It occurs to me regularly that our system of organic farming involves a significant amount of compost that, of course, comes from various livestock operations. In order to grow, we need soil fertility. Keeping our soil healthy and rich requires nutrients.
As required under organic guidelines, we use compost made of manure from organic livestock. The vast majority of our compost comes from off-farm operations, including chicken, goat, duck, turkey and mushroom sources. In addition to this, potting soil mixes often use blood meal and bone meal and fish fertilizer is used on transplants to keep plants alive when planting is delayed.
As a result, the veggies you eat from organic farms, depend on livestock operations in a fairly direct manner. I often wonder how this sits with our customers, particularly those who are vegan or vegetarian for a variety of reasons related to animal treatment. I've wanted to discuss this issue for some time.
The need for fertility
All systems of agriculture rely on the use of some inputs of nutrients and organic matter for the sake of fertility. When we grow and harvest a crop, we are removing plant matter from the fields. With it, we remove organic matter and nutrients that went into the plants' growth.
Animal
manure is an obvious source of fertility to be added back into the
soil. It is rich in nutrients, organic matter and, in an agricultural
context, it is readily available.
Through the
process of composting, bacteria breaks down matter and brings the
temperature of the compost pile to a temperature that kills pathogenic
bacteria. The compost is turned regularly to ensure all parts of the
pile reach this temperature.
Alternatives to animal compost
There
are alternative fertility sources for agriculture. The most widely used
in our current system of agriculture is chemical fertilizer.
The
macro nutrients required for growing are manufactured or mined from
various chemical components. Nitrogen is produced, in the form of
ammonia, from the air using natural gas (nitrogen comprises 78% of the
air we breath). The process is comparable to the manner by which lightening fixes nitrogen (fields become quite lush in the days after an electric storm).
Phosphorus
is made through a process that uses sulfur, coal and rock phosphate.
Potassium is mined in the form of potash and then granulated.
These
processes are, obviously, energy intensive, using non-renewable
resources. Moreover, this form of agriculture focuses on feeding the
plants, not the soil. It does not add organic matter back into the soil
and, over time, leaves soil lifeless -- organisms cannot live in soil
without nutrients and organic matter.
An alternate form of building soil is through the use of cover crops
(green manures). Legumes such as peas and clovers have a symbiotic
relationship with bacteria that grow on their roots and fix nitrogen.
By turning these crops back into the soil, this nitrogen becomes
available to a future crop.
By growing grain
crops, organic matter is returned to the soil and there is evidence
that these cover crops can help break disease and pest cycles in
vegetable production. Grain crops do not fix nitrogen, although they
provide a variety of other benefits, including weed control, water and
soil conservation and the maintenance of soil microbial activity.
A
limitation of cover crops is that they would require a significant
portion of land being taken out of production at any given point in
time in order to build the soil. And, ultimately, these crops will not
build all of the nutrients required for production.
We
use cover crops over the winter to help prevent soil erosion as well as
throughout the growing season to build soil, control weeds and maintain
nutrients in the soil. They are an important part of our agricultural
practices.
Finally, there is an option of
using human waste -- although not an option for organic growers, where
the use of human waste is prohibited by organic standards. But sewage
sludge is used in some conventional systems. This has challenges,
ranging from the concentration of certain metals (like copper and lead)
to the transfer of pathogens if the waste has not been treated properly.
There
are a variety of innovative uses of human waste (as in biosolids --
that sounds better, doesn't it?) and this is an issue that needs
further discussion. Simply stated, in our current system we take one of
the most concentrated sources of nutrients and dump them into waterways
where aquatic life is threatened by the resulting algae blooms. We are
throwing away a source of nutrients that we cannot reclaim later.
The role of livestock
Given
the above limitations, livestock remain an important component of
organic production systems. Indeed, livestock waste is used in a
variety of organic and conventional systems in a variety of manner --
some more sustainable than others.
But it also
remains a fact that in our society we eat a tremendous amount of meat.
It seems problematic to me that our over-consumption of meat (and its
impacts in the form of resource allocation, greenhouse gas production,
etc.) should form the backbone of a "sustainable" food system.
Nonetheless, I think animal husbandry is a crucial part of sustainable
agriculture.
In our current systems, we have
more animal waste than can be used in agricultural systems. Animal
waste leaches into our aquifers in the Lower Mainland (contaminating
our water supplies) and runs off into rivers, lakes and oceans, causing
algae growth and dead zones as algae decomposes and robs the water of
oxygen.
There must be a balance.
A New Urban Diet?
This
has lead me to think of cultural solutions, including the reduction of
meat consumption. This isn't new, but it is contentious. From my
perspective, those who spend most of their days in offices do not need
the high calorie food provided by our dairy, egg and meat agriculture
in the quantities available.
A sustainable
urban diet might use fewer animal products. A vegetarian diet might be
more appropriate for most people, most of the time.
The
animal products we enjoy (milk, cheese, butter, eggs, meat) might be
better celebrated in connection with their rural origins.
For
example, cheese was traditionally a means of preserving milk for the
months when animals finished their lactation cycle. Cheese could be
eaten in the off season as well as transported to more distant markets
for some additional income. It was not a daily staple for anyone other
than the rural dwellers who made the product.
Easy
to say for someone who farms? Perhaps, but a new urban diet has to take
into account that staple foods must come from lower on the food chain
if we are to achieve anything resembling a sustainable food system.
What
this means for farmers is that they need to produce less livestock and
animal products. It also means producing livestock based on what inputs
can be produced at a closer distance; at the moment, all of our feed is
brought in from the prairies and overseas and, in conventional systems,
uses chemical fertilizers to grow and then fossil fuels for transport.
In
the end, we need a better understanding of how much livestock
production is needed to produce an equitable and sufficient diet for
the population. This may involve re-scaling agriculture; we have an
increasingly number of studies showing the higher productivity of
small-scale, organic production. The urban farming movement will play a
significant role in this discussion as well.
Otherwise,
until we see a repopulation of rural areas in the form of small farms,
we must rethink our menu and means of producing our food.
Animals, Veganism and Agriculture
In
the end, I think livestock is a crucial component of sustainable
agriculture. But this animal husbandry must be done an smaller scales
(i.e. no 500 hog feed operations or 20,000 layer hen barns) and in
coordination with the many other crop production systems that can make
use of compost.
In this light, I think a close
relationship with animals that respects them as living beings, but also
as part of a nutrient cycle is important. I don't anthropomorphize
livestock, but I do recognize that as living beings they feel pain and
have a quality of life that must be measured and nurtured.
The
animals we raise on our farm provide some food for us on the farm (milk
and meat from the goats, eggs and eventually stewing hens from our
chickens), but also provide some of the nutrients we need to grow our
crops.
We rely on animal compost as a part of
our farm's fertility plan. I respect that various choices people make
about their food. When discussing agriculture with others I often think
that we arrive at the same point (e.g. vegetarianism) but for different
reasons (e.g. compassion for animals vs. environmental concern).
There
is usually a lot of overlap in the ideas that inform our choices. And
in that spirit, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please
feel free to share your ideas and comments in the comments section below.