Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

What would be achieved by boycotting these products? At the moment I don't see an ethical problem

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Haha, sorry for going on there, I just appreciate vegan friendly companies, it means a lot to me.

This is true, 14 years ago when I first turned vegan there was nothing. And when products first came out they would mark things that contained casein and whey as vegan and we fought the companies and the stores to have that changed, and that was a fight that got wicked! I think its great to see the growth in the industry, and it is so easy to be vegan now a day's and stay vegan.

I understand boycotting a company that produces or purchases animal ingredients to use in their products (no matter how small), since they are directly responsible for either the manufacture of those ingredients, or financially linked by purchasing from another company. But I don't understand avoiding an otherwise vegan product/company, because it uses a factory which has also had non-vegan products go through it. I don't know what the statement or cause is in that situation. Your money is being used for the vegan product. The only thing I can think of is that by boycotting vegan products made in a non-vegan factory, (if this was done in large numbers), it would cause those factories to only have vegan products go through them. But realistically, there are much greater numbers of people supporting the non-vegan products coming through, so more likely, if the vegan products were boycotted by vegans (they already are probably not purchased by non-vegans), then the vegan products would be pulled, not the other way round.

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Exactly. In a society of litigious nincompoops, companies do need to protect themselves. And, of course, there are those people who may have life-threatening reactions from one airborne trace particle that could have landed on a product being made elsewhere in the facility, so those people NEED to know if there's even a one in a million chance of anything that could put them at risk.

Also, one thing to note for a LOT of companies is that it can cost hundreds of thousands or MILLIONS of dollars to set up a dedicated vegan facility if you're in the business of producing vast quantities of both vegan and non-vegan products. We've spoken with so many companies over the years who have said they'd LOVE to be able to set up a dedicated vegan wing in their production facilities, but with how small the vegan market is, they'd never, ever be able to pay for building such production areas just to suit the vegans who are extremely fussy over allergen notices (as these days, few seem to be overly concerned about it). Of course, money talks, and if they are going to risk bankruptcy to cater to a fraction of an already small population...well...doesn't take much to figure out why there aren't more companies with dedicated vegan production facilities since they can share equipment and keep costs reasonable. Unless, of course, you wouldn't mind paying $5 for a Clif bar someday just so they can open a new facility just for us

In the end, it isn't creating a dependancy on more animal by-products, it isn't willingly supporting the use of animal by-products for manufacture if you're buying the vegan ones, so unless you're looking to be a purist OR have severe allergies that could be life-threatening, there isn't much to be concerned with over allergen notices these days. It's just the way things will be - prior to 2008, such notices were optional, but now they're mandatory on most foods, which is why you'll find them on items that may not have had them in the past.

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous