Vegan and cruelty free products : ethic choices

It has been years I wanted to put together a list of the products I use. I am vegetarian but not vegan. I eat fish and dairies, as well as eggs in home made pastries. But when it comes to my cleaning products for the home, body and skin care, I am vegan. I have been researching all the products I was using and found out awful things. Carcinoginous ingredients, petrol derived products, health threatening products and the worse for me: animal by-products, awful vivisections and tests (when most of these tests can be made chemicaly with no arm done to anyone, but eh, it costs more and the corporation makes less profits).

I have tried a lot of brands, some are using the organic and vegan angle only in a marketing way: more profit. It is always about money.

I can't advice you a lot of brands but these I have research a lot. But I can link great websites like the Leaping Bunny and the Cosmetic database which really helped me to research the best brands.

My favorite brand is Desert Essence. Their products are not only vegan but they use only natural (pay attention to that because natural doesn't always mean healthy) and other safe products for you and animals.
So the prices may be a bit more expensive than your drugstore brands but it really worth the investment.
I especially love their body and hair products.


For bath products, I use Kiss My Face. They have some great bubble bath. Their shaving cream used to be great but they changed an ingredient and the texture was difficult to use. They also changed an ingredient in face moisturizers and it can provoke allergies in some people.

Edited to add : after a new search on Kiss My Face, I have seen they don't have the Leaping Bunny label (knowing also labels are what they are and sometimes can be just bought!!!). But they claim they don't test on animals. That being said, research their products. I was wondering why their prices stayed low I got it now. There is more and more armful (cheaper) ingredients in their products.
I also found that link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/fashion/expanding-efforts-to-keep-cosmetics-testing-from-animals.html?_r=2

Some of these companies though, to survive financially has been bought out by corporations, but they made the pledge to keep their product safe. I still like Tom of Maine ( mouth rinse and toothpaste) and Burt bees (bought by Colgate), especially their honey and milk hand and body lotion.
I still use 7th Generation recycled papers and other products, even though they made the choice to get contracts to distribute their products in Kroger and so on.
It may not seems a good ethical choice but at least it offers a greater availabilities of their product and it expose it too a greater audience, which cannot be wrong. I never got any allergies, nor my pets to any of their products and they really are made of great and simple ingredients.

There was a site fighting Kleenex in order to stop them hurting ancient forests. They won their battle and unfortunately the website is not updated since 2009 but is still a good source of information. You also have to research where the recycled paper comes from and how it is processed.

For my make-up, I do not have great choices and I am still looking for a good brand. Manic Panic products are vegan but I haven't use a lot, exept their white pressed powder, that is ok but cakes in the wrinkles... (their hair dyes are awesome).

I am pretty allergic to mineral make-up, they have most of the time nano particules which has been proven to get in your optic nerves and many other internal organs. Also when you know a bit about mineralogy, the mineral used are like some stones in which the structure can stay the same down to the microscopic elements. Some of the mineral parts are squares and angular types, and irritate eyes mostly.
That is what happened to me, I got serious internal lids abces and cornea problems, and pain of course. Most of the time, the incriminated ingredient is mica.

The best thing I can advice is research and more research. Boycott compagnies who torture animals, who use petrol derived products. Choose cleaning product that won't hurt the earth. This is some work, this can be time consuming. But for us, time is not money. Time is ethic, time is life, time is taking care of the planet we live on, time is protecting animals and their inhabitat.

Also I wanted to make a little shout out to my favorite artists. I really respect artists who are using their position  and their money as a power to touch the greatest number.

Thom Yorkes of Radiohead had a wonderful impact for the climate changing and so many other issues, mostly in UK and against G8.

Trent Reznor donates so many of his money to a cause so close to my heart: rescuing Greyhounds. He has been auctionning so many of his instruments and other things to help Greyhound in California. He adopted 2 of them and has made several videos for Peta. Say what you want, this is the only case money is important and Peta, even if some of their methods can be contastable, does an amazing work.

If you have any questions or advice to share, don't hesitate!

Un vert à-venir - Episode 1

Un vert à-venir

Ethiquette

Le recyclage et la conscience écologique, plus qu’une action ponctuelle dictée par les marketings divers et avariés doit être une démarche consciente, pensée. Cette démarche doit venir d'une réflexion basée sur les faits et la dégradation perpétuelle de son environnement par l'homme. Les ressources disparaissent les unes après les autres, les extractions diverses de ces ressources érodent et polluent de plus en plus une nature déjà abimée par presque 2 siècles d'industrialisation.

