From: tara@socrates.umd.edu (Tara McDermott)
Subject: Re: Organic vs. cruelty free
Organization: University of Maryland University College
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 17:43:29 GMT

spratt@src.honeywell.com (Steve Pratt) writes:

>All this discussion of animal by-products and what is or is not cruelty
>free has led me to a very disturbing train of thought.

>Now comes my dilemma.  I started thinking about what "organic" farming
>means.  If you look in a dictionary, you will see something like "grown
>with only animal and vegetable fertilizers, as manure, bone meal, compost,
>etc."  I have no problem with compost (although this may be an issue for
>fruititarians :-) but bone meal?  This sounds very reminiscent of the
>discussion that we just had about the use of bone char in the refining of
>sugar.  And manure?  Surely, the animals are not kept around *just* to
>produce fertilizer (is so, it sounds incredibly inefficient, so it raises
>economic and environmental issues, at a minimum), so we can hardly call
>manure an innocent by-product.

>All this makes me really depressed.  Can someone point out the error in
>this thinking, or are we doomed ultimately to drawing arbitrary lines in
>this "cruelty free" business?

Steve -

I can definitely understand how you feel.  I myself am vegan, and I
buy as much organic foodstuffs as I can.  It is very disturbing to me
that widespread organic farming cannot exist without the widespread
use of animal products, or animal by-products.  In some cases, the
blood from animal processing plants is used as nutrients for the soil
(no, I do not have facts, just an example that has been given me).  

A few months ago I went to the Vegetarian Expo in Baltimore, and there
was someone speaking (Terry Gi_____ - I forget his name, but he was
from an organization called MANNA, or was that just the name of their
newsletter?) about Sustainable Agriculture, and Organic Farming.  His
presentation was pretty decent, and afterwards I managed to talk to
him for a few minutes.  I told him of my concern, that of the way
animals are used in organic farming, and asked what he knew about it.
Unfortunately, he said, there really isn't any alternative to
pesticide use that doesn't exploit animals or rely on their wastes.
It is a great concern of mine, and something that will most likely
become an important issue for vegans.  He wasn't able to offer
anything other than understanding and some degree of sympathy.

The way I deal with the situation, is thinking of the overall impact
of both farming methods.  One the one hand you have organic food which
uses animal wastes, but does not directly use animals.  A dairy farm
may sell at a very small price (or even give away free, most likely,
considering the great quantity of waste that animals create) the
manure, which the farmer then spreads on his crops.  Bone meal,
blood... it's all by-products, but ones that do not pay for the entire
system of caging and raising animals from birth.  It's not lucrative
enough.  Consider then the use of pesticides.  Not only is it toxic
for humans, killing thousands every year (I can get the figures on
pesticide poisonings and the harm it does people/enviroment, if anyone
wishes) who come in direct contact with it, but it is highly
destructive to the environment.  DDT diminshed several bird
populations, because of eggs that wouldn't hatch.  The eggshells were
too brittle.  There are many other far more lethal pesticides in use
that are wrecking as much and MORE havoc today, but I don't know them
offhand. ( Again, I have a good sourcebook if anyone needs me to look
it up).  The extreme toxicity is just disgusting if you think about how
much is in the water, in the land, ingested by all of earth's
creatures (including US).  In this regard, organic farming is much
nicer - it relies on animals to supply fertilizer, but doesn't in
itself harm the environment.  Organic farming doesn't mess with the
genetics of local flora and fauna, while commercial farming DOES.  In
the end, the choice is up to you.

Being vegan is a HUGE and wonderful step in trying to save lives and
the ecology of the earth.  You're saving lives EVERY day.  It's a very
demanding commitment that says a lot about your dedication and ethics.
Organic foods are much better to me than using pesticide laden foods.
If it inadvertently uses the wastes of animals... well, I'm doing as
much as I can at the moment.  If an alternative comes up such as vegan
grown plant foods, than I'll be glad, but I don't forsee such a thing
happening anytime soon.  I do what I can and try to be content with
that.  You should be too.

Tara
-- 
Tara McDermott            "We suggest people take their Food Pyramids,
                            cut off the top and make a Healthy Eating
tara@socrates.umd.edu         Trapezoid."  -Neal Barnard, M.D.
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg