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Veganic agriculture is an approach to growing food that encompasses a respect for animals, the environment, and human health. Also known as "stockfree" "vegan organic" and "plant-based," this is a form of agriculture that goes further than organic standards, by eliminating the use of products that are derived from confined animals and by encouraging the presence of free-living animals on the farmland.
Organic farmers are currently permitted to use animal products as fertilizers, such as manure, blood meal, bone meal, feather meal, and fish emulsion, but these animal products are often obtained from intensive farms and slaughterhouses. Not only does large-scale animal farming have a heavy impact on the environment, most modern farm animals are kept in highly confined conditions and are exposed to a variety of contaminants. Veganic agriculture breaks the link between livestock operations and the production of organic plant-foods by maintaining fertility using plant-based techniques.
Like organic agriculture, veganic doesn’t use the following products:
No pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides)
No chemical fertilizers
No genetically modified organisms (GMO)
In addition, veganic agriculture doesn’t permit the killing of animals, nor the use of products derived from confined animals:
No blood meal, bone meal, feather meal, fish meal, fish emulsion, shrimp compost
No manure
Instead, veganic agriculture uses plant-based techniques for fertility:
Mulch
Vegetable compost
Green manure
Chipped branched wood
Crop rotation
Polyculture
And all other techniques that are sustainable and don’t rely on the exploitation of animals.
Beyond that, veganic agriculture seeks to demonstrate a more sustainable way to farm, with reduced dependence on fossil fuels. As much as possible, veganic farmers produce their sources of fertility directly on the farm. The veganic maxim is that by feeding the soil, the soil will feed the plants. By adding organic plant-based materials to the soil, this produces rich living soil that is bountiful with microorganisms, which in turn feed the plants and create long-term fertility. Veganic techniques aim to replenish biodiversity of plants and animals, and veganic growers are dedicated to the care of the wild ecology that surrounds and makes up their farmland.
First, let’s consider the supposed necessity of using manure. The agroindustry clearly shows that it’s possible to grow food without any manure. Food is produced using chemicals for fertilization, or even without soil by using liquid feeds in hydroponic culture. At the other end of the spectrum, if we look at a natural system such as a forest, plants grow wonderfully without the addition of manure.
Farmed-animal manure is not necessary for crop production. Organic farms have access to such large amounts of manure because the high consumption of animal products in North America results in an abundance of animal feces. Manure used in organic food production is often sourced from animals that were raised in inhumane conditions and exposed to contaminants like pesticides, antibiotics, and GMO’s. This excess of manure is a modern condition, resulting from densely-packed industrialized farms and a dietary shift in westernized countries to animal-centered meals, but manure is by no means the most efficient or cleanly-sourced way to fertilize organic crops.
In fact, it would be more efficient to directly use the fodder to fertilize the soil than to feed the animals, collect the manure, compost it, transport it, and spread it on the soil. And by using plant-based fertilizers instead of manure, farmers can produce fertility from their own land and use fertilizers that have not been exposed to common agricultural contaminants.
Instead of adding manure to the soil, we can add plant-based fertilizers like mulch, "green" manure, vegetable compost, and chipped branch wood. This provides food for the multitude of organisms that live within the soil. The organic material is decomposed and eaten by earthworms, arthropods, fungus, and bacteria, making nutrients available for the plants. In other words, "manure" is present, but it comes naturally as a byproduct of this free living fauna.
http://www.goveganic.net/spip.php?article18
There is more life in the ground than above in the ground. Healthy soil is flourishing with microorganisms, and the complex interactions between the flora and the fauna create a soil food web. This diagram shows a simplified version of the soil food web with the different organisms that are found in a healthy environment:
To see this diagram full-size, click the image at the bottom of this page and zoom for more detail.
Some growing techniques disrupt the balance of the soil food web. Pesticides, for example, are purposely designed to kill organisms, and they destroy part of the soil food chain. In conventional agriculture, chemical fertilizers are used to directly feed the plants, but at an expense: the chemical fertilizers do not feed the soil, and the microorganisms do not have the nourishment they need.
In organic growing, the idea is that by feeding the soil, the soil will feed the plants. Organic fertilizers contain an array of decaying matter that act as food for microorganisms. The soil food web creates fertility by decomposing this organic material. The microorganisms break down part of the organic matter into a state that is accessible to plants, providing the plants with nourishment; and part of the organic material is transformed into humus, which improves water retention and lessens the leaching of nutrients. The microorganisms also improve the overall fertility simply by moving through the soil, creating tunnels and glueing soil particles together. This allows for better aeration and drainage, less compaction, and the movement of nutrients within the soil.
