Hi /c/vegan,
I just picked up tacos from some cheap Mexican place. They don’t really do anything to cater to vegans but in the past, they basically just gave me extra rice and beans and removed any cheese, cream, or meat.
Today I ordered and they put sour cream on it. I know that this place doesn’t have a vegan sour cream, so it was a mistake.
For a second I thought I wouldn’t eat it, but I got in a moral debate in my head and decided that at this point, the damage is already done, and I tried my best to scrape off all the sour cream and ate the tacos.
Obviously I still consumed a decent bit of sour cream which makes me sad, but I don’t know, I couldn’t see it being more moral to not eat it. And I don’t want to call them back and harass some minimum wage workers about it either, since they’ve gotten it correct in the past.
TL;DR: Cheap takeout had sour cream in it, would you scrape it off and still eat it? Throw it away? Demand a refund?
My personal view is that one shouldn’t eat it.
Part of the rationale for going vegan is to impose economic outcomes on businesses as a result of your demand or lack thereof. Another part is to challenge the status quo and normalise a more ethical alternative.
My view in this situation is that the ethical thing to do if you asked for a vegan item and they didn’t do that is to go back to this place and request that they make you a new item. This imposes a cost on the business, that hopefully means they will be more careful in the future. It also prevents your small portion of profit from fueling demand for animal products by removing or cancelling out that sale from their calculations.
The other portion, is that politely informing the shop about it, educates them on what vegans require, and also normalises veganism and challenges the carnist status quo, both to the business and others around you.