Not quite as bad as “Flat Earth” but still very illogical, is the belief in “Diatomaceous Earth Theory”. Essentially, there are some uninformed vegans and non-vegans running around claiming that diatomite aka diatomaceous earth is non-vegan, because it is “made from” biological organisms. Diatomaceous earth is an extremely common substance within food production, cosmetics manufacturing, agriculture, water filtration, pharmacology, and food processing. It’s used as a dessicating agent, an abrasive agent, a mechanical pesticide, a base for explosives (in fact, this is where “dynamite” gets its name from), and a fining agent, although it has many other uses too. It is comprised of sedimentary rock that formed between 10 and 50 million years ago (depending on the deposit and stratum that the rock was sourced from) by the fossilization of vast numbers of microscopic, unicellular protists, specifically microphytes, called diatoms, which are neither animals nor plants. They are not sentient. Nor are they capable of suffering. Therefore, there is no reason for vegans or vegetarians to be especially concerned about consuming such products from an ethical perspective. Ethically speaking, consuming products made with diatomite is similar to consuming other products of fossilization.