to tick a box and make consumers happy, who, by the way, form part of the supply chain, and may or may not be perfectly ethical in all of their choices twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Am I saying companies lie?
Yes!
Am I saying consumers can be hypocritical?
Yes!
Shocking, right?
Wherever people are, sin rears its head, and the sin of lying is one of the more popular ones, as can be seen throughout history.
Unless you follow the product from source to jar every step of the way yourself, you’re going to have to believe what someone else tells you about where and how that product was sourced.
I’m simply not willing to make the bold (and, dare I say, specious) claim that all Lush Yummy’s nut butter ingredients are ethically sourced.
How would I know?
I don’t go to the source. That’s madness. These nuts are already expensive. Spending more time and effort on going directly to the source will cause the supply chain to bulge in some other area up or down the line.
Maybe I should grow my own nuts.
Great idea.
I own a piece of land, but I can’t cultivate it because if I try to farm there, whatever I use for farming will be stolen by people who don’t care about ethics.
Again, the logical conclusion is that the supply chain will be affected here, balancing out whatever action was taken there.
There’s no way you should believe those silly GDPR banners that pop up on websites and claim to care about your privacy.
How can you know they’re not lying to you?
In the same way, why would you believe that the ingredients for any food you buy, were sourced ethically for every single serving?
What if a fight broke out in a factory where one of your favourite dishes is packaged, and the dissidents were removed from the production line, causing workers not involved in the fight to work harder for the hour or two the dissidents were not doing their job, and in that time, YOUR tin, or jar, was packaged?
That means your food was unethically packed by people who had to work harder to get their wages!
Back to the nut butter, and the next elephant. (I find it ridiculous to be standing here, pointing at the herd, as if I’m the only one who can see it, but I guess I’ll have to.)
What do you consider ethical?
Do you have a problem with the so-called exploitation of bees, but you’re okay with pre-born babies being murdered in the name of reproductive freedom?
What about agave plants being hacked for their nectar?
Those poor plants have built-in defence mechanisms, but they’re useless against humans wielding coa harvesting tools.
Okay, so there’s the nogave movement, a movement trying to do away with the use of algave sugar.
However, one of the ingredients used in one nogave syrup recipe I came across is Demerara sugar, which is extracted from sugar cane.
So it’s okay to hack sugar cane, but not algave?
That’s plantist!
It’s impossible to live up to the standards set by some people, because once you do, the goalposts move.
It’ll never be enough.
Until we’re all crawling around butt-naked, not wearing any clothes–because it may have involved a process that exploited some life form other than a human–and the only things we take in are water and vegan sausages, some people won’t be happy.
What I find strange is that many people have a problem with humans mistreating fauna or flora; but those very same people would say humans are a type of animal.
(Tell me you spot the trunk on this one, at least; or the massive ears.)
If humans are animals, why is it a problem if we mistreat other animals, or nature?
Are we not simply acting on our innate animal instinct, and should therefore be left to do whatever we feel like doing?
I want to challenge your view, if you think humans are animals.
We’re not animals.
We’re different.
If you’re reading this, and can understand it, you’re vastly different from an animal.
You’re special.
You were created imago Dei – in the image of God.
I would strongly urge you to look at what the Bible has to say about you, your place in the world, and the position Creator God has given you.
As for Lush Yummy, it’s a brand that cannot live up to the shifting standards set by some.
That’s why Lush Yummy nut butter is sold on taste, not on ethics.
The product tastes wonderful.
People love it.
Is it nutritious?
Yes.
Is it vegetarian?
Yes.
Is it vegan?
Nope.
But if you’re okay to munch a nut butter that tastes incredible, comes in a plastic jar (for sustainability reasons) and has an affordable price tag, buy some Lush Yummy and show your support for common sense.
By the way, we still love vegans, even though they desperately want to eat stuff that tastes like meat, but isn’t meat, strangely.