What's in your duvet? This vegan ain't down with down.
The lovely lady in the store first showed me the down duvets and, to her credit, asked if I had allergies to which I replied ‘… er, no, buuuuut, I am vegan.’
She looked rather taken aback by the mention of veganism and, honestly, I hadn’t really thought about it before as I inherited my last few duvets and this was the first one I’d ever bought. Sleeping under other people’s down duvets never really gave me many qualms, aside from when a feather or two escaped or poked me. The sales clerk’s second option: wool, because they just shave them, right? Ah, well, no, not quite. Wool ain’t vegan folks. Third option, poor lady, was silk. I laughed and then felt bad that I was making this lady’s life so hard – she just wanted to sell me a duvet.
Animal Ethics and Environmental Ethics
can I just hide under the duvet?
Finally, she remembered that they had some manmade duvets and so, after weighing up the animal ethics, environmental ethics, cost (it has to be said, this blogger’s not always flush with cash), and my available time to research said issues before the evening’s need for the duvet I plumped for the synthetic. If anyone would like to share their own vegan duvet dilemmas here then that would be great as one of my worries is that, sometimes, a nonvegan product is actually the lesser of two evils if the alternative causes environmental catastrophe and more animal (and human) suffering.
Duvet days are a must for novelling in November.
Hemp and Cotton Vegan Comforter Alternatives
Now, if I had lots of money to throw around I probably would have bought a nice hemp comforter and feel even snugglier and warm inside than I do in my new synthetic duvet. Alas, they’re a little pricey for me. Rich vegans take note, however, hemp duvets are a great alternative to nonvegan duvets, as are cotton ones for lighter climates.
What does all this have to do with vegan food? Well, it doesn’t, not really. But if I’m going to snuggle in a duvet with tea and vegan cookies then I’d rather not be surrounded by a cloud of animal feathers, fleece or silk. The verdict: my new vegan duvet is super warm and snuggly. I see us having a great many happy duvet days together.
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The hubs and I have been using synthetic duvets for years now and enjoy them. Our last one was literally falling a part at the seams after 6 years of hard use (we don’t use a top sheet, only a duvet cover) and we managed to find an inexpensive and awesome replacement at Costco of all places. It’s an “eco-duvet” made with biodegradable cellulose fiber fill and a cotton cover. We couldn’t afford the hemp or organic cotton ones, but this one was a great deal at $70. Luckily the in-laws have a Costco membership, so it was a cheap endeavour all around.