The amount of vitriol that has been directed towards us and other vegans who have publicly broadcasted that we’ve eaten the Impossible Foods Impossible Burger has been shocking. These attacks are based on the fact that a single new plant-derived ingredient (Leghemoglobin) used in the Impossible Burger was tested on animals. We abhor animal testing and we certainly do not condone it. However, we do not yet live in a vegan world and unfortunately such testing, though radically unscientific in meaningful ways, is imposed on these new products in the name of “food safety”. For a new food product to receive to receive explicit acknowledgment from FDA that its new ingredient is safe (called a “no questions” letter), the FDA requires animal testing.

According to the Good Food Institute,

this letter may be required by major retailers like Walmart, by other significant customers (e.g., McDonald’s would almost certainly not sell a product that did not have such a letter), and by governments considering import of a product. Additionally, the lack of such a letter could result in FDA finding that a company’s products were “adulterated” (because the company had not shown safety to FDA’s satisfaction). This would cause all of the product to be pulled from shelves and sale prohibited.

So while some might argue that testing is not legally required, the alternative is that companies may be unable to sell their products to some major U.S. retail outlets and internationally, and it could result in the product not being allowed to be sold at all, thwarting the goal of replacing animals in the food system.

Leghemoglobin is hardly alone as a new plant-derived product to be subjected to animal testing and experimentation. Here are just a few common plant-derived ingredients that have undergone animal testing:

Caffeine
Mesquite extract (in liquid smoke)
Hempseed Oil
Spirulina
Xantham Gum (used in lots of gluten-free baked goods)
Vegetable Oil
Whole and milled flax seeds
Soybean oil
Barley fiber
Pea Protein concentrate
Algal oil (which is in the Beyond Burger)
Oat protein
Rice protein
Corn oil

So, according to the people who are attacking us for eating the Impossible Burger and saying that we’re “compromising our ethics”, anyone who consumes anything containing any of the ingredients on this list is, by the same reasoning, also not vegan.

We abhor that animal testing is still required in US food development. Instead of attacking ethical vegans whose multi-million dollar start-ups have the capacity to potentially disrupt the animal-derived food system in place today, we choose to support them. Instead of attacking our vegan brothers and sisters who are doing their level best to navigate this fundamentally flawed and broken system, we choose to direct our attacks against the vivisectionists and dedicate ourselves to helping change the system. We support organizations like PCRM and the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) who are fighting the good fight and winning hard-fought battles to shut down antiquated government-mandated animal experiments.

It’s likely that many folks, frustrated by their feelings of disempowerment, choose to attack safer targets like us, ethical vegans in their own community, because they can at least get a response and engagement. After all, attacking big agricultural conglomerates and companies who breed and sell non-human animals for lab testing, would result in a deafening silence of non-response. We all want to be heard, especially when we’re raging mad. But attacking fellow vegans and publicly trying to shame them? Well, to these “vegan purists” and “vegan police”, we respectfully remind you that there is NOTHING vegan about that. Veganism is about peacefulness, non-violence and Ahimsa. It’s not about perfection and judgment.

Here is a link to the full statement from GFI

Here is a link to the list of all the products that underwent animal testing for full FDA approval