Ethical veganism is a spectrum. Everyone who lives a vegan lifestyle tries to limit the harm and use of animals as best as they can. For some vegans this means that they don’t eat animal products, for other this means they also don’t buy clothing made of animal products or cosmetics which are tested on animals. Personally, I like to go as far as I possibly can. Today I want to tell you about one aspect of veganism which many vegans don’t include, but can if they want to. Here’s why vegan food is not always vegan.
What is vegan food?
To me vegan food is any food that is not an animal product or that is enabled by animals in the process. That means meat, dairy and eggs are not vegan. But truffles for example are not vegan either, because pigs or dogs are used to search for wild truffles (they can smell them from a far distance). With that logic you’d say that all other plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and more are vegan.
Manure is not vegan
However, in fact, most vegan food is not vegan. That’s because most farmers growing vegan food use manure on their land. So indirectly, they’re using animals for producing their produce. And as we’ve seen above, I do not identify such foods as vegan. Here’s why. Farmers which produce vegan food are enabling the livestock farmers. That’s because they’re either buying the manure from them and are therefore paying livestock farmers, or, if they’re not paying the livestock farmers for their manure but take it for free, they are still reducing the costs for livestock farmers (as livestock farmers have to either stock or dispose of their manure, which costs them money). In either way, livestock farmers have therefore lower costs, which makes their products cheaper.
Consequently, if I buy vegan products from farmers which use manure, I am indirectly paying livestock farmers. And that’s honestly the last thing I want to do as a vegan. I mentioned before that I would also never buy or use non-vegan rest-products like soap, because that way I am still supporting livestock farmers.
Biodynamic or organic farms
Maybe you think that if you buy organic food, or biodynamic food, you are not supporting farmers which use manure. I personally buy my groceries at a biodynamic food cooperation. Organic and biodynamic farmers don’t use fertilizers, but they do use manure (for organic food this can even be non-organic manure). That means that buying biodynamic only is not the solution to this vegan problem.
The solution: composting
So, what is the solution if you’re concerned about this problem? Using compost instead of manure to grow vegan food. Compost is a great alternative to manure, as it does the same thing: feed the land. This way, a vegan farm can be fully vegan and circular, because the plant-based waste which we have in society, is used again as compost. It’s a circular ánd vegan system (manure can be circular, but not vegan). Currently, there is only one party in The Netherlands which uses compost instead of manure for their vegetables. That party is called No Shit Food. No Shit Food is a vegan, organic food business, which uses no manure. Instead, they use only plant-based compost. At the moment, No Shit food only sells vegetables. No Shit vegetables as they call it (haha).
No Shit Food
You can buy a membership for No Shit vegetables for about half a year, from September to February. During that period, you get two boxes of organic No Shit vegetables per delivery every two weeks, 13 deliveries in total. One box is good for the vegetables needed for one meal for 4 persons. You can get the boxes delivered to your home or you can pick them up at a pick-up point. The membership is available for 150 customers only, as they’re still a small business right now. I hope they will grow in the future.
A clash between ideals
I have to be honest here: I am no customer of No Shit Food. With this article I wanted to make you aware of the fact that vegan food is usually not vegan and that there’s an alternative. But this alternative (No Shit Food) clashes with another ideal of mine: it clashes with my ideal to have a food system made out of cooperatives. And No Shit Food is not a cooperative, it’s a business. I am a customer of Odin food cooperative because I believe we need to change the core of the food industry.
If our food system was built on cooperatives, I think we’d live in a much better world where food is no longer used for profit (as it is a basic need and I think we should never capitalize basic needs). If you want to know more about my ideal food system, read the monster article I wrote about food cooperatives (I won’t go deeper into it in this article because it’s already long enough haha). For now I just want to say that my ideals when it comes to food cooperatives are stronger than my ideals for vegan food production without manure. I hope that one day there’s a biodynamic food cooperative which is entirely vegan.
Your sincerely,
Romee