Even with veganic agriculture, some techniques upset the balance of the microorganisms. With tilling, because the soil is turned, the microorganisms are suddenly buried or brought to the surface, and tilling can destroy fungal growth and worm tunnels, which both help with the long-term sustainability of the soil. Bare soil is prone to erosion and nutrient leaching, and creates an uninviting habitat for microorganisms. By using mulch instead of tilling, the delicate balance of healthy soil can be preserved.
To learn more about the soil food web, check out the book Teaming with Microbes, along with the detailed summary and description of the book.
A new certification program, Certified Veganic, is currently being developed for farmers in North America. The standards are modeled significantly after the Stockfree-Organic certification that was developed in the U.K.
Certified Veganic is based on a participatory guarantee system (PGS), which involves the farmers and consumers in the process of developing and administering the certification. PGS has been used around the world to offer low-cost, regional certifications for small organic farms, with an emphasis on knowledge-building for the farmer. With PGS, the farmer’s signed agreement is publicly disclosed to ensure a greater level of public involvement, farmer commitment, and overall transparency.
Below is the draft edition of the Certified Veganic program. It includes an introduction to the certification, the goals of the Certified Veganic program, and the standards and principles. This draft is still open to change, and we welcome feedback and opinions.
For farms in North America, 3rd party Stockfree is another option for plant-based certification.
Veganic Farming Standards
Veganic farming is a step well beyond organic farming. Like Organic farmers, Veganic farmers use no synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides or Genetically modified ingredients. But in addition, Veganic farmers do not use any manures or slaughterhouse byproducts and are prohibited from using even organically approved broad-spectrum pesticides. Instead of the purchased manures and manure-based composts used on organic farms, Veganic farmers must rely on careful crop rotations and green manuring to provide long-term fertility for food crop production. Veganic farmers may also buy in rock powders, hay mulches and high nitrogen soybean or alfalfa meals as short-term fertility sources, but veganic farmers must be able to demonstrate a long term plan of sustainable production minimizing the use of off-farm inputs.
For farmers that have been farming organically without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers for a period of 36 months from harvest, there is no transition period to be considered "Certified Veganic". Farmers that have used synthetic chemical fertilizers/pesticides/herbicides less than 36 months before harvest can still register as "Certified Veganic TRANSITIONAL".
Goals of the Certified Veganic Program
(1) Break the bonds between organic and factory farms
The primary source of nutrients on most Certified Organic farms comes from factory farmed animal wastes - blood, bone, feathers and the pelletized feces of animals kept under inhumane conditions. Factory farms profit when Organic farmers pay to remove these wastes, making factory farms more financially sustainable and literally subsidizing the production of cheap meats. The first goal of Certified Veganic agriculture is to provide a labeling system for organic farmers who are willing to completely sever the tight bond that currently exists between inhumane factory farms and organically grown produce.
(2) Care for soil and water resources and minimize agricultural impact on wildlife and biodiversity.
(3) Demonstrate a truly sustainable system of food production
The use of manure even from humanely raised animals is prohibited on Certified Veganic farms. The gathering, transporting and spreading of animal waste as a fertility source for the growing of vegetables is fundamentally unsustainable and only continues because of the cheap availability of fossil fuels and the huge appetite for animal products in the general population.
Veganic farmers may grow the same forage crops that livestock farmers grow, but instead of feeding them to the cow or horse, then gathering them up and spreading them back on the field, they let the soil microorganisms digest the plant residues right there in place - providing nutrients for vegetable crops that will grow the next year. By cutting out the "middle man" (in this case the cow or horse) veganic farmers return a larger amount of organic matter back to the land than the farmer who first fed those same forage crops to the cow. Veganic production methods use much less land to produce much more people food - and they do more to increase the long term viability of that land to produce food crops for people.
Standards and Practices
To be Certified Veganic, the farm must follow all USDA organic and Certified Naturally Grown standards and practices (see www.naturallygrown.org/standards.html for a summary of USDA Organic growing practice requirements) and IN ADDITION must meet the following Veganic Standards and Practices
(1) Animals on the Farm
No animals are kept for food production or any other commercial purposes. This does not include companion animals (cats and dogs for example) or "Rescued" animals (even if they are farm animals).
