Category Archives: Veganism

Vegan milkshakes and more are headed to Buffalo.

Strong Hearts Caf, which introduced Syracuse to the seemingly endless possibilities of plant-based, vegan food when it debuted in 2008, plans to open a location in downtown Buffalo by early summer.

Strong Hearts co-owners Joel Capolongo and Nick Ryan have been considering an out-of-town location since they moved their main Syracuse shop to its current spot at 900 E. Fayette St. down the hill from Syracuse University in 2020. The idea grew after they closed a former satellite location on Marshall Street in 2021.

Once we settled in here (East Fayette Street) we began to look at other cities with the idea of replicating what we do here, Capolongo said today.

The Buffalo location will be in a mixed residential-commercial neighborhood at 295 Niagara St., on the west side of downtown. Its just off the 190 expressway, about four or five blocks from Buffalos City Hall, and not too far from Buffalo State University.

When we closed Strong Hearts on The Hill in 2021, we said we would focus our efforts into growing elsewhere, Strong Heart posted today on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Well, say hello to elsewhere.

While the Buffalo area has a few other vegan-exclusive eateries, Capolongo said the combination of the Strong Hearts menu and the downtown location will set it apart.

We definitely feel there is room for another vegan option in Buffalo, he said.

The Buffalo caf will have a similar look, feel, and functionality to the Syracuse location, according to the Facebook post. But Capolongo said the menu will start off a little pared down at first. Eventually, it may offer some Buffalo exclusive options, he said.

Syracuses East Fayette Street location replaced the original (and smaller) Strong Hearts at 719 E. Genesee St., which opened in 2008. The East Genesee location was Syracuses first restaurant dedicated exclusively to vegan fare, in keeping with Ryan and Capolongos health-conscious philosophy and animal rights activism.

In a January 2022 review of the Syracuse Strong Hearts, syracuse.com restaurant critic Jared Paventi noted that the menu includes references to items like chicken, bacon and milk, although all are actually plant-based alternatives. The cafs offerings can sound a bit like many other fast-casual places in town, with BLTs, chicken wings and milkshakes.

Veganism has transitioned from niche lifestyle to mainstream diet, Paventi wrote. Restaurants like Strong Hearts have normalized what once was relegated to college students and animal rights activists. Rather than allowing itself to be pigeonholed, Strong Hearts expanded and, judging by the diversity of its guests during our visit, it has become just another dining option in Syracuse.

Capolongo said Strong Hearts will see how it goes in Buffalo before venturing into other possible locations. That includes potential moves to other cities or even more locations in Central New York.

We have a strong following in the region, Capolongo said. We think we can build on it.

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Don Cazentre writes forNYup.com,syracuse.comand The Post-Standard. Reach him atdcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on TwitterorFacebook.

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Syracuses best-known vegan cafe to launch its first out-of-town location - syracuse.com

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Back in 2017, a popular food and drink brand caused a stir after penning a gushing Instagram post about dairy.

We are for good quality, proper milkwere talking whole milk. Full fat milk, it wrote. We dont use skimmed milk powder in any of our foods.

The brand went on to describe cows milk as the perfect balance of protein, good fats and natural sugars (lactose), concluding that they live life to the full, with full fat dairy products.

These words didnt come from a dairy milk or cheese company, but a supposedly progressive plant-based milk brand named Rude Health, which had, until then, been hugely popular with vegans.

The post understandably sparked outrage from vegans, most of whom had adopted the lifestyle because of the cruelty in the dairy and other animal industries. The situation was made worse when one of the brands founders called veganism modern madness, and described vegan films like What the Health as propaganda.

It was truly shocking to see a company seemingly actively try to alienate its consumer base, but Rude Health was just one of the first of a number of brands to do so.

Last week, plant-based meat alternative company THIS came under fire after posting an advert that claimed to show a number of vegans eating what they were told were real meat products (they were actually the companys vegan alternatives).

