Veganically Grown Food
This is interesting - “Veganic” farming in New Mexico’s Espanola Valley. Don Bustos, whose family has farmed this land for generations, elected to go organic 15 years ago to protect his children’s health. Now, as the article describes, he’s gone veganic, choosing to use no animal byproducts in the fertilizers and no pesticides whatsoever.
Salmonella and e. Coli are bacteria that live in the intestines of livestock and are present in their waste. Livestock waste, or manure, can be used to fertilize fields, potentially contaminating crops with the disease-causing bacteria.
Crops can also be contaminated by contact with infected animals or their byproducts, including bone meal and blood meal, which are used as fertilizer as well.
Veganic farmers use crop rotations and composted plant matter — or “green manure” — to fertilize their crops.
I think this is fantastic and frankly it suddenly makes me feel really gross about my organic hothouse tomatoes. Blood meal… that is a hugely unappetizing image. Also, I feel like if we’re going to make an effort to support ethical food production - avoiding cruelly factory-farmed meats, dairy, and eggs, or, as in my case, avoiding animal products entirely - it makes sense to go all the way when possible.
“You think you are getting these clean happy vegetables, but more often than not they’re grown in waste from factory farms,” he said. “The animals … were fed non-organic feed laced with hormones and antibiotics. Those products bio-accumulate in the animals and it’s present in their waste as well.”
I’m not sure what the requirements are for organically grown produce. Do the animals whose waste is present in the fertilizer have to be on an organic diet as well? I’m going to look it up, but it’s definitely something to think about.
I hope that I can start purchasing “veganically” grown produce in my area soon. I think it’s absolutely worth the extra cost to purchase food that is produced ethically, that causes the least amount of harm to the earth, animals, the farmers, and the health of the consumer. After all, there is very little that is more intrinsic to our ability to survive than the way we produce and consume that which we live on - food.
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