This article is part of my FAQs series.
For well over a decade, I have been answering anonymously submitted questions on my Tumblr blog. Over that time, I have noticed many recurring themes, concerns, and misunderstandings.
This series brings together concise, practical responses to the questions I am asked most often, based on real conversations with people at every stage of thinking about veganism.
If you’d like to see more entries in this series, you can find them here.
The Short Answer
Many crops are currently grown using fertilisers that include animal manure. This reflects how modern agriculture has developed alongside large scale animal farming.
However, manure is not required for growing crops. Plant-based fertilisers and other soil management practices can maintain soil fertility without animal inputs. These approaches are sometimes referred to as “veganic farming”.
For most people today it is difficult or impossible to know whether manure was used in producing specific crops. Veganism generally recognises this limitation. The aim is to avoid animal exploitation as far as possible and practicable, not to achieve a perfectly animal free production chain in a system where that is often beyond individual control.
The Detail
Why Manure Is Common in Agriculture
Animal manure has long been used as a fertiliser because it contains nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These nutrients support plant growth and help maintain soil fertility.
In modern agriculture, manure is cheap and widely available because large numbers of animals are raised in farming systems. Using manure as fertiliser is therefore a convenient way to recycle at least some of the enormous amounts of animal waste produced by these industries.
For this reason, many crops grown today are fertilised with manure or with fertilisers derived from animal agriculture.
The Ethical Concern for Vegans
Some critics argue that because manure may be used in crop production, vegans cannot truly avoid animal inputs. The suggestion is that this creates an inconsistency in vegan ethics, and vegans are therefore hypocrites.
The ethical concern arises because manure is a byproduct of systems in which animals are bred, confined, and often slaughtered. Purchasing or using manure can therefore indirectly support those industries. This is not an insignificant issue, or an ethical issue that can be dismissed without proper thought.
However, the presence of manure in agricultural supply chains does not mean that consuming plant foods is equivalent to directly purchasing animal products. The relationship between manure and crop production is indirect and often unavoidable from the consumer’s perspective.
Alternatives to Manure
Manure is not the only way to maintain soil fertility. Agricultural systems can rely on plant based compost, no-till farming, perennial crops, green manure crops, crop rotation, and other sustainable soil management practices. These approaches use plant matter and ecological processes to maintain nutrients in the soil.
Farming systems that intentionally avoid animal inputs, or “veganic farming,” while still relatively niche, demonstrate that it is possible to grow crops without relying on manure or other animal derived fertilisers.
At present, however, veganic farming represents a relatively small portion of global agriculture. Unfortunately, most consumers will not have access to crops grown in this way.
Practical Limitations for Consumers
Even if someone wishes to avoid crops grown with manure, it is rarely possible to identify which foods were produced that way.
Fertiliser use is usually considered part of the production process rather than an ingredient. Because of this, food labels typically do not indicate whether manure was used during cultivation.
For most consumers, avoiding manure fertilised crops would therefore require detailed knowledge of specific farms and production methods. In practice, this is not feasible for the majority of people.
How Vegan Ethics Addresses This
Veganism is commonly defined as avoiding the exploitation of animals as far as is possible and practicable.
Because our modern food system is deeply interconnected with animal agriculture, it is often impossible, or at least impractical, to eliminate every indirect animal input. Vegans generally focus on avoiding products that directly depend on animal exploitation, such as meat, dairy, eggs, leather, and similar goods.
Where alternatives become available, practices may evolve. If veganic farming becomes more widespread and transparent, consumers may have greater ability to choose crops grown without animal fertilisers.
For now, most vegans recognise manure use in agriculture as a systemic issue rather than a practical choice made by individual consumers. This is not hypocricy, it is simply an acknowledgement of the realities of trying to live a vegan lifestyle in a society that is largely built around animal exploitation.
Suggested Reading
- Veganic Agriculture Network
https://veganic.world - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – Soil fertility and sustainable agriculture
https://www.fao.org/soils-portal/en/ - The Vegan Society – Definition of veganism
https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism - Our World in Data – Environmental impacts of food production
https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food
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