While all species tend to follow the rhythms of nature, there is one that seems to go against her: Homo sapiens. Our unsustainable exploitation of nature's resources to meet our own needs is destroying the ecosystem.
Photograph Source: Malcolm Carlaw – CC BY 2.0
Nature is complex. Her underground web is as intricate as her
above-ground diversity. Below our feet, bacteria, microorganisms,
mycorrhizae, and roots of perennial plants work symbiotically,
absorbing and moving nutrients to wherever the need arises. Science
has defined ecosystems and family groups, constantly updating our
knowledge bank based on the most recent discoveries.
However, this is the human interpretation of the natural world, but
the way other animal species interpret it is likely different. While
all species tend to follow the rhythms of nature, there is one that
seems to go against her: Homo sapiens.
Our unsustainable exploitation of nature’s resources to meet our own
needs is destroying the ecosystem. The global food system, for
instance, is the leading cause of biodiversity loss. “Biodiversity
loss will continue to accelerate unless we change the way we produce
food,” states a 2021 report, “Food System Impacts on Biodiversity
Loss.”
The need to produce more food at lower costs, especially in the last
decades, has increased the usage of “fertilizers, pesticides,
energy, land and water” in agriculture, the report points out. This
has led to the global food system becoming a leading cause of
climate change as well.
There is a growing and urgent need to explore alternatives to these
destructive agricultural practices, otherwise, “[f]urther
destruction of ecosystems and habitats will threaten our ability to
sustain human populations,” warns the report.
Veganic farming is a way forward toward repairing the damage done to
the ecosystem. Veganic growing not only seeks to cultivate food for
humans but also attempts to do it in a way that benefits all floral
and faunal biodiversity, as much as is humanly possible.
Veganic farming is the growing, gardening, cultivation, and
production of food and fiber crops with a minimal amount of
exploitation of animal and plant species. It does not use any animal
products or byproducts, adhering to the main philosophy of
cultivating for the benefit of all beings.
Adopting this approach has become increasingly important given the
negative impactlarge-scale animal farming has on our environment.
The Dark Side
I became a professional veganic farmer in 2004. Quickly along my
growing path, I realized the horrors of industrial-scale
agriculture. Besides the huge cost to the environment—about $3
trillion every year—industrial agriculture encourages the use of
pesticides on a large scale, which has adverse health impacts on
human beings.
The agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto
introduced the herbicide Roundup—containing the active ingredient
glyphosate—to the market in 1974. In 2015, glyphosate was classified
as a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization’s
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
In 1996, Monsanto came out with the “Roundup Ready” soybean, which
was genetically modified to withstand Roundup. In 2017, about 105
million hectares were planted with genetically modified soybeans and
around “272 million metric tons of seeds were produced,” according
to an article in Frontiers, which constituted 80 percent of
worldwide soybean production—the majority of which was fed to
livestock animals in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
In addition to the vast herbicide usage, crops like soy and corn are
grown in a method known as monoculture—cultivating a single crop
across thousands of acres of agricultural lands—which negatively
impacts biodiversity and leads to soil degradation, along with other
adverse environmental implications.
Another toxic pesticide, DDT, was used during World War II. After
the war, it was sold as a pesticide for home gardeners and used on
commercial-scale farms, even though there was already evidence to
show that it killed many beneficial insects.
When it was learned that DDT thinned the shells of bird eggs,
especially bald eagles and peregrine falcons—and killed bees
outright—it sparked a war against the usage of this pesticide. The
eye-opening 1962 book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson led to an
awareness about the dangers of DDT usage at home and on the farm. It
still took the United States until 1972 and the Canadian government
until 1985 to ban it.
The outcry following Carson’s book pushed the idea of sustainable
agriculture to the forefront. Organic agriculture, which had been
around since the late 1940s in the United States, became the beacon
of hope. It did not make use of conventional manure, chemical
herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, or chemical fertilizers and
changed the face of agriculture.
