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Welcome to Food for Thought, the podcast all about living compassionately and healthfully and doing it joyfully,

deliciously, and sustainably. My name is Colleen Patrick-Adro, I'm your host, you can learn more about who

I am and what I do by visiting my website joyfulvegan.com. Today's topic is, is it vegan to buy or wear second-hand leather or wool or silk? Welcome, everyone, and hello, I hope you're doing

fabulously well and recording this in the sixth week of healing from my fractured ankle, luckily I can write podcast episodes without an intact ankle, and so here I am.

Just a reminder that the effective communication and advocacy workshop is coming up, it's all online, you can register for it at joyfulvegan.com, and you can book the remaining spots on our

idyllic French countryside joyful vegan trip or on our magical alza has joyful vegan trip. They're both around the corner, so do not delay, you can go to joyfulvegantrips.com to see the details for the Paris to Bordeaux trip, which is the one that's in September, we're going to the

Loire Valley and the Dorodoyne Valley, that's in September, and then we are going to the Alsace region of France, we're going to be also in Germany, we're going to be going to Christmas markets, we're going to be in Switzerland, and that's in December, so

details and booking links are at joyfulvegantrips.com. Let's get started with today's episode. I feel like I often say a common question I get is, but I do get a lot of questions, and I do think this one is in the top 10 for sure. The question usually goes like this, how do you feel about

wearing secondhand leather or wool or fur or name the animal product could be silk, cashmere, feathers, even things like pearls or bones or shells come up when people ask me this question. And the question isn't just do vegans go to thrift stores and buy secondhand leather or wool or etc. It's also related to whether vegans can and should and we'll get into those words can and should

do vegans wear leather products or animal products from their pre-vegan days. What about that? What about all of the wool or the silk or the leather you have when you become vegan that you bought before you were vegan? What happens with those products? Do vegans can vegans? Should vegans wear those products? Wait, because most of us grew up not just eating animal flesh, but wearing it and other animal derivatives like the wool and the silk and the fur. I'm just going to keep calling them animal products or animal derivatives.

Because we're talking about kind of all of the ways in which we take animal parts and wear them. So the question is phrased in a myriad of ways. And you know me, I like my words and I do think framing and how we think about the way we say things is super important. And so the way it's phrased is often what do you think about vegans wearing secondhand animal products?

That's often a question I get directly. Do you wear secondhand leather animal products as a question I get directly? What do you think about vegans wearing leather shoes or wool sweaters from their pre-vegan days? That's a question phrased that way. Maybe you've asked that question. And then another way it's phrased is is it vegan to wear secondhand leather or wool or silk animal derivatives?

So I want to start with the last one, whether or not it's vegan to do this or that. You will never hear me say that it's vegan or not vegan to do something or other. First of all, the reason I don't couch it that way is because it implies that there's some vegan overlord making decisions about what is vegan and what is not.

And there is no vegan overlord. Second, it suggests that the barometer by which we measure our actions is veganism. It's not. Vegan is not my barometer. Compassion is. Third, related to that, I don't like to characterize behavior as vegan or non vegan because it sounds rigid and ideological and quite unpleasant to live by to be honest because it sounds like there are rules that we have to abide by.

Being vegan is not a badge to wear. It's not a goal to attain. It's not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. And the end, to me, the goal is to not contribute to violence against animals when we have the power to do so.

The goal is not to be vegan. The goal is to live as compassionately as possible and being mindful of our actions and our purchasing decisions so that we're not hurting anybody else.

And one of the best ways to do that, one of the easiest ways to do that is to do it by being vegan. But the question isn't, is it vegan? The question for me is, am I contributing to violence against animals?

And I, whatever, perform this action by this product, support this company, say this phrase. The question isn't, is it vegan to say this? Is it vegan to do this? The question is, is it compassionate? Is it kind?

Am I perpetuating kindness or am I perpetuating cruelty? It's really that simple for me because that's what it comes down to for me. And as you've heard me say, I don't aspire to be as vegan as I can be.

So with that framework in mind, let's get down to brass tacks and address what I think is the most relatable and real world scenario for most people, which is still having the wool sweaters and the cashmere cardigans and the silk ties and the wool blankets and the shoes or the car seats or the furniture made with leather from your pre-vegan days.

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