What the hell is that!

19 Jan 18
07:55 hrs

     Good Morning Dear Readers!
     Have you ever come across an item or a substance that you cannot identify? Sure you have.  And then, once you run the item through The Google Machine, you learn that the real name, the more colloquial name for this item, is something so common place you have to wonder why the weird name was used in the first place. Confused yet? I'll give you the scenario.

     The Better Half wanted to bake some Vegan cookies for a friend of hers. They would not be for me as I prefer my proteins to come from animals not plants. She asked be to look up a recipe and lo and behold there was a Chewy Vegan Oatmeal recipe. Sounds good. The ingredients included, among other things,  soy milk - understandable and since it's in the recipe you wouldn't even taste it- and vegan butter.

     "What the hell is vegan butter ?"

     "Google it", she said.

     So while I'm trying to wrap my head around the conundrum of vegan butter, which has now joined the ranks of hamburger steak and military intelligence, I quickly typed vegan butter into the Google Machine. It whirled around and from www.vegan.com came the answer... margarine. 

     "Butter is tbe common ingredient used in cooking and baking. It can also be used as a condiment. While butter is made from cow's milk, vegan butter substitutes are readily available. They are labelled as margarine and are made from vegetable oils. Margarine is cruelty free and is far cheaper than butter."

     So, vegan butter is just margarine. Big deal. But not to the Vegan Acolytes or Veg-olytes or Vegarians. Having everything in their lives animal and cruelty free is important to them and I can appreciate their passion.  If it wasn't for them public awareness would never have been raised on how animals that we consume or utilize are treated. Is it too much to ask that our food doesn't live in its own filth?

     However, because of their passion these Vegarians are just as likely to have the non-animal fabric pulled over their eyes as anyone else. Case in point- vegan butter.  If you just called it margarine it might cost you $5 for a kilo. But call it  something exotic and then sky is the limit. You could double or even triple the price and these First Earthers will be chomping at the bit for it. Wrap it with a little pine scent or flog it in a decorative reusable faux wooden box with First Nations motif and your good for even more money.
PT Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute!" And I think he was right!