The video diluted and miscommunicated what veganism is, and THIS was heavily criticized in the comments. By showing a group of alleged vegans who are willing to eat meat, it sent a message that veganism is nothing more than a diet that can be dipped in and out of, rather than a movement seeking to end animal exploitation.

Things, again, were made worse after one of their staff members posted a picture of a bacon meal she was eating on her personal profile in response to the criticism the company had received.

She wrote: After 24 hours as a vegan punching bag, I enjoyed every mouthful of these cheesy, creamy, bacon covered pierogi. In its subsequent apology, THIS said that they were genuinely, really sorry for undermining veganism with our silly marketing vid.

THIS has since taken steps to amend and atone for this misfire in marketing, issuing a public apology.

Non-vegan companies have also used similar tactics to promote their plant-based food. When Subway released its Meatless Marinara, a plant-based version of its famous Meatball Marinara, it released an advert showing a group of meat-free members of the public taking part in a taste test.

As a joke, the woman hosting the event then told the group that shed accidentally given them the meat version. After a few moments, during which the people were shown looking understandably appalled, they were told that they were in fact the vegan versions.

These kinds of marketing tactics feed into the narrative that veganism is nothing more than a fad and something to poke fun of, which is a commonly held belief in our society. Adverts like these are likely created because of the prevailing idea that veganism is a trend, something that people are into now but probably wont be soon. There is an assumption that vegans would be able to easily laugh off eating meat, rather than being deeply upset at the thought that their ethics had been compromised.

A decision to prioritise more occasional plant-based eaters over vegans is another reason why brands could be getting their marketing so wrong. There are thought to be around 23 million flexitarians in the UK, as opposed to around 600,000 vegans.

Oatly, an oat milk brand valued at $13 billion last year, recently shied away from the vegan label in a paid-for article in the Guardian. The piece included a quote reading: As more of us move towards a plant-based life, our labels may need to shift to reflect a whole spectrum of new normals. It said that all or nothing labels like vegan can be a disincentive for us to make plant-based choices wed otherwise be open to.

Its true that veganism is all-encompassing, but the articles attempt to present that as a problem undermined the fact that its a movement to end animal cruelty and exploitation, rather than a simple dietary choice.

Oatly also caused controversy after promoting the label part-time vegan on its Instagram. This was criticized by many of its customers on the basis that ethical vegans cannot be part-time, and that being vegan means rejecting animal exploitation in every aspect of your life (where possible). Oatly later apologized, saying it was committed to bringing as many people as possible into the plant-based camp, but acknowledging that the post was a failure.

These marketing misfires expose a deep rooted misunderstanding in our society of the fact that veganism is a philosophy and movement, not a fad or trend. It also seems that some brands are trying to attract the increasing number of flexitarian and plant-based consumers at the expense of the vegan customers who built the foundations for their success.

While its of course great news that more people are making small steps to eat less animal products, that doesnt mean the vegan message should be undermined. Brands should find ways to promote their products without biting some of the hands that feed them.

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Plant-Based Food Has Gone Mainstream But Why Are Brands Still Alienating Vegans? - Plant Based News

Sam Logan has always been a Siesta Key fan favorite, so when his then-girlfriend Juliette Porter brings back vegan treats for him and non-vegan food for herself we finally figured out just how he stays so toned.

He wont be receiving any more vegan goodies, as the couple have split since filming. There are also unconfirmed rumors circulating that Jordana Barnes is Sam Logans new beau, which fans are seriously divided over.

The billionaire is no stranger to getting his muscley bod out, whether hes chilling at the beach or by the pool. And it looks like veganism could be the key to how he maintains his well-trained physique

Sam has always been open about being vegan, but admitted that he does eat fish occasionally. He was even asked whether his dogs also follow a meat-free diet, to which he said they dont.

He revealed: No, they have short digestive tracts (dogs in general) and I eat fish from time to time. So, most of the time Sam is a vegan, but considering he sometimes eats fish, he would technically be called a pescatarian.

