Not necessarily, palm oil itself can be vegan since it is plant derived, but the practices to extract it most often are not vegan. There are many things that aren’t vegan that many people wouldn’t think of unless they’re really questioning the production of what they consume. Another good example is that a lot of beers are made with animal byproducts as part of the processing such as fining agents. If you just look at the label you wouldn’t know it’s not vegan unless you know to ask the manufacturer about their process. The same would apply to palm oil since some is supposedly sourced ethically and sustainably. Personally i avoid it because i think a lot of places green wash their process and it is easier to just avoid it than to verify if the palm oil was really ethically/sustainably sourced or not.

There’s many more examples of “gotchas” like this that new vegans with good intentions may not know about. It’s a learning curve. When i was early on in my journey there was a lot of things i didn’t really understand but i just do my best and continually learn.

The spirit of veganism is excluding consumption of things that result in animal cruelty, exploitation, or death. There is no requirement to avoid ultra-processed foods

https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism

Two things can make Oreos not vegan:

• some flavors just aren’t (the flavors that are vegan are just accidentally vegan)
• some factories use bone-char sugar.

I don’t buy used non-vegan clothes or items but if i already owned them then i will continue to use them. They will naturally get phased out over time

It wouldn’t be a hard requirement for me for dating, but they’d need to have empathy and willingness to discuss veganism. Long term id expect them to become vegan, not because of me but because they came to know and believe in the vegan philosophy. I just don’t think i could be with someone long term who doesn’t value all life the same way as me.

Neat. It’ll be interesting to see the data they publish in 6 months and how much better the efficiency can be with two functional sails.