Slowly and surely, however, organics have been undermined by
large-scale agricultural corporations and for-profit organic
standard certifiers. Non-organic manures containing genetically
modified and antibiotic residues have been allowedover time. Blood
meal, bone meal, and feather meal, which are slaughterhouse
byproducts, are also used in organic farming.
Meanwhile, organic (OMRI-listed) pesticides have been formulated to
be even more potent than their chemical counterparts, with the usage
of organic insecticides associated with greater damage to non-target
insects than their synthetic counterparts, according to an article
in Phys.org.
Any insecticide will destroy the delicate balance of the ecosystem
when it is sprayed. When the symbiosis between flora and fauna is
disrupted—chemically or organically—the results to biodiversity are
dramatic. As biologists Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich, and
Rodolfo Dirzo write about mass extinction in their 2017 paper, “The
sixth mass extinction is already here. … All signs point to ever
more powerful assaults on biodiversity… painting a dismal picture of
the future of life, including human life.”
Habitat conversion, overexploitation, and toxification, mainly from
agriculture—primarily from raising animals and the crops grown to
feed them in an unsustainable way—are to blame for this. The
International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of
Threatened Species has ascertained that 28 percent (44,000) of all
species that have been assessed are threatened with extinction, many
due to these agricultural drivers.
It seems that we are at a scale that is beyond repair if we don’t
change our ways and move toward more sustainable farming practices.
Seeing the Light
Veganic growing may be the most important step to ensure that we
break the chain of animal agriculture in our farming system. Soil
life can flourish by minimizing tillage, not using toxic manure, and
eliminating the spraying of harmful herbicides or insecticides.
When spraying of toxic chemicals is eliminated, predatory insects
will corral crop-damaging insects, and plants will build immunity
and defense mechanisms. It is what happens in the wild grasslands
and forests and will occur in our gardens and farms if this process
is allowed to take place in these spaces.
By using plant-based composts, cover crops (green manures), and
keeping the ground covered with plant material and living roots
holding the soil, the Earth will constantly regenerate. Species
determined to be threatened can thrive in our garden and farm
spaces, specifically insects, bees, butterflies, birds, and small
mammals.
I have seen this at my farm, La Ferme de l’Aube, where endangered
monarch butterflies breed, transform, and flock. Threatened yellow
bumblebees accumulate pollen and burrow. Vulnerable eastern
whip-poor-wills grace the night skies, dining on the aerial insects
that have proliferated on the farm. Eastern wolves howl from the
edges and grace us with unexpected visits.
In the quest to understand how to grow our food best, it is
imperative that we seek to cultivate as much as possible in the
least amount of space. Based on my experience of running a farm, I
have already analyzed that veganic farming can be 3 percent and 41
percent more productive than conventional and organic agriculture,
respectively. But even more compelling is the fact that the veganic
way is more than 4,000 percent more productive than raising animals
acre per acre.
“[V]eganic farming allows previously farmed areas to be rewilded to
form wildlife corridors, regenerate fragile ecosystems, and halt
deforestation. This is all thanks to the fact that in such a system,
one can grow the same amount of food on less land,” states
Faunalytics, referring to findings from a book, Rethinking Food and
Agriculture.
As we look toward mitigating the looming climate crisis, veganic
farming is an important step in the right direction. “Veganic
farming promises a climate-friendly approach to food production by
eliminating animals from the supply chain entirely. An Oxford
University study found that shifting to diets that exclude animal
products would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 73 percent,”
according to researchby Eastern Oregon University.
In trying to achieve the highest ecological farming practices, this
method uses plant materials to grow plants. It ensures that the
natural world proliferates in our gardens and on our farms and
allows plant roots to rest in-ground for as long as possible to
nourish the microorganisms of “the living soil.”
We have a moral obligation to do the least possible harm to our
planet, and that ethos has a name: veganics.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of
the
Independent Media Institute.
Jimmy Videle is the author of The Veganic Grower’s Handbook: Cultivating Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs from Urban Backyard to Rural Farmyard (Lantern Press, 2023) and the co-founder of NAVCS-Certified Veganic.