There is a saying in Russian: Live for a century, Learn for a century. I find it to be so true for me at all times. I thought I knew a lot about food and how it is grown, but today came across an article about Vegan Farming.
Here is a quick description of Vegan Farming from the article: "Veganic farmers take it to another level by not using any manures or slaughterhouse byproducts. They don't even use organically approved pesticides."
What caught my attention, though, was this: "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."
All I can say is I wish I lived next to a vegan farmer. I would be his best friend for life (BFF) :) I would make his/her meals and clean their house in exchange for food. I can only imagine the cost of vegan organic produce. The price of organic fruits and vegetable is outrageous enough. I wish more people would start to buy organic, so more and more farmers would have the insentive to change the way they grow crops. After all, it is still the demand that drives the supply.
But let me get off my soap box for a moment and explore veganic farming a bit further, in case if you decide not to read the entire article yourself. "...the farming method is more popular in England and Europe because of lack of available land for raising livestock and concerns over livestock diseases transferring to humans." At least Europeans seem to have gotten it... Import your meat, so you can preserve the land. Although I think that if Americans did the same, becuase of such a huge demand for meat they would probably start buying meat from China (sorry for sarcasm here, but since everything in our stores seems to be made there, why not meat also...)
"Veganic growers say their methods reduce environmental impact by using less land, conserving water and producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions." I am behind this method :) all the way."Veganic farmers use crop rotations and composted plant matter -- or "green manure" -- to fertilize their crops."
If you have local organic or vegan organic farmers, make sure to support them by buying their produce. Let's keep them in business!!!
