tisdag 20 maj 2014

Is vegan food or clothing that was produced with human slave labor "cruelty-free"?

Is vegan food or clothing that was produced with human slave labor "cruelty-free"?

A person wrote this: "No. Though, I do buy second-hand vegan clothing that might have been made with slave labor. It's an ethical struggle I've been fighting in my mind. I won't buy from clothing companies that use slave labor or sweat-shops or child labor (and if I don't know, I assume they do), but a friend pointed out that I might not be acting logically consistently, because I won't buy non-vegan clothes second hand.

My logic is that I am not supporting the sweat shops and am indeed supporting a local business that thrives on recycling old clothes that would have otherwise been thrown away. And by buying second-hand, I reduce the need for new garments to be created and more resources used. I don't buy non-vegan things second hand, because I think it's inherently wrong to use any animal products because it's advocating, through my clothing choices, that it's morally okay to use animals at all--- the existence of the garment is contrary to my beliefs, however a cotton t-shirt itself is not inherently wrong, only the means of how it was created. So I think it's wrong to support those companies directly, but second-hand, I think it's helping eliminate the need for child/slave/sweatshop labor and thus helping to alleviate the problem. I try to buy fair-trade items too.

However, I'm still not sure I'm being logically consistent here. It's been something I've been thinking about for a long time.

But to answer your question, of of course sweatshops and slavery are never cruelty-free!"

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