Manure

[absentmindedfan]

Another case of a guilty conscience attempting to cleanse itself. I wish these eejits would just bite the bullet, grow backbones and go vegan.

[eco]

These people have the right idea http://www.veganorganic.net/ and the more widespread they become the more chance we have of buying food that isn't contaminated by the animal abuse industry.

[BlackCats]

Someone I know made the point about what veggies are grown in as being from animal origin.
I think they thought when I heard this info I was going to immediately stop eating vegetables.

[cobweb]

Hmm, can't they see that they (omnis) are doing 100 times more harm anyway, eating animals/eggs/milk, etc, ASWELL as eating vegetables (presumably ) that are grown this way?. So, their point is..................

[Risker]

I think that we could all be a bit more vegan by avoiding organic products which are almost definately grown in animal products (Manure, bone meal, blood meal etc.) and opting for mainstream fruit & veg which has a good chance of being hydroponically grown with none of those animal products or at least grown using chemical fertilisers not from animal sources.

(Sorry if this has been covered, I haven't read the whole thread)

[rainleaf]

Don't know how to solve this issue. I know quite a lot about the environmental benefit of having a vegan diet. BUT, here is my problem:
Lets say there is a farm producing great organic vegetables and other plants, fruits, herbs... We know that it is possible to farm without chemicals.... But, how do we fertilize the fields, WHITHOUT using animal manure?? Because obviously you need to keep the animals in captivity to get their pee and dung... Which is against my philosophy. It would need that the farm would depend on other farms to get the manure...: there would still be animals in captivity involved in the process of getting vegan vegetables. Unless it is possible to use human waste....? maybe not that healthy/safe?; maybe would be possible to use some sort of vegetable fertilizer? thanks for any info

[Manzana]

that's an easy one... mulching.
Check this link out:http://www.veganorganic.net/

I also use vermicompost... not sure if it can be considered strictly vegan since it uses worms but the worms seem to enjoy all my vegan food left overs!

EDIT: btw, plenty of people use "human waste" or "humanure" as a perfectly safe option... you just have to let it rest for a year or so... that is the beauty of compost toilets...

Although perhaps not in the city

[DavidT]

Omnivore human manure would be even less vegan than cow manure, I suppose. I use composted vegan human manure but only on non-edible crops, as a precaution against spreading disease. Composted human manure was once used widely in the Far East, but cholera outbreaks occasionally resulted if the composting process didn't reach high enough temperatures to kill pathogens.

We compost our own waste; it's fine for any crops if it has (a) reached a temperature throughout the pile which kills off pathogens or (b) is left for two full years after the last addition to the pile.

Two books I have (How to grow more vegetables etc etc, John Jeavons) and Plants for a Future (Ken Fern) promote the notion that vegan organic is ultimately the only way to grow food on any kind of 'sustainable' (beginning to hate that word) basis.

As time goes on, soil fed with animal manures becomes more acid, apparently and the full range of nutrients is not replaced.

[rainleaf]

been doing some reading about natural "fertilizers", here's some interresting stuff:

-plant symbiosis: some plants works better together, including weeds: cornflower will enhance the crop of rye, for instance. Dandelions actually heal the soil: transporting minerals (calcium mostly) upwards fr deep layers. Also, dandelions are an indication, a warning that the soil is lacking something. Daisies also bring calcium to the soil. other weeds that are good concerning symbiosis: ragweed, pigweed, nettles, just to name a few.

- seaweed; especially the one fr norway, is very potent. some farms have been using it and got amasing results with sweet peppers, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes and 50 other veg. Kelp has even been used in liquid form to spray against pest.

- rock phosphate fr florida, ground granite fr georgia, i am sure there are plenty of other mineral stones that work well.

-"live" versus "dead" fertilizer:
the burning of fields and getting the nutrients fr ashes is not really that good. Organic farmers call it "ash mentality": getting dead materials fr the ashes. only minerals, no organic matter will be supplied. (it is the same mentality that the chemical fertilizers industry has: just supply the minerals).... soil, kompost, is a living, ORGANIC thing, full of stuff ash never kan give. And, buy using the ash fr a burnt field, you are actually "mining" the soil, just using up all its valuable components,exhousting the soil, making it infertile. Same with indigenous tribes that burn the fields in the forest: they have to move on, after one crop, because there arent any nutrients left....

There has been made some interesting experiments. One, published in "nature et progres", was done by Kevran, a scientist: he used the same soil in 2 ways: on one part he put fermented compost, on the other half, he put some phophorus-rich farmyard manure. After one year (but he analized carefully the whole process, month by month), something VERY peculiar was showed in the results: the part of the field with fermented kompost had MORE phosphorus content than the other one...
Today's science cannot explain that process. Because todays science thinks that chemicals reaction in labs on inorganic matter will be the same as in all of the rest of nature, on plants, soil, etc... this experiment made be kevran shows that this theory is wrong.
Biological transmutation is something that can transmute, transform one mineral into another. that is what the alchemists fr the middle age tried to do. Plants, soil, are doing it everyday.

Bacteria, moulds, microorganism, etc... all do a vital job.

A japanese scientist, Komaki, put on the market a product made of yeast, which applied on kompost, raises the potassium content in them. (transmutation fr sodium(=salt) to potassium, which is valuable to Japan because it has loads of salt and very little patassium). the process is not yet explained by "conventional" scientists.

[rainleaf]

And yes, another thing: the natural farmer Fukuoka, is really into green manure (= from plants) and knows how to farm naturally, which he says goes a step further than organic farming. He was also friends with the founders of the macrobiotic way. I recommend his books. ("the one straw revolution")

[DavidT]

And yes, another thing: the natural farmer Fukuoka, is really into green manure (= from plants) and knows how to farm naturally, which he says goes a step further than organic farming.

So would that be classed as vegan organic?

[Korn]

More about Fukuoka's 'natural farming' here.

[Korn]

More about Fukuoka's 'natural farming' here.

...and here:

The 'Plowboy' interview of Fukuoka: 40 Years of Natural Farming"