Comments on: Why Would a Vegan Boycott Earth Balance?

By: What to use instead of butter : veganism.com

What to use instead of butter : veganism.com — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:26:05 +0000

[...] margarines have no animal products but most of them do have palm oil, for which many animals are killed, rain forests are destroyed, and often local communities [...]

By: Deb

Deb — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:57:42 +0000

I agree, Rennie, I use oil in recipes that call for Earth Balance and it works great. The only thing that it doesn’t work for is frosting…and even then, there are loads of EB-free recipes as long as you don’t insist on buttercream-style frostings. I don’t think it’s a big deal at all to give up one luxury food item!

By: Rennie

Rennie — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:38:26 +0000

Hello, it’s a shame so many recipes use butter, it’s completely replaceable with oil. I am making cookies raw, I find they taste better and it’s more interesting, uses nuts instead of oil.

By: Weekly recipe round-up: 9/3-9/10 | Vegtastic

Weekly recipe round-up: 9/3-9/10 | Vegtastic — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:32:26 +0000

[...] easy to make, but it’s chewy starchiness is so satisfying on a brisk autumn day. I know that Earth Balance is evil, but I have a few sticks in my fridge (last time I buy it, I swear) waiting for the right [...]

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:16:21 +0000

Thanks Pat, it’s a good reminder. Earth Balance remains the biggest issue for vegans, but that’s not to say that we can ignore palm in other products. Feel free to make note of the brands you’ve already vetted. I’m sure it would help people to know where to start.

I’ve always preferred products that have a short readable ingredient list, and happily those are usually the brands that are palm free too.

For non-dairy milks, I think Eden and Pacific are probably all free of palm. I can’t remember if I looked at all of their varieties, but anything I’ve looked at from either of them have been palm-free. And Manitoba Harvest has a palm free hemp milk too.

The same pattern is true of soaps and other household things also, with the short and readable ingredient list.

I can’t remember for the frozen desserts, I don’t get those often.

By: Pat Cuviello

Pat Cuviello — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:38:19 +0000

Thanks for this educational post on palm oil. I just want to point out that EB is not the only vegan place to find palm oil. It is in just about every Vegan pastry and cookie you can buy. Additionally, a good deal of Vegan soaps use palm oil and a lot of Soymilk brands use Palmitate, to add vitamin A. Non-palm oil products are out there. My partner and I have had to shop around to find palm-free soaps, soymilks, frozen deserts and other products that don’t have palm oil, but labels need to be read. When I make cookies I use Organic Canola Oil.

By: Mary Martin

Mary Martin — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:36:15 +0000

Thanks.
I do use Babycakes’ book frequently, and coconut oil is pretty common so it’s good to know that with a bit of research I’ve got a better option.

By: Louëlla

Louëlla — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:02:46 +0000

I have only bought Earth Balance once, and that was just to try it out. My usual shopping list just doesn’t contain palm oil, so I haven’t given it much thought before. But I will have to remember to avoid Earth Balance from now on in case I would ever think of buying it again. By the way, if you haven’t seen No Impact Man yet, I highly recommend it. This film is very inspiring and makes me want to one day avoid buying packaged foods altogether, if possible.

By: jill

jill — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:59:24 +0000

I’ve seen this powdered product listed as an EB palm-oil-free sub, tho I haven’t tried it:

http://is.gd/5AvBo

I would guess, if tasty, the powdered “butter” could be added to cake frostings and then use well-sourced shortening for the “butter”?

There’s also this one, but, tbh, it doesn’t look so good. bad picture, maybe??

http://is.gd/5AvTI

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:14:28 +0000

I don’t generally use anything in place of EB, but that’s a statement that needs some qualifications.

Dreena Burton’s cookie recipes have always been EB free (or most of them are) and I’ve always loved her cookie recipes, so in that sense I didn’t need a replacement. There are lots of other cookie recipes out there that don’t use EB.

For things like toast or waffles, I just skip it. I have pb or almond butter on my toast, I can make a maple glaze kind of thing for the waffles or just use maple syrup.

Frosting gets a bit tricky, but there are a few recipes out there for EB free frosting (I think there’s one in Babycakes and I’d have to look around for the one or two others I’ve seen). They rely on coconut oil (or coconut butter? can’t remember), which I think is mostly okay, but I’d still be careful about sourcing it.

I can’t think of other times that EB would specifically be called for, but if I’ve missed something, let me know! There are other vegan spreads, though the only one I can think of is Spectrum’s. I don’t think it is as tasty (based on what I’ve heard others say, I don’t think I’ve ever tried it myself), but should be worth trying if you want to have a vegan buttery spread on hand.