This month I blogged about:

2 animal testing issues:
House Paint is Evil
World Week for Animals in Labs

1 popular culture animal testing issue:
Torchwood Portrays Animal Testing Badly

2 humane farming issues:
Another No-Kill Farm! (Happytown Dairy in Lawrence, Kansas)
Chipotle — Humane Fast Food

1 biochemistry of food video:
Milk: It’s Like Heroin

1 cruelty-free product update:
Good News: Burt’s Bees Has Gone Cruelty-Free!

and 3 cruelty-free product reviews:
Earth Friendly Products Auto Rinse Aid (5/5 stars)
How To Shop for Cruelty-Free Products
L’Occitane Shea Butter Lip Balm Stick (4/5 stars)

L’Occitane Shea Butter Lip Balm Stick is yet another lovely L’Occitane product. For those of you who are new to this site, L’Occitane is an upscale Provencal brand that describes itself as “a unique brand focusing on the well-being of women and men alike. It seeks to create harmony which links the pleasure of the senses with inner balance. The products range from personal care lines to home fragrances. All are manufactured in the time-honored traditional way using fine natural ingredients, primarily from Provence.”

I especially like L’Occitane products because they are usually very high quality, they tend to have fresh uncomplicated nature-inspired fragrances, and their packaging is elegant and understated. (In fact, the only things I don’t like about L’Occitane products is they tend to be very expensive what with the dollar being as weak as it is, and they are not organic, and not vegan. Though I think L’Occitane is moving towards organic products — a lot of their products list a few organic ingredients. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time . . . )

The L’Occitane website states that the Shea Butter Lip Balm Stick will repair and nourish dry lips. I would definitely agree with this — the lip balm is very moisturizing. It feels very luxurious as well — I can definitely tell there’s shea butter in it (10% shea butter according to the writing on the tube). It’s an excellent lip balm for winter months. It also doesn’t have any added fragrance, which I like — it has a faint, sweet fragrance. It also goes on pretty smoothly, which is especially nice if your lips are chapped. I also really like the tube — it’s built like a lipstick tube with an outer compartment, which is VERY nice because it keeps the lip balm from overheating. Lately I’ve been keeping lip balm in my pocket and a lot of those natural-non-petroleum-based lipbalms that are oil-based become extremely runny when they warm up. But not this L’Occitane lip balm — it’s always usable. You can trust L’Occitane to have excellent packaging!

However, this lip balm does have a few drawbacks — it didn’t last very long, and for $10 I would have expected it to last a little longer. (Or to be priced a little lower — but L’Occitane products are always a bit on the expensive side.) Also it doesn’t have any UVA protection, so it won’t protect you from skin cancer. So I took a star off for that.

Overall though, it’s an excellent lip balm.

(L’Occitane products are not vegan and not organic.)

L’Occitane Shea Butter Lip Balm Stick (.17 oz) is available for $10 from the L’Occitane Online Store.

Ingredients: HELIANTHUS ANNUUS (SUNFLOWER) SEED OIL, NEOPENTYL GLYCOL DIHEPTANOATE, MACADAMIA TERNIFOLIA SEED OIL, BUTYROSPERMUM PARKII (SHEA BUTTER), EUPHORBIA CERIFERA (CANDELILLA) WAX, HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL, OLEIC/LINOLEIC/LINOLENIC POLYGLYCERIDES, COPERNICA CERIFERA (CARNAUBA) WAX, TOCOPHEROL, FRAGRANCE, BENZYL BENZOATE, BENZYL ALCOHOL, ALPHA-ISOMETHYL IONONE, LINALOOL, CITRONELLOL, HEXYL CINNAMAL, LIMONENE, GERANIOL.

L’Occitane Philosophy

“The sun smiles on Provence. Its warmth makes the soil generous and the people open-hearted. Its bright rays are reflected in the crafts, customs and traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation. The sun, the products of the soil and a love of nature are the essence of my Provence. It is this essence I want to share with the world. It is what inspired me to create L’OCCITANE.”
- Olivier Baussan - Founder of L’OCCITANE

With its roots in Provence, L’OCCITANE shares the colors, scents and traditions of the south of France with the world. As the company continues to grow, L’OCCITANE remains committed to its core values of Sensorality, Authenticity and Respect.

