The crushed bodies of a Central and South American insect, called the Cochineal, produces a natural red dye.
They are used for textiles, food-coloring, and cosmetics. Next time you see an ingredients list that includes carmine, cochineal extract or natural red 4, it comes from these bugs.
Vegetarians of Lemmy, what’s your thoughts on this? I’ve known about this for a while, but I’m looking for gelatin on that ingredients list, not bugs - I genuinely don’t care, there’s probably trace bugs in there regardless, lol.
I’ve known a couple of vegans that wouldn’t eat it. One was disappointed to learn a drink he liked contained it. But he stopped drinking it.
I can’t be bothered to that degree. I’ll watch for gelatin. And if I knew which thing to look for, I might avoid this as well. But I don’t care enough to go out of my way and learn.
Killing with intent is where I draw the line. Bugs were very important in our journey to understand brains and thus deserve some respect as a cognitive being imo.