Ce n’est pas une étiquette sur votre bouteille d'eau ou vos cabas à la place des sacs en plastique qui va changer cela. Les problèmes ne se traitent pas et ne se résolvent pas à la pointe des icebergs en pleine fonte mais en allant droit à leurs racines. Tout le monde se rachète une (bonne) petite conscience à coups de produits certifiés, étiquetés, labélisés. Bonne conscience plutôt que conscience: après avoir fait sa petite action bio, on peut dormir tranquille sur ses deux oreilles en croyant que grâce a sa « petite goutte dans l’océan », la planète n'explosera pas demain, les forêts arrêteront de disparaitre, les animaux en voie d'extinction pourront recommencer à se reproduire : tout est bien qui finit bien.

Le constat final pourrait ne pas se révéler aussi rose, ou vert, et les solutions classiques n'être pas suffisantes.

Consommation de masse

La plupart des objets faisant partie intégrante de nos vies ne sont pas recyclables. Certains objets sont « programmés » pour tomber en panne après peu de temps et ne sont pas réparables pour pousser les gens à acheter a nouveau (machines à laver le linge, grille-pain et autre appareils ménagers). Par le passé, ces mêmes appareils pouvaient durer des décennies ou être effectivement réparés.

Les objets électroniques et tous les gadgets relatifs à la course au progrès, à la vitesse de communication au sein des « réseaux sociaux », les téléphones portables et autres tablettes sont pour la plupart non recyclables. Les batteries sont maintenant totalement intégrées à l'objet. Les métaux lourds et extrêmement polluants, comme le mercure ou le plomb, que l’on trouve dans ces appareils portables de même que dans les ordinateurs de bureau, finissent donc à la poubelle puis dans la nature où ils polluent les nappes phréatiques et empoisonnent les sols. Nos appareils électroniques ont une longévité de plus en plus limitée et deviennent très vite obsolètes. Manque de compatibilité, effet de mode, progrès et miniaturisation galopants nous forcent à consommer toujours plus pour rester performants, « dans la course ».
Certains composants de ces derniers sont recyclables, cuivre, métaux divers ayant encore une valeur. Mais le recyclage est fait dans des pays sous-développés, de manière clandestine, par des travailleurs sous-payés dont la survie en dépend. Les sols sont contaminés en profondeur. Les travailleurs, sans protection d’aucune sorte, tombent vite malades et mourront probablement de cette contamination. L’ironie est qu’une fois les matériaux « précieux » récupérés, ils sont ensuite réacheminés vers l’Occident. Recyclage laissant pollutions, exploitation et morts dans son sillage.

Malgré des efforts récents dans le recyclage des plastiques, cela ne constitue qu'une partie infime comparée à la production mondiale et journalière de matières plastiques neuves. Elles sont dangereuses pour la santé (récente interdiction dans certains pays occidentaux du bisphénol A utilisé dans la production des bouteilles d’eau et autres biberons). Ces matières s’entassent, sous les formes les plus diverses, dans la nature, pour des centaines d’années (en moyenne 500 ans). Dans les océans, les courants ont poussé des montagnes de déchets plastiques maintenant bloquées à certains endroits, telle la Grande zone d’ordures du Pacifique (une nouvelle plaque vient d’être découverte dans l’Atlantique Nord). Même une fois dégradées, les matières plastiques ne se décomposent jamais totalement et on les retrouve jusque dans la chair des poissons. Dans ces décharges océanes, le plancton, source primaire de la vie pour les êtres marins, est réduit à l extrême, car les plaques de déchets font écran à la lumière du soleil et empêchent le développement de la vie sous-marine.

On cherche maintenant à produire des plastiques d'origines végétales, dégradables et plus sains pour la santé. Mais ces recherches sont encore limitées et utilisent des matières de base comme le mais. Celui-ci, souvent génétiquement modifié, demande pour une bonne croissance une importante consommation d’eau douce, des engrais et des pesticides. Donc polluant, gourmand en ressources et dangereux pour la santé et menaçant, comme la production des biocarburants, d’affamer une bonne partie de l’humanité. Il faut aussi savoir que le prochain problème auquel nous devrons faire face sera le manque d’eau douce et potable.

Il faut évidemment ajouter à tout cela le transport des marchandises, la pollution liée au dégagement de CO2, le pétrole employé et toute la logistique pour que les produits de l’atelier du monde, la Chine, arrivent dans nos magasins déjà surchargés. Ce système nous permet de bénéficier de produits "abordables" et de faire ainsi tourner la roue destructrice de l’économie globale, nous poussant à consommer toujours plus.

Un nouveau problème se développe, l'épuisement des ressources minières en métaux et minéraux divers et le manque de terres arables. Récemment les traders de Wall Street ainsi que bon nombre d’investisseurs se sont jetés sur ce nouveau marché qu'ils créent au fur et à mesure qu'ils l’exploitent et en tirent profit. Des hectares de terres sont achetés ou loués pour des décennies en Afrique, principalement par des entreprises. Les terres sont utilisées pour la culture de diverses plantes, principalement du mais et du blé. La plupart de ces cultures sont intensives, utilisant des engrais très agressifs et de nouvelles générations de plantes génétiquement modifiées poussant à une allure extrême. Les terres sont appauvries très vite, les écosystèmes détruits. Les paysans et les populations locales sont expropriés sans compensation et privés des seules ressources leur permettant de se nourrir.

