After upsetting quite a few people over this last year – http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/money-not-suitable-for-vegans – it looks like the BoE are considering a rethink over using tallow in the forthcoming £20 notes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39441971

One of the options they’re considering is palm oil. So now the Internet is awash with a whole different bunch of yogurt knitters angry about deforestation and posting photos of sad orangutans.

Now, I don’t know what sort of yield you get from a palm tree, but given that you could get the amount of tallow required to produce *all* the fivers in circulation from one cow, I’d hazard that it’s not going to be the natural disaster that people seem to have concluded. They could probably just send a clerk down to Tesco for a couple of bottles.

What do other readers think?

Damn … palm oil … another vast piece of virgin forest will disappear from my hometown … 😡

If I am not mistaken most tallow are from beef or cow … not pig …

I’m going straight to https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions once I’ve thought of a suitable hashtag.

Granted there’s not much in them, but given we have plenty of cows to boil down and make tallow with here, and we have the import however many litres of palm oil from (most likely) Indonesia where it’s produced by slash and burn farming of the rainforest, why bother?

Seems like an ethically dubious waste, just to keep a swivel eyed minority of a minority happy.

Drat, I’ll just have to back to using a swan’s neck then.

Insanity.

Avoid tallow to “keep the vegans happy” but instead use an ingredient that is responsible for wiping out Orangutans. (which I imagine makes many vegans unhappy too).

Palm oil is already in blimmin everything (and very hard to boycott as they are not required to label it as “Palm Oil” in the ingredient lists)

given we have plenty of cows to boil down and make tallow with

vaguely recall someone did the maths, and it was about half a cow to do the entire print run of new fivers.

no idea how many trees will need to be sacrificed.

Vegan … arrghhh … 😡

Palm oil is already in blimmin everything

Can’t they just squeeze it out of something that already got it in, rather than getting some fresh?

It was only half a cow in the entire supply of bank notes anyway, and it could have been one that died of old age. Better to not go to waste and all that.

vaguely recall someone did the maths, and it was about half a cow to do the entire print run of new fivers.

From the original thread,

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/a-very-precise-calculation-of-exactly-how-many-cows-are-being-murdered-for-the-new-fivers

Vegan … arrghhh …

Quiet, adults are talking.

Cougar – Moderator
Quiet, adults are talking.

😆

just to keep a swivel eyed minority of a minority happy.

Aye if you dont embrace murder you are definitely a loon FROWNS

Avoid tallow to “keep the vegans happy”

I suspect it has far more to do with the objections of religious folk than vegans

Seems pretty straight fwd to cut it out so why not just cut it out. not really seeing why meat eaters are suddenly getting all ethical about the lack of meat and come over as all caring all of a sudden

I don’t really want to turn this into a vegan debate but I’m curious:

Presumably tallow is a byproduct of the beef industry. If those cows are to be killed regardless for the pleasure of the carnivores, is it not actually more ethical to make use of those leftover ingredients rather than just throwing it away?

If I am not mistaken most tallow are from beef or cow

Beef or cow? 😉

Damn … palm oil … another vast piece of virgin forest will disappear from my hometown …

Chillax.. we need it for our cash. Our money is more important.

a is for ‘orses, b for mutton.

Tallow has loads of uses: soap, candles, high end shaving soaps, beauty products etc. can’t see it being a major problem.

cloudnine – Member

Damn … palm oil … another vast piece of virgin forest will disappear from my hometown …

Chillax.. we need it for our cash. Our money is more important. [/quote]
😆 That’s the world we live in now whatever will be will be …

is it not actually more ethical to make use of those leftover ingredients rather than just throwing it away?

Yes it is. However, the Vegans in our midst might not be of that mindset.

another vast piece of virgin forest will disappear from my hometown …

Gateshead high street will never be the same again 😆

I thought they were mostly deforested these days anyway?

I don’t really want to turn this into a vegan debate but I’m curious:

Presumably tallow is a byproduct of the beef industry. If those cows are to be killed regardless for the pleasure of the carnivores, is it not actually more ethical to make use of those leftover ingredients rather than just throwing it away?
Oh c’mon Cougar, you should know better than to make sensible observations on subjects like this!
😉

Just in case anyone was wondering, I think you will have to look very, very hard for a vegan that thinks palm oil is an acceptable substitute.

A few of my friends who scoffed at the outrage about tallow are now somewhat irritated by the possible use of palm oil.

you should know better than to make sensible observations

Law of averages, I had to make one sooner or later I suppose.

I think you will have to look very, very hard for a vegan that thinks palm oil is an acceptable substitute

Good news I have found four and I have not even left my house yet 😉

I think you will find it hard to find one who thinks palm oil is not better than tallow though vegans tend to not be fans of palm oil they dont eschew it the way they do parts of a dead animal. I think every vegan will prefer palm oil to dead animal bits.

We know the answer….

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=spDiEh9P6P8[/video]

I think every vegan will prefer palm oil to dead animal bits.

I think you’re prone to rash generalisation. (-:

Palm Oil WTF 😯 😯

As so eone who has seen first hand the ladge swathes of rainforest which have been cut down with the irreplaceable loss of wildlife for Palm Oil plantations this is an appalling development.

It’s not a development, they’re “considering” it.

Wasn’t beef tallow on rifle cartridges the trigger that started the Indian Mutiny?

Wasn’t beef tallow on rifle cartridges the trigger that started the Indian Mutiny?

That was about religious beliefs, not a lifestyle choice.

This seems to be both Captain. From the article:

“Vegans, Hindus and Sikhs have objected to the tallow used in plastic notes.”

I vote we ban beef and palm oil and save the planet in one fell swoop.

Cougar – Moderator
I thought they were mostly deforested these days anyway?

Not all have been deforested as there are still patches left but they are slowly being taken away by massively corrupted politicians to plant more palm oil.

If the animals are going to die I pray they will die quickly without suffering.

In my hometown a lot of wild animals now can be seen entering human habitation searching for food.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for those who cause so much suffering to the animals …

If you soak 3 fivers in palm oil and throw them into your woodburner, the face of George Monbiot appears on your Fitbit.

Makes you think.

smartarse 😉

yes the use of every sure let me down there. if you look hard am sure You will find a weirdo amongst us who disagrees and prefers tallow to palm oil in notes but i think it will be a hard search

is religion not a lifestyle choice…Oh cmon lets combine a religion and vegan thread you know it makes sense 😉

The slaughterhouses are not giving tallow away for free, though, so if you believe (and I’m not suggesting you should) that animals are not commodities, then by advocating the use of any animal product makes the industry you abhor more profitable.

If I know something uses animal products, I avoid it wherever possible (including things like tyres) and will spend my hard-earned (thankfully Euros are still paper) on something else.