During the March 24th episode, Sam is brought home vegan food by then-girlfriend Juliette, who also bought herself non-vegan treats. A Reddit thread has even been started by fans, who are curious to find out about his veganism.

One thread which asks viewers to tell them everything they know about Sam listed being vegan as one of the first ways to describe him. They wrote: Super rich, works out a lot, eats vegan (funny because Juliette loves junk food).

Most reactions to Sams veganism question whether ex-girlfriend Juliette also followed a meat-free lifestyle. The truth is, she regularly eats meat, but fans have described her diet as loving junk food.

Juliette has been seen eating steak on Siesta Key, but has been assumed to eat less meat than she usually would while she was in a relationship with Sam. A fan made the following guess:

Ive wondered this too. Shes eaten meat in the past, but Ill bet Sam gets her into a semi-veg lifestyle. Maybe not full on, but like Meatless Mondays and things like that.

Juliette has posted stories of her cooking with Sam in the past, which are usually vegan-based! Its no secret that she loves a meat burger though, and is so passionate about it that she shared the below photo

Sam doesnt even need to leave his house to work out, because he spent $4 million on a mansion which boasts his own home gym. He also has a lift, ocean view, sauna and covered balcony overlooking the in-ground pool.

So its not like Sam is ever slacking when it comes to exercise on his doorstep (literally), and has even been seen taking a swim more than once on Siesta Key. The billionaire also stays fit by going snowboarding regularly.

He once told a fan who asked how he always works out early that black coffee is his secret. Sam said:

Ive always been a morning person and sleep with a black coffee by my bed, I dont know really. Once you get in the routine you fall asleep really early, just because youre exhausted from the gym and waking up so early.

From field work at Lakewood Ranch, Florida, to regular swims and walks, the MTV star is always exercising. If hes not busy working out, hes usually driving around in luxury cars or filming for the reality show!

WATCH SIESTA KEY ON MTV EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 8/7C

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Celine is a journalist with over five years of experience in the media industry and the chief staff writer on Reality Titbit. After graduating with a degree in Multimedia Journalism she became a radio newsreader and reporter, before moving into her current role as a reality TV writer.

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If eating vegan is the Key to Sam Logans tasty body then count us in - Reality Titbit - Celebrity TV News

The latest in the string of Netflixs true-crime docuseries is the genre at its best: Where some documentaries are full of unnecessary speculation or rehash well-known facts, Bad Vegan digs deep into the nuances of Sarma Melngailiss entanglement with her abusive, scamming husband, and the ripple effect of both of their actions. And perhaps one of the greatest revelations throughout the four-episode limited series is an indictment of how the world treats people who eat a vegan diet.

The docuseries (which I highly recommend) follows Melngailis, a chef who ran Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck, two highly acclaimed vegan and raw food restaurants in New York City. The series features her employees, food critics, and family talking about the restaurants heydayand Melngailis loneliness. She adopted a dog, Leon, as a companion to combat the latter and soon fell in with Anthony Strangis, who went by many names, eventually marrying him and sharing her business.

The docuseries reveals the twists and turns of Melnagailis relationship with Strangis, which led to her sending him more than a million dollars as part of a supernatural test that would eventually lead to her and her dog Leons immortality (it sounds crazy, sure, but the series reveals even more details and intricacies that make you understand how the relationship gets to this point). Because all of Melnagailis money was in her business, her constant lending of funds to her husband eventually affects her employees, who walk out not once, but twice after not being paid.

In the end, the story that is most known from its news coverage in 2016, Melnagailis and Strangis went on the run to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and were eventually caught because of a Dominos pizza orderthe two were arrested for fraud.

Its common (and easy) for people to make vegans the butt of a joke. Theres a perception that they see themselves as better than others, or that theyre crunchy granola hippies who arent to be taken seriously, or that its unfathomable that they would deprive themselves of cheese and ice cream.

