Should vegans wear red?!
http://www.veganwolf.com/animal_ingredie...
"CARMINE: Cochineal. Carminic Acid. E120. Red pigment from the crushed female cochineal insect. Reportedly 70,000 beetles may be killed to produce one pound of this red dye. Used in cosmetics, shampoos, red apple sauce and other foods. May cause allergic reactions. Alternatives: beet juice, no known toxicity (used in powders, rouges, shampoos); alkanet root, from the root of an herb like tree, no known toxicity (used as a red dye for inks, wines, lip balms, etc. and can be combined to make a copper or blue coloring)."
Answers: Among other uses the Cochineal insect is used to make red pigment sometimes used in clothing. I did not even know this tell one eco-friendly company proudly informed its potential buyers that they used earth and insect dyes for all their clothing. After some research I found out that an incredible amount of these insects had to die just to make one garment.
http://www.veganwolf.com/animal_ingredie...
"CARMINE: Cochineal. Carminic Acid. E120. Red pigment from the crushed female cochineal insect. Reportedly 70,000 beetles may be killed to produce one pound of this red dye. Used in cosmetics, shampoos, red apple sauce and other foods. May cause allergic reactions. Alternatives: beet juice, no known toxicity (used in powders, rouges, shampoos); alkanet root, from the root of an herb like tree, no known toxicity (used as a red dye for inks, wines, lip balms, etc. and can be combined to make a copper or blue coloring)."
I knew that cochineal food colouring was made from crushed beetle extract but I didn't know they used it to dye clothes. You learn something new everyday and I am now mid 50s.
It is an interesting point you raise and perhaps clothes should carry a label like food does saying what chemicals and products go into making them. As vegans are against leather products I'm sure they would be against beetle dye.
wow, thats interesting. Do they only use it in certain things? I cant imagine that they use it in everything red.
Yes they can as your carmine definition makes no mention of clothing and the weblink makes no mention either. It would be helpful if you had a link to verify your assertion.
Which eco-friendly company is it?
The bohemia link says absolutely nothing about red dye nor carmine.
The Tinctoria company uses cochineal for the red and the chocolate color but it's just 1 company so shouldn't your question be about the 1 company and not ALL red clothing?
Apparently, vegans shouldn't get clothing of the sunrise or chocolate colors from the Tinctoria company because of the use of cochineal.
EDIT: I'm not attacking you. My "crusade" is for factuality. In my opinion, the bohemia skirt is referred to as carmine because of the type of flower on it. Why would they put the name of a dye in the name of the skirt anyways?
http://www.createyourgarden.com/redgarde...
Carmine/Cochineal is not always used in dye. And when it is, it's mostly as a food/cosmetic dye.
I get all of my clothes from Goodwill, or Texas Thrift ( In San Antonio- great store!) so I don't generally worry about what they're made of -as long as it's biodegradable.
I've known this for some time. Even Dole Pineapple Strawberry juice has bug shells in it to make it red. Aveda carries vegan friendly red lipstick. So there are vegan friendly reds out there.
im 100% vegan but not all red dye is made from it but also it depends on how much you are vegan like is it a lifestyle choice or just what you do and dont eat