The US is strange then. This side of the pond, the UK is not considered a leading light in vegan progress. Lots of other countries have more vegans. I’ve lived in more rural areas in the UK (e.g. Wales) and although it was harder, it was still possible.

It isn’t one or the other, it’s both: soya oil and meal (what’s left after pressing the oil out) are so-called “co-products” - you get about 20% oil, and 80% meal. The meal goes almost exclusively into animal feed, the oil then goes into various other products, including animal feed and food industry, where it is used in mostly non-vegan products (because vegan products only constitute a small proportion of industrially produced food products).

Your 80% figure pressed for oil includes soya meal used for animal feed.

90%+ of soya grown is used for animal feed. Funny how those of us that eat a lot of tofu manage to find it cheap very easily, and I’m still finding new types of Tofu 35 years later… I’m in the UK, but surely wherever you are can’t be that far behind the rest of the world?

We get tofu blocks in various forms from all supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Tesco… etc.) for about £1 per block. Equivalent meat costs probably £3-£5. We sometimes get fresh (unpackaged) and deep fried tofu from our local Asian cash-and-carry, plus various tinned, vac-packed and jarred varieties. Occasionally we get “expensive” tinned braised tofu from local wholefood shops as a treat. Occasionally we get a Chinese take-away - several of our local ones do Tofu and Seitan. Our favourite one does their vegan dishes £1-£3 cheaper than the non-vegan options.

We don’t buy frozen ready meals, but vegan ones do exist. We like cooking, and cook a lot from scratch, but there are lots of jarred sauces and sachets you can get that are vegan - it’s completely possible to make a quick meal with a jar of pasta sauce, a tub of marinated tofu chunks and frozen veg, and it would still be cheaper than using frozen chicken chunks instead.

It’s there if you go looking for it. A vegan diet is pretty cheap in reality - about 30% cheaper the way we do it, and we’re not particularly frugal about it, nor do we put in much effort to achieve it. We buy the things we like where we know we can get them, probably just like you do.

There’s a lot of science behind modern screw heads, and things have moved on massively since the battle between flat and cross head screws was a thing - back in the 70’s, these were quite common, but recently, particularly on tools and gadgets, torx (6 pointed star head) is more popular, mainly because they reduce the chance of head stripping during manufacture massively. Combo screw heads were introduced into manufacturing because + head drivers are self-centring, are less strippable, and work better with powered drivers, but field repairers often only had flat head drivers. These days, I only carry one or two flat heads when I do the repair cafe, but mostly posi and philips, with a set of torx, and tiny exotic, and security bits. Most electric tools (drills, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, etc.) have torx or security torx. Electronics usually have philips or posi, occasionally torx or exotic. Electric kettles usually have mostly philips with a single exotic security head to prevent end-users from getting inside and electrocuting themselves.

For woodwork, I usually use posidrive heads, and occasionally torx. Most posi heads will work with a philips bit, but chew up more.

The sound of 3D printers is mesmerising. Not so keen on the sound of kitchen blenders/grinders.