Just eat a cheeseburger, already! was a real phrase thrown around by the media when covering Melnagailis case as shown in the doc. While more important details of the case were buried in the stories about Melnagailis and Strangis arrestlike a giant unpaid tab at a Vegas hotelevery publication and social media meme focused on the fact that this raw food restaurateur was caught because of a pizza. Instead of looking into the story any further, the public delighted in the chance to dunk on this woman for getting caught eating a pizza and being a bad vegan, the phrase the Netflix documentary itself cashes in on.

But whats revealed over the course of the series is that Melnagailis herself was a victim of fraud. Trapped in an emotionally abusive relationship, she found herself forced to give up her lifes work to hide away in hotel rooms. Even after, her veganism is seen as her downfall. Of course she would believe in the supernatural story this man was telling her, some interviewees supposed. Vegans are always into that new age stuff.

But ultimately, Melnagailis diet had nothing to do with her demise. Imagine being essentially held hostage by your abusive husband for nearly a year, only to be told to just eat a cheeseburger already.

Being vegan should no longer be a punchline, and veganism shouldnt be framed as a villainous thing. There are good and bad people who eat all kinds of diets. Lets take a lesson from this series and look at everyone simply as a person regardless of what they choose to eatunless its people, but thats a different true crime doc for a different time.

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How Bad Vegan Reminds Us That Not All Vegans Are Bad - The Takeout

Bryant Terry is a busy man.

Admittedly, I am trying to catch 30 minutes with the James Beard Award-winning chef during Black History Month in the US given that his latest book, Black Food, is an anthology celebrating authentic food stories from across the African American diaspora, his schedule is pretty slammed.

When we eventually meet screen-to-screen (him somewhere sunny across the pond; me in dark, storm-ravaged London), he tells me hes only got a half-hour before he has to start preparing for his next event this evening. Mild panic sets in but as soon as he starts speaking, I realise its more than enough time. Hes a natural speaker in fact, its 15 minutes before I get another question in, but Im more than happy to sit and listen, as Im sure his audience tonight will agree. He speaks with the eloquence of someone that is deeply knowledgeable on their subject, the kind of knowledge that can only be passed down from generation to generation.

It is that knowledge that means he is one of the distinguished authors speaking at the inaugural Santa Fe Literary Festival in May, a talk which will no doubt be quick to sell out given Terrys captivating style.

Terrys knowledge starts in Memphis, Tennessee. So much of what I hope to impart through the work I do now I learnt as a child, he tells me. His grandparents have roots in the rural South, where they lived and worked on farms that his family owned. Terry spent much of his childhood, alongside his sister and their cousins, on his paternal grandfathers urban farm. It was one of my favourite places to spend time as a child because it was fascinating to me that he was growing all the food, or most of the food, that we would eat. His grandfather grew everything from dark leafy greens and tubers to grapes, nectarines and other fruits. I wont romanticise it too much because while I did enjoy spending time out there, I didnt enjoy the labour that was often required of us. He put us to work! It wasnt until Terry was older that he started to appreciate and understand the importance of all that manual labour. Although, I would have much rather been listening to music or watching cartoons, he adds.

His maternal grandmother lived in the same neighbourhood, and it was because of her that he fell in love with cooking. She was an amazing cook, he says. I remember the smallest tasks like cleaning greens that she harvested from her kitchen garden, or pouring sugar into the preserves that she made from the surplus fruit. She had a big cupboard with a variety of pickled and fermented vegetables inside, and all types of things that she would can and pickle and preserve so that in the winter we had an abundance of food in the larder.