Sensoriality

Stroll through Provence and you are struck by the rich colors, scents and beauty of this abundant land. Every day the people of Provence celebrate their pleasant lifestyle and abundant soil. When Olivier Baussan created L’OCCITANE, he set out to capture this bounty in all-natural products. Today, more than thirty years later, the fertile south of France remains the inspiration for all L’OCCITANE fragrances, bath, body and skincare products for women and men, and fragrant products for the home.
Read L’OCCITANE in Brief

Authenticity

The generous Provencal climate and soil yield an exceptional variety of fragrant plants with unique properties. Olivier’s objective was to revive their use, preserve local customs and update traditional products. Stimulated by local folklore and history, Olivier developed products that represent the Provencal land and people. Behind each of L’OCCITANE’s inspirations is “A True Story.”
Discover all our True Stories

Respect

Reviving traditions is only part of the L’OCCITANE philosophy. Respect for the environment, consumers, suppliers and employees is ingrained in every aspect of the company. This respect has led to L’OCCITANE’s partnership with local producers all over the Mediterranean Region - these farmers families and cooperatives harvest precious ingredients, such as lavender, honey, neroli flowers and organic verbena.
More about Our Commitment
Braille Labelling
Read the Shea Butter True Story

This week is World Week for Animals in Labs. Unfortunately it’s the last day of it — I’m sorry to blog about it as it’s almost over, but I JUST learned about it (from the lovely Intoxicated Zodiac — thank you so much Gwen!). So I urge all of you who are interested in protesting laboratory animal abuse (that could be obviated if more resources were directed to animal-less alternative methods) to celebrate World Week for Animals in Labs and:

• Take part in In Defense of Animals’ Call-In Days to National Institutes of Health (NIH) during WWAIL to ask them to put an end to the use of animals in nicotine experiments. Sign up here to participate.
• Organize an event in your area such as a demonstration or educational table. Check our Take Action page for ideas on planning and coordinating an event.
• Register your event on our events page
• Check the Events page to learn what’s happening in your area
• Volunteer to set up a “Memorial Field” display for WWAIL that will solemnly commemorate the millions of animals who die in the name of science. It’s simple, yet powerful, and IDA can help you with setting up this poignant display. Click here if you would like to take part in this event.
• Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Click here for sample letters.

Unfortunately I missed the San Francisco event to celebrate World Week for Animals in Labs, which is too bad because I would have liked to have gone. Who knew UCSF was so evil?

This is an explanation (among other things) of how there is a morphine-like substance in dairy products. Apparently if you take a bunch of people on an average American diet and force them to become vegan for a few weeks, what they really miss is cheese. Not steak, not bacon, not chocolate — cheese. Really.

The best part about this video is that the guy who gives the talk, Dr. Neal Barnard, is hilarious. I wish all scientists with powerpoints were one-sixteenth as funny.

And now I COMPLETELY understand why I’ve been having so much trouble giving up cheese!

ETA: Apparently this video is not working tremendously well — if it is not working on your computer, click here to go to its google video page.

This is a follow up to a post I wrote a few months ago about Burt’s Bees. I have received an email from Burt’s Bees confirming that it has joined the CCIC’s list of cruelty-free companies as of April 15! Isn’t that wonderful? So you can now buy Burt’s Bees products with a clear conscience. (Burt’s Bees is even going to license the leaping bunny logo — isn’t that wonderful?)

Just to be clear about this, Burt’s Bees is owned by Clorox, which performs horrific tests on animals. However, if you buy Burt’s Bees products now, you are giving money to Clorox to NOT test on animals. Which I think is a good thing — it encourages companies to go cruelty-free in a way all the protests in the world do not. (There are several other companies that are cruelty-free but are owned by companies that do test on animals — I’ve starred them in my list of cruelty-free products — they are Tom’s of Maine, the Body Shop, and Pureology.)

