The Use of Animals in The Growing of Vegetables
veganfta.com
The production of vegetables is often assumed to be the ethical alternative to animal-based agriculture. However, the reality is more complex, because not all vegetable growing is free from direct or…
  • EABOD25@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Ok so I want to preface this by saying that I’m not asking this question to be snarky. Maybe I’m having a little trouble understanding, and my misunderstanding could be from the spectrum of vegans that are reasonable and level-headed people to the generic everyday vegan radical. Let’s just say i just need some clarification:

    It’s ok to use animals as farming equipment even though it puts excess and unnecessary burden and stress on the animal?

    • queermunist she/herEnglish
      42·
      3 days ago

      Rivers are also a source of nutrients, actually. That’s why floodplains are so fertile and why they predate fertilization.

        • queermunist she/herEnglish
          71·
          3 days ago

          And not everywhere is a good place to grow crops. 🙄

          And before you say we don’t have enough good cropland, remember that we waste huge amounts of food feeding livestock. Does the amount of nutrient you get back from manure even make up for the nutrient loss from growing animal feed? We probably shouldn’t be growing alfalfa in the California desert.

          Then there’s compost. If we composted everything we possibly can, rather than dumping food waste into landfills, we’d be able to reduce the amount of artificial fertilizer required to grow our crops.

          There are options.

            • queermunist she/herEnglish
              21·
              2 days ago

              Straw man argument nobody said anything about growing industrial agriculture farm animals or alfalfa.

              But you are? You’re implying that there isn’t enough good land to grow our food, but I’m saying that there might be if we stopped both wasting good land and wasting fertilizer on growing animal feed in the desert.

              But maybe there isn’t. Maybe we absolutely need fertilizer.

              Okay, let’s work with that. I’m not saying that animals have zero place in agriculture. No vegan would be against having friendly bee hives to pollinate flowers, as long as no beekeepers come around to gas them and steal their honey. Why can’t we do this with other animals? Learn to live in harmony with our animal neighbors so that their manure can fertilize our fields without killing anybody.

                • queermunist she/herEnglish
                  3·
                  2 days ago

                  There’s a lot of the world where we wouldn’t need to grow food if we didn’t waste so much land on growing animal feed. That’s why I brought up animal feed. We would need a hell of a lot less fertilizer if we stopped growing alfalfa in the desert etc. etc.

                  There are vegans who are against beekeeping. They don’t want bees living in artificial hives where they get gassed and their honey stolen and their limbs torn off etc. etc. No one is against bees just being allowed to live on a farm, side-by-side with us. That’s just nature! As long as beekeepers aren’t hurting the bees or stealing from them or invading their homes, it’s vegan.

                  Veganism is against animal exploitation. If bees just live in peace somewhere and pollinate the crops, no one is exploited.