Most of Terrys back catalogue has revolved around veganism and soul food

(Bryant Terry)

This was 40 or so years ago, yet youd be forgiven for noticing the similarities with what is trending today: home cooks are encouraged to think about the sovereignty of what they eat, if they dont grow it themselves. Restaurants pride themselves on their kitchen gardens and efforts to use up every last bit of an ingredient in new and exciting ways. Then theres Veganuary. The irony, of course, is that people all over the world have been living that way forever. Terry, whose back-catalogue mostly concerns veganism, wants to uplift that. Theres this perception of veganism being a white thing. Many people have historically thought about it as practices of upper-middle-class white people living in suburbia and, more recently, young white hipsters living in gentrified cities. (I sense, at this point, a little twinkle in his eye as he side-eyes me down the camera.) Those things may be true, he continues, but vegetable-centric diets have been a mainstay in a lot of African American communities because eating meat for every meal was cost prohibitive.

Terrys first contact with ideas of plant-based eating was with black separatists in the community in which he grew up. He learnt about Elijah Muhammads two-book collection How to Eat to Live, in which he encouraged black people to reject the standard American diet, and the Ital diet long-held by Rastafarians, which rejects chemically processed foods, industrialised foods and certainly animal products. He cautions people not to get caught up in the idea of vegan purity. When he thinks about his grandparents and their farm, he says it wasnt like it was anything special. They werent talking about eating local, seasonally, sustainably but, in hindsight, we were eating as locally as our backyard. He says he tries to live by the central and west African word sankofa, which means to look back as you move forward.

It was these influences that laid the path to what has become a sensational career in cooking, writing, education and activism, all geared towards creating what Terry describes as a healthy and sustainable food system. That and a song called Beef by seminal hip hop group Boogie Down Productions, which Terry first heard while he was studying for an MA in history at NYU. The song explores factory farming and the negative impact it has on human health, the environment, and, of course, animals. That was the thing that really catalysed my journey as a food activist, muses Terry.

Theres this perception of veganism being a white thing ... That may be true, but vegetable-centric diets have been a mainstay in a lot of African American communities because eating meat for every meal was cost prohibitive

It was enough to make him abandon academia and dive headfirst into food activism. In 2011, he founded b-healthy!, a project that taught children from poor neighbourhoods how to cook in an after-school programme, sending them home with a meal for their families. His first book, Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, followed shortly after, after he met author Anna Lapee, his co-writer. Published in 2006, it received a Nautilus Book Award for Social Change. For the next decade, Terry published three more books, all focused on Afro-vegan cooking, and made appearances across national radio and TV. He wrote recipes, essays and columns for a range of titles, such as Gourmet, Food and Wine, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and Vibe. He penned a series for TheRoot.com on sustainable eating and living. His essay Reclaiming True Grits sparked a heated debate around soul food. He dabbled in consulting, working with Bioneers Conference to raise funds for the Peoples Grocery in West Oakland, as well as other not-for-profits and corporations. From 2008, he was a food and society policy fellow at the WK Kellogg Foundation. In 2015, he gave a TED talk on Stirring up political change from the kitchen, and won a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award for his efforts to raise awareness of food justice issues and empower young people. It all sounds plain sailing, though Im sure that couldnt be further from the truth.

And then, that same year, he was named the inaugural chef-in-residence for the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco. I cant talk about the origins of Black Food without talking about the origins of this position, he says. The first programme he worked on brought together black female scholars, farmers and food justice activists to talk about the often erased history of black women in the shaping of food culture in America. The fact that we had people flying in from the east coast - a six-hour flight for a two-hour programme - showed me that we were onto something, he tells me.

Fast forward to 2020, the US is in the midst of both a pandemic and a racial reckoning after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd by the state. Around the same time, food magazine Bon Appetit was called out for its failure to support its BIPOC employees, not to mention a certain scandal involving a photo of the white editor-in-chief impersonating a Puerto Rican. The idea for the book had been in the back of his mind for some time, but now I felt like this was the moment, he says.