I thought I’d write up exactly how I shop for cruelty-free products. When I first started buying cruelty-free products I found it a little daunting, so I think this might be useful to those of you who are considering adding more cruelty-free products to your medicine cabinet.

First, I shop at health food stores.

As you may have guessed, it’s difficult to buy many CCIC-approved products at Longs, Walgreens, Safeway, Albertson’s, etc. (Though that is changing! Longs now sells a bunch of cruelty-free products — Alba Botanica, Kiss My Face, and Jason.) So out of necessity, I buy most of my household/cosmetic products from health-food stores. A lot of CCIC-approved companies have to market their products in health food stores: the companies are either too small to purchase distribution deals on national grocery store shelves, or they feel their products probably don’t appeal to the mass market. Also I’d say 50% of the CCIC-approved companies seem to have an eco-friendly/organic attitude as well, so health food stores are the logical place for them to be.

Now, a lot of you may have no problem with shopping in health food stores — you’ve probably been shopping at health food stores since you were kids. However, I was raised in a strictly Safeway/Lucky/Albertsons/Ralphs household, so that was a bit of a problem for me. It really embarrassed me to go to a health food store for the first time to buy some Aubrey Organics shampoo (of course they don’t sell that at Longs), and I had to navigate my way through all the intimidating hippified and/or highly-pierced people who shopped there (I’m kind of preppy). But now I’ve grown used to it and enjoy my trips to health food stores and the people I meet there. (Not that every brand sold at health food stores is CCIC-approved. I’d say only about 25% are — it’s always good to take the CCIC list along with you.)

A benefit of shopping at health food stores for me has been that I’ve found a lot of really interesting stuff there. You don’t realize it when you shop at Safeway, but Procter & Gamble owns almost everything sold on the shelves at national grocery chains. Those numerous brands of cleaning products, canned food, jarred food, bagged food, etc — those are all made by one company that just pretends to be many different ones. Procter & Gamble is lying to you! All those products are really all the same thing with a slightly different label. If you shop at health food stores you will find that health food stores tend to not buy anything made by Procter & Gamble on principle, and you become exposed to numerous diverse small-time brands of cleaning products, canned food, jarred food, bagged food, etc. I’ve found it to be far, far more interesting — even if you’re like me and have a strong belief in science and not much of a belief in herbal remedies, you can still enjoy buying independently-branded products at the health food store. They’re more interesting, unusual, and exciting. Not to mention usually more ethical, organic, and vegan.

I also shop at what I call “upscale eco-friendly drugstores.” These are a new development that is sweeping the San Francisco bay area, and I hope will soon be sweeping the nation. They are basically chains of drugstores that sell a lot of eco-friendly products in an upscale way — the ones I’ve seen are called Pharmaca and Elephant Pharmacy. They’re not quite as funky and interesting as most health food stores, but they’re a little more nonhippy/nonbepierced-person-friendly, and they’re more aimed at the person who is interested in being eco-friendly and doing yoga, but is also kind of interested in upscale cosmetics. They tend to carry about 25% CCIC-approved-animal-testing-free products, and they’re a little easier to go to if you find the health food store thing too intimidating, or you want to find a store that will combine your interests in yoga, fair trade handbags, cruelty-free/organic makeup, eco-friendly cleaning products, and wine and cheese picnics. They’re also kind of fun.

Second, I also shop at the few local stores near me that sell CCIC-approved products.

Whole Foods sells a lot of CCIC-approved products. I shop there occasionally, and I would LOVE to shop there more often, but the closest Whole Foods to me is extremely popular, and I hate crowds, so I don’t go there frequently. However, if I go to the suburbs and see a Whole Foods I tend to drop in — the lines are SO MUCH shorter there, and Whole Foods always has a great selection of CCIC-approved products as well as incredible produce and a huge baked goods section (made with cage-free-only eggs!).

I also buy all my Method products at Target, a few upscale cosmetics from Sephora (Hard Candy, Urban Decay, L’Occitane), and I sometimes go to PureBeauty, which carries a lot of Dermalogica and Paul Mitchell stuff. (I’ve never used it, but Sephora’s return policy is supposed to be very good, which makes me feel much more relaxed about shopping there.)

