Should Vegans Support Organic?
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Like many vegans, I make an effort to buy products that are the most environmentally friendly available. I look for paper that is 100% recycled, I buy laundry detergent that is phosphate-free and not tested on animals, and I often will spend a few extra cents to buy the organic version of my favourite foods. Also like most vegans, I put a lot of thought into the things that I eat, and sometimes I’m surprised where I run into potential conflicts.
For example, as a vegan, should I support organic foods? The North American Organic Trade Association (OTA) says the following:
Organic production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers. Organically produced foods also must be produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering and other excluded practices, sewage sludge, or irradiation. Cloning animals or using their products would be considered inconsistent with organic practices. Organic foods are minimally processed without artificial ingredients, preservatives, or irradiation to maintain the integrity of the food.
On the surface it seems easy. Organic growers don’t use pesticides, and I think we can all agree that when we sit down for dinner we’d prefer our salad isn’t laced with chemicals, not to mention the toll pesticides take on the health of our soils, water, and natural ecosystems. Then there are the fertilizers, which are either mined (phosphorus and potassium) or manufactured (nitrogen), and have a slew of negative environmental impacts. I’ve never been strongly opposed to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but it’s a legitimate concern and if I have a choice I’ll choose the non-GMO food. I’m also totally in favour of having as few artificial ingredients and preservatives as possible. In fact, the OTA has a whole list of benefits associated with buying organic products which you can see here http://www.organicitsworthit.org/
So with all these good points, what is the conflict with veganism? Well, there is a potential problem. The problem is the ban on certain fertilizers.
Yes, some synthetic fertilizers are bad for the environment, but in the end plants need nutrients, and if they’re not coming from commercial fertilizers, they’re coming from somewhere else, and in organic farming that often means animal manure.
Unfortunately, when you restrict the use of commercial fertilizer, manure all of a sudden becomes much more valuable. The more organic farmers there are, the more demand there is for manure. It’s no longer a byproduct, it’s a commodity, and that means there’s money to be made by people who produce manure.
One of the overall goals of veganism is to remove the demand from the market, meaning we cut off the money going to animal exploiters. Well if manure keeps becoming increasingly valuable, that’s one more source of income for the exploiters. It keeps them profitable for longer.
I’ve met a lot of farmers through my work doing environmental consulting. Farmers aren’t farmers because they want to be millionaires, most do it because they love it. But they’re also business people, and they don’t have huge margins to play with, so every cent counts.
Viewing manure as a commodity is not only done in organic farming. I know a pig farmer who, though he was only breaking even with his pigs, continued to raise them because of the manure they produced. He had used it on his crops for years and was hesitant to change because he liked the yields it produced. He’s not alone, I’ve talked to dozens of farmers who view their manure as having considerable value because it means they don’t need to buy increasingly expensive commercial fertilizers.
As a vegan, I’m currently questioning whether I want to support an industry that may be dependent on animal suffering.
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About the author: Andrew Plawiuk is an environmental consultant in Guelph, Ontario with over 3 years of experience researching pollution from agricultural practices. He is currently completing a Master’s degree in Land Resource Science at the University of Guelph.
Organic farming doesn’t require the use of animal manure and is therefor not necessarily in conflict with veganism. Veganic agriculture, for example, follows both organic and vegan standards to ensure that animals are not intentionally and unnecessarily harmed.
I will continue to purchase organic foods when available, while also acknowledging that conventionally grown foods are also acceptable.
The main issue for me is the avoidance of animal products and the promotion of animal rights values, not where a tiny fraction of my spending money may or may not go.
I also have concerns about this. I feel that at some point I have a responsibility to my own health as well, so I do choose organic products when I can. I only feed my vegan dogs organic produce because I feel it would e wrong of me to knowingly give them toxic food.
Bio-accumulation is another problem. Some of the toxins that are in animal blood and manure are are absorbed into plants. Veganic agriculture is the way to go- but at this point I have no access to veganicly grown food, so I think the next best option as far as ethics and health are concerned is organic.
I hear ya. I’m not saying vegans need to boycott organic and of course traditional agriculture is in no way better. I just think the fact that organic foods emphasize the use of animal manure is something vegans should be aware of.
I like the idea of pushing organic growers to use non-animal sources of fertilizer such as compost. Unfortunately (in my opinion) organic growing currently prohibits the use of sewage (human manure), which is a potential alternative.
I don’t really see manure as contributing to animal suffering. At the moment, there’s far more manure than is used to grow organic produce, so by refusing to eat organic produce, we aren’t doing anything to alleviate animal suffering. That is, there aren’t extra animals being raised in order to produce manure; there may be some redistribution in where the animals are raised, but we probably like that: not quite as many animals in enormous factory farms, and a few more on smaller farms, where we have some slight hope that conditions may be better (although there are no guarantees there, of course). If we wish to reject organic food on the basis of animal products involved, I think we need to do so on different grounds, most likely that we do not wish to support animal agriculture financially, at all. And that’s perfectly reasonable.
Like the other commenters, I’d love to see more veganic produce and agriculture. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to find it yet.
.-= Simon´s last blog ..You could have discovered the Jones polynomial =-.
Organic foods use tons of pesticides! Just “organic” ones Like rotenone and pyrethrin, which are toxic to wildlife (& insects duh), and heavy metal based fungicides. The organic chemicals have to be sprayed often in greater amounts and more often and the first two I listed have been shown to be toxic to the farm workers. Organize also take up twice the land as conventional and often more water. While GMO crops can be breed to b naturally pest resistant like other plants and contain more nutrients like GMO Golden Rice which has already saved 10,000s of children in Asia from blindness due to lack of vitamin A or GMO cassava which could supply 50% more nutrients and is the number one vegetable eaten by the world poor
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~lhom/organictext.html
http://skeptoid.com/episode.php?id=4166&no_mobile=true
.-= Jamie´s last blog ..The Institute of Cetacean Slaughter =-.
Jamie,
Your first link above is very old (from the early 1990s) pre-dating the USDA’s National Organic Standards, which began in 2002. As such, you cannot rely on this old page for evidence of the current reality of organic farming. Here is a link from a group opposed to pesticides, which lays out the difference between organic and “conventional” grown food, based on the legal standards and current practices of organic farmers:
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/organicfood/nos/index.htm
Regarding your comments on genetically modifying plants, this sounds like biotechnology industry propaganda. The truth of genetic modification is that is has been an ecological disaster with no sustainable benefits (and actual decreases in production) long-term compared to organically grown foods. Health affects of GMO foods are also unknown. Check out this fact sheet from the Organic Consumers Association: http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/gefacts.pdf