After Americas racial reckoning, Terry knew it was time to put Black Food out there

(Adrian Octavius Walker)

I knew it was time for me to create a book that gave way to people working around these issues through the African diaspora and allow them to tell their most authentic food stories, whether thats through recipes, essays, poetry or visual art. Although its filled with recipes, to describe Black Food as just another cookbook is to do it a disservice. Its a deeply heartfelt tribute to black culinary ingenuity. Its a broad and divergent anthology that captures the voices of the African diaspora through the prism of food. Theres poetry and essays from the likes of Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Zoe Adjonyoh, Leah Penniman and Michael W Twitty. Theres recipes from Yewande Komolafe, BJ Dennis, Suzanne Barr, Pierre Thiam and Jenn Claiborne. Theres artwork from Emory Douglas and Sarina Mantle. Theres even a playlist, curated by Terry. Its not only redefining what black food really means, its redefining what a cookbook could and should be.

Black Food, which went on to become the most critically acclaimed cookbook to be published in North America in 2020, is the flagship publication of 4 Color Books, Terrys imprint with Ten Speed Press. While I knew this book would have a major impact - I knew it would elevate the voices and the work of dozens of people throughout the black diaspora - I wanted to use this as an opportunity to grab some power, he says. Hes using the imprint to create pipelines within food media so that there are more diverse voices in all jobs, not just as authors but as art directors, food photographers, food stylists, prop stylists, and so on. These positions are typically very white. Theres a paucity of BIPOC voices in these fields, he explains. A lot of it has to do with the fact that with these things you largely get into them by mentorship and by shadowing people on set. So I really wanted to use my two decades of connections, my platform and my social capital, to ensure it wasnt just one book, but a continuing effort to ensure that we are hearing from more diverse voices.

Its not only redefining what black food really means, its redefining what a cookbook could and should be

(Handout)

I tell him I think he has a lot to be proud of, but hes the first to admit that he couldnt have done it alone. I just want to say it wasnt just me, he says. Im good at what Im good at. Im a good leader. Im good at assembling a team and Im good at helping move that team towards a goal. But this book is nothing without the many collaborators. Everyone just felt like it was a gift that they wanted to give to the world. Already, the pipelines are working. Its been covered by art and design journalists, and is even up for some art and design awards because of the unique cover design, photography and artwork.

While I am sure Black Food isnt even the peak of what we can expect in the future from Terry, he tells me that he is retiring from writing cookbooks and wants to focus on becoming a good publisher. Being a publisher and editor of this imprint is a new stage for me and Im uncomfortable! Theres a lot for me to learn and I like it. These are the moments where I can grow and become a better person. Dont expect another book for a while, though, and dont expect them to be cookbooks either. The imprint has acquired four titles, with one cookbook and one photography book coming out next year. Terry wants to spend the rest of 2022 working out how we want to show up in the world. In the autumn, they will be collaborating with MoAd on a Black Food summit, bringing together the contributors from the book, as well as others, for a half-IRL, half-virtual event geared towards community building, networking and skill sharing.

After two years of negative energy for everyone, its an exciting time. But what does Terry think the future actually holds? Is a healthy, just and sustainable food system achievable? Its not like its a pie in the sky, he says, adding that there are models out there around the world that are working. The goal for me is seeing more resources shifted into the hands of these communities and having homegrown solutions that empower people, he says. Give them the opportunity for ownership, whether its owning land that they could farm themselves, or co-ops with an ownership structure where theres not just some CEO that makes millions of dollars, but the funds are distributed among the people.

Often entities that are purporting to help can just reproduce harm, albeit unintentionally most of the time. If the government wants to give grants or throw money at people, then thats fine but then get out of the way! he laughs, ushering them away with a flick of the wrist. People know what the problems are. They are aware of the issues and they have brilliant ideas to solve those issues. What they need is the resources and power to do so. And perhaps an inspirational leader? I think I have just the guy.

The inaugural Santa Fe Literary Festival will be taking place between 20-23 May 2022. The four-day event is set to explore issues at a time of extraordinary change in politics, race, immigration, the environment, and more. The Independent, as the events international media partner, will be providing coverage across each day of the festival as well as during the lead up with exclusive interviews with some of the headline authors. For more on the festival visit our Santa Fe Literary Festival section or visit the festivals website here. To find out more about buying tickets click here.