Third, I buy a lot of stuff online.

The internet shopping experience is a little less immediate than buying things at health food stores, but it’s nicer in a way because it allows me to really shop around for the best deals, and it’s a little more relaxing to look up whether a product is on the CCIC’s list or not in the privacy of my own home instead of feeling like a dork while I consult a list I brought with me to the store. I buy most of my Dermalogica products from Whatgreatskin.com because the prices are good, Juice Organics products directly from juiceorganics.com, and probably a few other things directly from other online sources as well that I can’t remember at this time. I occasionally buy stuff from Amazon or Drugstore.com as well — Paul Mitchell products mostly.

When shopping online, I’ve found google’s shopping search feature and yahoo’s shopping search feature very useful. (Though for the more obscure CCIC-approved companies, just going to www.google.com is by far the best option — small companies’ stuff won’t show up on any fancy product search function.)

I’ve also found it very useful to try to get myself above the free shipping minimum — a lot of places have deals where if you buy $75 your shipping charges are waived. I think drugstore.com’s shipping-waiving hurdle is $50. (I actually think it’s really shortsighted of retailers to charge shipping charges at all — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve decided to not buy anything because I just wanted to buy a few $5 products and I couldn’t bring myself to pay the $15 shipping fee and didn’t really feel like hunting around the website to find $50 worth of toiletries. I tend to spend a lot more at sites with free shipping. (Amazon!))

The only real problem I’ve ever had with internet shopping is that I have to be careful to make sure the internet site I’m trying to buy from is a real website and not a scam. So, if I find a product I’d really like to buy on a website, I make sure the website looks like a legitimate business. I do this in a number of ways — I see if it has a yahoo business rating or a better business bureau certification, and I google the name of the website to see if anyone has posted a review of it on an online forum or in a blog saying whether it’s a legitimate business or not. If I’m very lucky, I’ll find a company that also markets its stuff through Amazon Marketplace, which is REALLY nice — I know that if they do not send me my stuff Amazon will retaliate against them. If I can’t find a certification or a recommendation, or the company is not listed on Amazon Marketplace, I won’t buy from that website, no matter how good the deal is. I just assume it’s some kind of scam.

Fourth, wherever I’m buying from, I usually try to buy a bunch of stuff in travel size or small size containers.

That is because I really hate being stuck with a 16oz bottle of some product that doesn’t work for me. One of the reasons I don’t use Drugstore.com very much is it seems to sell only a few travel sized containers of Paul Mitchell products.

Fifth, I wait until all my cruel products run out before replacing them with cruelty-free products.

(Though sometimes it’s good to buy travel sizes before I completely run out of some products — what if the sample product doesn’t work very well? I want to be prepared).

Sixth, if I find I’m really missing a cruel product, I allow myself to keep buying that cruel product while hunting for a good replacement.

When I was starting out buying cruelty-free products I used to wait until I ran out of a cruel product, buy a cruelty-free product to replace it, and sometimes that cruelty-free product just wouldn’t work for me, and I would become frustrated, and go back to my cruel product. And I would beat myself up about it and feel terrible for the poor rats and rabbits that were being sacrificed for my toiletries. But then I hit upon a solution: I kept buying the cruel product, but experimenting with (travel size) cruelty-free products until I found ones that would be as good as the cruel product. Case in point: I used Bumble & Bumble shampoo and conditioner for at least a year before finding Paul Mitchell shampoo and Dermalogica conditioner that would work as well for my hair. I bought travel sizes of NUMEROUS shampoos and conditioners and used them intermittently with Bumble & Bumble until I found some that worked. The occasional bad hair day due to shampoo that makes my hair limp, greasy, and frizzy (how? all at once? I’ll never figure it out) is something I can stand — a whole month of bad hair is really not something I can live with. Once I found the Paul Mitchell and Dermalogica products, I stopped using Bumble & Bumble. But I could never have made the switch away from Bumble & Bumble if I’d quit cold turkey.

Seventh, and most importantly, I try to have fun buying cruelty-free products.