(2) Fertility Sources
Providing nutrients on a veganic farm is more complicated (but not necessarily more difficult or expensive) than on a farm that can truck in manure or use synthetic chemical fertilizers.
Certified Veganic farmers have a clear knowledge and record of exactly what percentage of their fertility management comes from bought and brought in sources (including soybean meal, alfalfa meal, rock powders, wood chips and bought in hay mulches) and how much comes from the farm itself (through cover cropping, green manures, undersowing, companion planting and careful rotations). The veganic farmer must show an annual increase in the ratio of on-farm to purchased fertility management until 90% of the fertility comes from on-farm sources.
No manure or products of animal or fish origin (including but not limited to blood meal, bone meal, feather meal and fish emulsion) can be used as nutrient sources at any time or for any reason on the Veganic farm, including manures from animals not raised for food (for example horses). Wild harvested bat and seabird guanos are allowed only in greenhouse production.
(3) Pest and Disease Control
Veganic farms minimize and work to ultimately eliminate the use of even organically approved pesticides with crop rotations and diversification. Even organically approved pesticides that are classified as "broad-spectrum" pesticides and therefore harm beneficial organisms are prohibited on the Veganic Farm after the first year of certification. Those pesticides are the following: Pyrethrins and rotenone, tobacco and biocides based on animal derivatives.
(4) Competing Birds and Larger Mammals
Shooting, poisoning and trapping to kill competing wildlife (including deer, birds, woodchucks) is prohibited. The use of fencing and Electric fencing, netting, wire mesh, sonic repellents, raptor models, scare balloons and scare tape or other sorts of "scarecrow" devices is encouraged. To discourage the need for control of small rodents, inspections include demonstration that steps have been taken to eliminate rodent problems in food storage areas including wire mesh, sealed coolers and food storage areas or sealed food containers, and minimizing small rodent habitats from around barns and food storage areas (for example elimination of woodpiles, boxes, trash piles. Also maintaining mown areas around food distribution areas if it’s reasonably possible on that site). Absolutely no killing for sport is allowed on Certified Veganic farms.
(5) Wildlife Diversity and Environmental Conservation
The production of food crops for human consumption is a necessary "unnatural" act that displaces wildlife. Certified Veganic farms seek to minimize that impact by taking the following steps.
(a) Follow all legal environmental requirements
(b) Consult environmental authorities for "best practice advice" (for example USDA NRCS and state level Environmental Conservation Depts) before taking steps that will obviously impact the environment.
(c) Leave undisturbed field margins around the outside of fields for wildlife conservation
(d) Maintaining existing hedges, ditches, treelines and leaving stone walls that act as wildlife habitat and corridors.
(e) Planting attractant species for beneficial insects and birds
(f) Planting or encouraging "native" plant species
(g) Installation of bird and bat boxes and winter feeding stations for birds
(h) Avoiding the disturbance of ground nesting birds when cultivating and mowing
(i) Mowing from the center of the field outwards so that birds and mammals can escape to the outside
(h) Timing mowing operations in field-areas to allow grasses and wildflowers to set seed
(i) Protecting waterways with buffers and active planting of trees and shrubs to minimize erosion
(j) Maintaining unfenced wildlife corridors (for example not fencing from the road all the way down to a waterway... there should be space left at the waterway so wildlife can move through without having to go up to the road).
(k) No new drainage in areas with significant conservation value
(l) siting of new agricultural buildings should take into account environmental and aesthetic impacts
(6) Special Record Keeping Requirements on Certified Veganic Farms
Because the level of planning and care in rotations and cover cropping on Veganic holdings is at a much higher level than with organic to be certified, Veganic farmers have an extra level of record keeping to demonstrate they are working towards a self-sustaining operation.
Besides the online (or written) application that Veganic farmers received and the inspection forms, Veganic farmers must send in the following:
(a) Map of the farm with production fields clearly labeled or numbered
(b) Accompanying 3 years forward green manure schedule with what green manures were used last year, are planned for this year, and are planned for the following 2 years. (We are NOT asking for records on what vegetable crops were grown where, only what cover crops).
(c) List of brought and bought in fertility sources and an estimate of the percentage of fertility that is coming from on farm sources (home grown mulching, cover cropped or inter-planted green manures) and what is coming from bought in sources (rock powders, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, hay mulches, etc) broken down by N, P, K. A realistic plan for minimizing the use of bought and brought in inputs over the long run should be apparent.
