So how far does this go?  I suppose it depends on who you talk to.  Therefore, I put the question out to the internet.  Am I a vegan if I wear leather shoes?

I have tried vegan shoes.  In fact, I went quite a few years without buying anything like leather.  But I am starting to feel that there is a serious environmental impact to creating these faux leather wonders as well.  First off I guess I should explain that it is easy to find nice vegan shoes in certain categories.  I love my Chuck Taylor’s and you would be hard pressed to find a pair of leather running shoes (and by that I mean “running” shoes, not sneakers.)  But try to find a nice pair of vegan business shoes.  Unless you are fortunate enough to live in a place that has one of the few vegan footwear shops on the planet, you will end up ordering on-line.  The shoes that you guess you will like from the tiny picture and that you hope will fit your unique feet will be shipped to you from a far off place and land at your doorstop, spewing out quite a bit of carbon on the way.  And what if they don’t fit?  More carbon spewing and more waiting and more hoping that the next pair will be better.

Then there is the issue of durability.  Our skin, our leather, is meant to last us a lifetime.  It is no mistake that our forefathers chose the skin of cows to wrap their delicate feet.  It lasts.  My vegan shoes last me a year or two tops.  Then its back on-line to order more.  A good pair of leather shoes lasts years.
And for those reasons, I am sad to say, I gave up on the dream of not imposing suffering on others in order to have a decent pair of shoes on my feet.

Am I just rationalizing my desire to have a good looking, long lasting pair of shoes, or am I justified in my actions?  Has someone done a serious quantitative measure of the environmental impact of a pair of vegan shoes purchased on-line versus a pair of good leather shoes?

Someone once thought they could drive me into a philosophical corner by looking at my leather boots and pointing out the obvious conflict with my choice not to eat animals.  My reply was simple.  Life is about choices and the impact of those choices on yourself and others.  I make my choices the best I can in the effort to be compassionate, however, in the example of the boots, I could not find a non-leather pair.  Did you give the same consideration in your choice to have a hamburger for lunch?

Next time maybe I’ll tackle my wool sweater.