While I’ve made a serious commitment to only buying cruelty-free products, I don’t dwell on all the products I’m giving up. Instead, I enjoy finding new companies with products to try, going to health food stores and browsing the new products, and keeping up with new products that CCIC-approved companies come out with. I read reviews of products on Makeupalley and SustainLane and think about what I’d like to buy in the future. I focus on how peaceful I feel to be buying products that do not contribute in any way to animal abuse. And I reason that any company that cares enough about animal testing has got to be producing a better product than any company that doesn’t.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to shop and where to shop for cruelty-free products!

Suppose you’re a moral person who doesn’t like torturing animals but is not averse to killing them for food purposes, yet you want to buy fast food. (Quick disclaimer: I am not an omnivore, but I LIKE omnivorous people who want to switch to not eating factory farmed food. If you’re a humane omnivore, I think you’re a lovely, caring person who is taking a stand against the animal abuse that goes on at battery farms. Though I do think veganism+100%-animal-testing-freeism is the absolute least cruel way to live.)

So anyway, if you’re a humane omnivore, should you go to Jack in the Box, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc? Absolutely not. Especially not Kentucky Fried Chicken (warning: highly disturbing website. Do NOT click there if you don’t like seeing those horrific videos).

So, where can you buy fast food? McDonalds is sort of a good choice because it limits its cage-bound egg-laying chickens to cages that must be at least the size of a laptop. Maybe a “good” choice is not the word I should be using. Not the most evil choice you could make? Anyway, I don’t buy anything egg or meat based from McDonalds because I don’t support animal abuse. Burger King or Carl’s Jr are better choices because they also have cage-free eggs. Not that any of the meats they sell are humanely-raised. Appallingly, abusively raised, more likely.

However — your best option by far is Chipotle. They have GREAT vegan options — you can customize any burrito, taco, or salad to be completely vegan — just get the (vegan) black beans instead of the (made with lard/bacon) pinto beans, peppers instead of meat, guacamole and lettuce instead of sour cream and cheese, and you still have a choice of three different kinds of salsa (the spicy one is really, really good. I am completely addicted to it). (I found this great blog that confirms that these Chipotle items are really vegan, — please click here.)

If you’re a vegetarian, while the cheese and sour cream do not come from certified nonfactory farms (Hello Chipotle? Why EVER not?), the cheese is 100% vegetarian — no newborn calves stomachs were chopped up to provide rennet to start this cheese, and the sour cream is from cows not treated with synthetic rGBH hormones. If you’re an ethical omnivore, the pork served at Chipotle is 100% humanely-raised, the chicken is 60%-humanely-raised, and the beef is 40% humanely raised. (I’m not really sure why the chicken and beef aren’t 100%-humanely raised. Hello, Chipotle? Please change this. Along with switching to buying only certified humane sour cream and cheese. Because right now I’m desperately trying to only eat vegan burritos — rice, black beans, peppers, corn, some of all three different salsas (yes!  you can get all three — just ask for them), guacamole and lettuce — and I really, really miss eating sour cream and cheese on those. But I am not going to until those are less inhumanely obtained.)

Chipotle Information on their humane farming practices:

