I mean I think it can be boiled down pretty simply: cause the least harm to living things that you can personally manage. Having impossible goals isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If your impossible goal is to make a billion dollars ethically, and you get to 50 million being 95% ethical, you could still consider that a win, even though you didn’t reach your impossible goal.
Even the simple goal of “always being a good person 100% of the time” is probably impossible to achieve over an entire lifetime while meeting every person’s definition of it. That doesn’t mean it’s useless for someone to strive for that within their definition of “good person”.
In fact I’d say the vast majority of meaningful, non trivial goals could be considered “impossible”.
ebc@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I’ve always wondered if vegetables from a farm that uses horse-drawn tills instead of tractors would be vegan… It’s a real question, but everyone I ask thinks that I’m trolling.
howrar@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Or animal manure, or pesticides
multifariace@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Each vegan will have their own answer. If you are truly curious, and a vegan is sharing their mindset with you, ask them.
v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
I’d say no because horses can’t consent to being used for this. Horse riding is generally not considered vegan either
littlewonder@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Here’s my weird question: if faux leather is plastic and someone is vegan for environmental reasons, would leather be preferable? What if it’s a byproduct and would otherwise be trashed? These are things I think about as someone who tries to reduce my impact on the environment as much as I feasibly can in a capitalist society.
v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Depends on the faux leather. There absolutely are alternatives to leather that are less environmentally taxing than leather. Leather needs to be cured, for example, and the entire leather production process is very water-intensive and involves a lot of nasty chemicals. So apart from using a dead animal’s skin to wear, it’s also abysmal for the environment.
littlewonder@lemmy.world 2 days ago
You’re right about the leather processing. I didn’t consider that.
I heard there’s a new mushroom-based leather alternative that will hopefully get traction.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 days ago
If insects are animals then are vegans getting all of their food from 100% organic gardens that grow in a cooperative manner?
wh0_cares@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Oooooooh, even using tractors could be considered non-vegan, if they’re powered by fossil fuels, then they’re powered from the remains of dinosaurs, which were very much animals