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Bryant Terry: Theres this perception of veganism being a white thing - The Independent

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No product is truly vegan unless certified so. It's true: Although a canvas sneaker may be made from 100 percent cotton atop a rubber outsole, animal byproducts lurk in the bindings, glue and other elements that hold a shoe together. It's why Blundstone, for example, didn't release a vegan boot until 2021.

It has taken us some time. Ill be really honest, Blundstone CEO, Adam Blake told us. Partly why is because of our own principles, and our own considered nature by which we go about developing new products We were not going to come to market at all unless we could stand by that it was 100-percent tested and verified as vegan. That sounds very obvious, but, trust me, thats not the approach all brands take.

Excluding materials like fur, leather and wool is the first step for most brands considering going animal-free and offering a vegan iteration. But ensuring the materials outsourced factories use to assemble the boots or sneakers are aligned is another process entirely. Plus, stricter definitions of veganism exclude products tested on animals, too. For the sake of animals everywhere, vegan shoes are a smart alternative, but if you're simply looking to be more sustainable, former Gear Patrol staffer Tanner Bowden says, you need to be more considerate of which vegan shoes it is you buy.

"If lessening animal cruelty is the primary motivation behind your veganism, these shoes achieve that goal. But if general sustainability is the aim and nearly every vegan shoe comes with a message that it's greener and better for the environment the situation is messier," he writes. "The problem is that faux leather and fur are often made of synthetic, petroleum-based materials like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PU). Essentially, they're plastic. Technically, the cheap plastic-and-foam flip flops that wash up on beaches around the world are 'vegan.' Plus, in pursuing a degree of similarity that'll make people want to wear these shoes, companies often apply harmful chemicals that make them look and bend and wear just like the real deal."

It's best to look for an FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification, or another accreditation by an outside source.

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The Samba is one of Adidas' most popular sneakers. As such, like Reebok did with the Club C, the brand made it vegan to cater to the growing number of individuals shopping this way. The new Samba Vegan uses some recycled materials but mostly synthetics in place of leather.

Classic Lace Up

Thousand Fell turns recycled bottles, natural rubber and food waste into classic, Common Projects-referencing lace up sneakers. The simple design comes in a dozen colors, and each is coated with natural elements like aloe vera or quartz to counteract chafing or rain stains.

Vegan Commando Chelsea Boots

No boots are quite as good for trudging around in the mud as Hunter boots. The rubber and polyester construction can stand up to most anything, and the updated Command0 Chelsea pairs well with a variety of aesthetics.

1992 Apple-Leather Chelsea Boots

Instead of strange synthetics, Viron uses alternative leathers made from foods like apple. The exterior of these chelsea boots is 100 percent apple skin leather, while the sole is 100 percent recycled rubber and the liner is entirely recycled PES bio-based content.

V-10 Vegan Sneakers

Instead of an alternative leather, Veja uses a lookalike: treated cotton-canvas. The material looks and acts a lot like leather, and it's more breathable. Plus, the addition of mesh accents makes this shoe even lighter than most other vegan remakes.

Johnny TrekLite Bloom

Made from polyurethane nubuck and rubber outsoles with a microfleece lining, these boots are a hell of a deal at just under $100. Theyre water-resistant as well, meaning you can take them just about anywhere.

Backzip Boot (# GI - 4501 - 20 - 121)

Ground Cover is an emerging independent fashion label that makes everything from rings and plant-dyed T-shirts to bags and boots. The Backzip Boot is made from cactus leather, which the brand sources from Portugal. Plus, "while the cacti's farming process is carbon negative, we have found non-virgin inputs for both the insole and sole: cork and coffee ground waste," the brand says. They keep their footprint to a minimum.

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These Are the Best Vegan Shoes You Can Buy - Gear Patrol