Most pigs do not spend their lives on open pastures, but live in Concentrated Animal Feed Operations, or CAFOs. The conditions in a CAFO are bad, even horrendous. In many ways, they look more like factories than farms. Pigs are crowded so closely with other pigs that they must be given antibiotics from a young age to avoid the spread of infection. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, American pork producers use 10 million pounds of antibiotics per year to keep their confinement raised pigs from getting sick. That’s more than an estimated three times the amount used to treat all human illnesses.
Pigs raised in these “factory farm” conditions, about 95 percent of all of the pigs raised in this country, often don’t even have room to turn around in their crates, let alone experience the outdoors. It’s stressful and inhumane for them, and it’s surely not healthy for us either.
We think there’s a better way to do things.
It’s called old-fashioned animal husbandry, which means farmers rely on care, not chemicals, to tend their animals and their land. Pigs raised in this way are not given antibiotics, and their feed does not contain animal by-products. They are free to roam the pasture, to root in deeply bedded barns, and to socialize with other pigs.
We believe pigs that are cared for in this way enjoy happier, healthier lives and produce the best pork we’ve ever tasted. We call pork produced according to these standards naturally raised, and sourcing it for our restaurants is part of a larger mission we’ve dubbed Food With Integrity, an ongoing quest to source the highest quality food from farmers who care deeply about the welfare of their animals, their land, and their communities.
Since 2001, all of the pork served in our restaurants has been from pigs raised in this humane, ecologically sustainable way. In addition to all of our pork, nearly 60 percent of our chicken and more than 40 percent of our beef is naturally raised. And we’ll continue until all of our meats in all of our restaurants meet this standard.
Once again, naturally raised pork at Chipotle means:
· No antibiotics, ever.
· Letting pigs exhibit their natural behaviors in open pasture or
deeply-bedded pens.
· Vegetarian feed with no animal by-products.

Here are some of our suppliers for naturally raised pork: duBreton (certified raised humane and handled), Niman Ranch (animal welfare approved), Ozark Mountain, and Pioneer Pork (supposedly free farmed certified, though not listed on the American Humane website — I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming the American Humane association takes a while to update their website). (I’m also giving Ozark Mountain the benefit of the doubt — I didn’t find anything about Ozark Mountain on any humane farming labels — I assume (hope!) the Chipotle people went out and made sure Ozard Mountain does not do any factory farming.)

So I’ve been reading up on paint that’s been tested on animals (thanks to Michael for bringing this to my attention!). Apparently, a lot of house paints have been tested on animals. I had absolutely no idea. For example, here’s the safety data for Behr white paint #1050 — it lists all the animal tests that were done on this paint alone. They are REALLY appalling.

Unfortunately, the Coalition for Consumer Information in Cosmetics, my usual go-to source for 100%-animal-testing-free cosmetics/household products, does not certify paint products. It just certifies cosmetics/household products. So, this makes finding 100%-animal-testing-free paints a little tricky. Basically it means that there are no paint companies that make their suppliers pledge to give them animal-testing-free ingredients. Even if I find a paint company that swears it never commissions tests on animals, this doesn’t mean its products are 100%-animal-testing-free. It means the finished products have not been tested on animals, but the initial ingredients that went into those paints may well have been sourced from companies that do test on animals. So this makes those paints about . . . 50%-animal-testing-free by my reckoning. But I’ll just have to live with that. 50%-animal-testing-free is a heck of a lot better than Behr-100%-cruelly-tested-on-animals paint.

So, here are the bunch of brands of paints that are 50%-animal-testing-free!:

Devine Color Paint (USA) (vegan)
Anna Sova paints (USA) (not vegan)
Ecos paints (UK) (vegan)
Ecopaints (mostly vegan paints) (UK)
Earthborn paints (mostly vegan paints) (UK)
BioPaints — some vegan paints, some not (NZ)
Amma Earth Paints (Australia)
AFM Safecoat (USA)

(If you know of any other paint companies that don’t test on animals, please drop me a line and I’ll add them to this list. If you’ve tried any of these paints, could you please write a fully detailed review of that paint in a comment to this post? You know — how was dealing with the company, was the color selection good, did the paints appear to be high-quality, what did the paints look, smell, and feel like, were they overly expensive or a good value, did they last a long time or peel off the walls immediately, and, out of a possible five stars, how many stars would you give them? That sort of thing. I don’t intend to paint anything for at least another five years (or ever again, if I can help it), so I’m not going to write a product review of any of these in the near future, so I’d appreciate any information on these paints!)

I’ve been using Earth Friendly Products Auto Dishwasher Wave Jet Rinse Aid for the past two month or so — since my last bottle of cruel rinse aid ran out — and I’ve been very happy with it. I originally went to the health food store hoping against hope that I’d find a cruelty-free rinse aid and not have to order one on line since I’d just run out and was desperate, and was pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of rinse aid with the leaping bunny logo right on the shelf (!). (It just goes to show you how useful the CCIC leaping bunny logo is — seriously, if you’re a consumer, just go to the store and look at the backs of bottles. If you’re a producer, consider licensing the logo).