Cecile Moreau, Juin 2011. A suivre...

Attention, lot of.

Here you can go and vote for my design!

If I would have someone to thank, it would be all the people caring deeply for our planet and for Nature. The ongoing fight they are having which can seem at time pointless and ineffective.

But yesterday, I was reminding myself: 30 years ago, people were caring about atomic pollution, atomic weapons and so on. I am not optimistic by nature, but mind sets are changing. It will probably be "only" necessity that will make us change at a global and radical level. But at least the change will come.

Meanwhile, there is a growing interest for recycling, Eco-consciousness and all things green. So thank you to all of you! My little business means more than just selling and making a profit (insert lol). Thank you all for your wonderful comments, thank you all for putting the words out there about my work.

My store is included in their Winter shopping guide! :)

I am so honored to be featured near the most talented Fiber Jewelry Crocheters on Earth!! 

Thank you Jodi for featuring my work again! I really appreciate your support.

Un-digest.

Excerpts from The last empire

At the other end are the wood suppliers, almost all poor countries with weak or corrupt law enforcement and a flourishing trade in illegal lumber. Among China's leading wood importers, Thailand and the Philippines have already been stripped of their natural forests; Indonesia and Burma are projected to lose theirs within a decade. Papua New Guinea's will succumb within 16 years, and the vast forests of the Russian Far East will survive no more than two decades. Even so, Forest Trends, a Washington-based nonprofit, estimates that China's wood imports will probably double over the next decade. Chinese manufacturers are already developing replacement sources in Africa, and South America's forests are under threat for a different reason: China's growing consumption of pork and chicken is fed by soybeans grown on newly cleared Amazonian land; by one estimate, 30 percent of the jungle could eventually be transformed into soybean fields.
[...]
An end to American and European purchases of products made from illegally cut wood—still retailed by such companies as Ikea, Home Depot, and Armstrong (see "Timber Line")—would certainly reduce the destruction of tropical forests, as half the tropical wood that enters China is reexported as finished products. Even so, about 90 percent of all Chinese-manufactured wood products are consumed within China. This is alarming, for per-capita consumption of wood products is still far below that in developed countries, and is likely to grow as the middle class expands. China's per-capita consumption of paper, for example, is now only an eighth of the United States'; if it reaches the American rate, pulp suppliers will have to double the world's current annual timber harvest. As Greenpeace argues in a 2006 report titled "Sharing the Blame," "The world's forests cannot support either the level of consumption of developed countries, or the aspiration of developing countries to attain a similar level.”
[...]
Visibility soon dropped close to zero in Beijing and driving was nearly impossible. Satellites tracked the dust as it moved across eastern China, the Yellow Sea, Korea, the Russian coast from Vladivostok to the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Sea of Japan, and Japan itself. In less than a week, it crossed the Pacific Ocean, and produced thick haze as far east as Denver. High concentrations of dust were found as far away as Maine and Georgia and eventually in the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.
[...]
The only thing likely to slow this explosive growth is the increasing scarcity of the resources needed to make and fuel cars. As numerous commentators have pointed out, if China's income per capita, now less than a 10th of the United States', ever reached the American level, several Earths would be required to provide resources. "Through all of our engagement with China, the U.S. government has aggressively promoted China's adoption of an American-style, high-consumption, high-waste economic model," says Jim Harkness, president of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and former executive director of the World Wildlife Fund in China. "Combine that with the global trading rules [that downplay environmental and labor standards], the tremendous constraints China faces in terms of its need to generate employment, and the fact that they've got all that coal and no oil—and how surprised can we be that we've ended up with an environmental nightmare?"

I want to improve my home.  This has gotten a nightmare when you don't want to harm the Earth, don't want to sustain unethical stores or economies like China. Plus I have no money and we cannot afford these wonderful sustainable and eco-friendly building materials which are just plain luxury in fact.

This article left me with a lot of questions. Most of the facts layed down there I already knew about. But to read the 5 pages, which I engaged you to do, and to see all these facts together, makes me wonder if shopping ethically and going through all the lenght I go through for every purchase is still meaningfull. Of course we have to give the example and try to un-do the awful example we are giving to the rest of the world (we being the Western world). Of course, we have to all do our part. But we also have to stop and think.

Economy and ecology are completely opposed and cannot exist together. Until economy prevails, there will not be a possible ecology.

Economy is the growth for the growth. More money, just for that. It has to keep going. It has to keep growing. Why? For nothing.
Progres ideas proved to be totally utopist.
We have been DOING and DOING and DOING without stopping, and whitout thinking a moment.

Our planet is disappearing under our feet. It is shrinking. The developping countries are cutting the branch they sit on, whitout carring a second the whole world is on the branch too.