Even your dirt should be vegan.

[Guest guest]

As my girlfriend and I gradually fill the apartment with legume and herb plants,

I got the opportunity to test out a vegan fertilizer made from cottonseed meal

as well as some classy gardening gloves. Here is the description for some

LadyBug Organic Vegan Fertilizer (with a proud " V " for vegan on the package

which I admired.)

 

Garden Pep Cottonseed Meal is so pure it is food grade! Unlike most other

fertilizers, this soil additive uses no animal products or by-products. Since

cottonseed meal has no animal ingredients, that makes it a vegan friendly

fertilizer. Garden Pep Vegan Organic Cotton Seed Meal is the experienced

gardeners' choice.

Are you growing azaleas, gardenias, roses, potatoes, onions, or other vegetables

that prefer mildly acidic soil? Then this organic fertilizer is the way to go.

With a pH of 6.5, Lady Bug Cottonseed Organic Fertilizer can be used to

gradually adjust basic soil and create the right soil conditions for plants and

flowers that prefer acidity.

 

Ingredients: Ground cottonseeds. No filler.

 

Guaranteed Analysis

N-P-K ratio: 7-2-1

Total Nitrogen (N) 7%

Available Phosphate (P205) 2%

Soluble Potash (K20) 1%

Poop isn't vegan?

 

Some of my readers are likely wondering this at this point. That takes some

philosophy to answer, but I'll try to be brief.

 

As vegans, we should understand there's more to animal rights than simply

preventing harm though this is, of course, central to nonviolence.

 

In other words, too many vegans decide on their activities solely based on

whether a product inherently causes harm. For instance, some vegetarians make

the mistake of wearing leather but not eating meat because for leather, " they're

going to kill the animal anyway. " These arguements are what I like to call the

" animal product anyways. "

 

This kind of argument assumes slaughterhouses are busy slicing flesh out of

animals while the manager paces in his office wondering what to do with all this

leather piling up as a waste product.

 

The reality is animals are more like crude oil in the industry. It doesn't

matter what conditions at which you store or transport crude oil as long as it

makes it to becoming gasoline, plastic, plane fuel, etc. It also doesn't matter

how one process hurts crude oil vs. another. Crude oil will be cracked into its

various end products just as animals will be enslaved and ripped apart for meat,

milk, blood, hair, hide, labor, entertainment, and yes, fertilizer.

 

By-products are products.

 

Animals are not beings we use for meat with a load of by-products happening as a

method of conservation. To the industry, they are a thing--a resource which can

be tapped for money. They don't care what that product actually is, those

animals will be tortured and killed to the maximum profit potential. If you

don't eat meat but still wear leather or drink milk, you aren't standing up to

anything.

 

Additionally, fertilizers and soils are often enriched with animal blood for

nutrients. While I haven't yet found a vegan soil (working on it,) I've had a

lot of luck with this fertilizer. Cottonseed meal fertilizer is very different

than poop fertilizer in both farm and...scent.

 

Yes, the striking difference is the pleasant, earthy smell next to the powdery

dry feeling. Application is essentially the same though a functional difference

may exist with the fertilizer's saturation into the soil from its dry form,

though I doubt this makes for any noticeable difference.

 

I also tested out " The Paulina " glove from the same company. These gloves fit

much like a winter glove but were thin enough to provide dexterity, there's also

some " Liquicell " padding under the knuckles and by the thumb.

 

I used the fertilizer and gloves with a couple geraniums I'm currently using to

grow peas. I'd like to say more, but I'm saving this for a " permaculture "

article to encourage you classy vegans to start growing your food (even if you

live in an apartment like me.)

 

 

Loved the fertilizer and for $15-16 an 8 lb bag, it's quite a bargain as well.

(This is a light fertilizer, so 8lbs is more than you think.) I give the

Ladybug fertilizer 4.5/5 stars.

 

Author: Adam Kochanowicz

Adam Kochanowicz is an Examiner from Omaha. You can see Adam's articles on

Adam's Home Page.

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