My experiences with Earth Friendly Products Wave Jet Rinse Aid have been good so far, other than, as you can see if you squint at the picture in this post, the words “rinse aid” aren’t actually on the product, which I find really annoying. I am confused as to why this is the case — I mean, are the words “rinse aid” copyrighted by some other company? Luckily you’ll find it in the dishwasher section, and is in a bottle about the right size and shape for a rinse aid bottle, and if you read the fine print on the bottle it says something about how it makes dishes sparkle, so it’s pretty clear it’s a rinse aid in all but name. But still.

The good news is that, in practice, Earth Friendly Products rinse aid does just as good a job as the neon-blue colored chemical-filled rinse aid all of us have used — though I have to say the fact that it’s clear-colored and not violently blue makes me feel better about putting it on things I eat off of. Maybe I’m turning into an environmentalist I live in an area with very hard water, so rinse aid is a necessity. No rinse aid = yucky dishes.

If you’re interested in what the company that makes this rinse aid is like, it turns out that Earth Friendly Products seems like a very nice company — it is very “green” — it is even green star certified. It has also won numerous other awards — a PETA proggy award, an American Culinary Institute gold performance award, and a Natural Home Magazine award. The Earth Friendly Products website states that the goal of the company is to create formulas with replenishable ingredients, without petrochemicals, nonionic ingredients, or unsustainable ingredients. Earth Friendly Products even has a manifesto about that you can read. So while this is a great product for those of us who want to be cruelty-free, it’s also a great product for people who want to be vegan, and eco-friendly.

Earth Friendly Products Auto Dishwasher Wave Jet Rinse Aid (8oz) is available for $4.99 from the Earth Friendly Products online store, or your local health food store.

(Earth Friendly Products are not organic, but they do appear to be “earth friendly,” contain no petrochemicals, and are vegan — or at least this bottle of rinse aid says it contains no animal ingredients on the back.)

Ingredients: Water, natural earth salts, coconut oil derived surfactants (does not contain SLS).

This is yet another blog post in which I combine two of my favorite things — television watching and opposition to animal testing.

Are any of you Torchwood fans? It’s a spinoff of Dr. Who, and I’ve started watching the first season.  According to Wikipedia, Torchwood is “a British science fiction drama television programme, created by Russell T Davies and stars John Barrowman and Eve Myles. It deals with the machinations and activities of the Cardiff branch of the fictional Torchwood Institute, who deal mainly with incidents involving extraterrestrials.”

Unfortunately, one of the episodes I’ve watched involves the Torchwood characters injecting a rat with an alien virus, seeing the rat explode, and concluding that the alien virus was lethal.

Firstly, this bothered me because I was not expecting to watch a rat be killed. I have a policy of not watching videos of animals dying (which is why I never watch Old Yeller or show those horrifying animal testing pictures or videos in this blog, despite the fact I think they’re fairly informative), and I feel like they should put warning labels on dvds — “don’t watch this if you don’t want to see violence against animals.” I mean, if I’d just known they were going to blow up a rat in that one episode, I could have just not watched that one episode. Sheesh.

Though I suppose I’m the only person on this planet who finds violence to animals disturbing, so that’s why they don’t put animal-violence ratings on movies, so I’m not going to hold it against them.

But secondly, and I was very annoyed by this, is that this is another popular culture reference that doesn’t mention the advances in alternatives to animal testing. Really, the Johns Hopkins people should get out there and advertise that there are alternatives.

And thirdly, I also think the Torchwood characters should have mentioned that the rat’s death was useful to them to discover that the virus was lethal, that they are sorry they had to kill the rat to find out, but it has helped them in their scientific investigation, and that if they could have used in vitro technology which has caused a huge reduction in the number of live animals used in animal testing in the past twenty years, they would have. Ahem.

As it is, they’re just perpetuating the myth that the only way to scientifically test anything is to harm a rat, and that human beings shouldn’t care about the pain and suffering rats endure in laboratories.