Industrial agriculture clear-cuts large swathes of land, stripping it of its natural biodiversity, only to plant large areas of monocultures leaden with poisonous chemicals that are often tested on animals. Long touted as the only way by the agricultural lobby, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The destruction caused by industrial agriculture has caused unparalleled ecological, and physical illness on the planet. The damage can only get worse as time goes by, as more synthetic chemicals are sprayed with each successive year, and the harmful effects of deforestation and climate change only get worse as time goes by.
Keep reading to understand why some vegans may take issue with industrial agricultural practices.
Key Takeaways
What is Industrial Agriculture?
Industrial agriculture refers to the large-scale, intensive and ecologically destructive practice of mass-produced food. Large swathes of land are clear-cut, and pumped full of herbicides and pesticides, many of which are highly toxic, so unending fields can be planted with monocultures. These fields will often lay fallow for several months of the year, exposing the soil to erosion and desertification. This means the farmer needs to apply more synthetic chemical fertilisers the following year, increasing the toxicity in the environment and the produce, making himself poorer and the agricultural conglomerates richer.
Farmers who keep animals routinely use antibiotics to compensate for the unlivable conditions animals are kept in, increasing both animal suffering and antibiotic resistance in humans who consume these animals.
How Is This Not Vegan?
So what makes these destructive practices non-vegan? Firstly we must consider the life in the soil. It is said that a handful of healthy soil contains more living organisms than there are people on earth and 90% of the world's topsoil is at risk by 2050. That’s only talking about the microorganisms in the soil, not to mention the bigger flora and fauna that are displaced and destroyed in the implementation and upkeep of these systems.
Farming in a way that respects, saves and improves the soil can be considered the most compassionate way of producing food but also the most sustainable. 95% of the world’s food comes from a mere few centimetres of topsoil which can take thousands of years to develop but can be destroyed in a matter of seconds.
If we take veganism to mean respect for all life and for the integrity of the ecosystems which sustain us, then how food is produced poses a lot of hard questions for the consumer.
Animal Derived Products and Animal Testing
Aside from this, many agrochemicals contain animal-derived ingredients such as casein (from milk) bone meal, blood meal and many more animal products and byproducts. Furthermore, international laws require giant agricultural conglomerates to conduct testing on animals, to test whether their toxicity levels fall within ‘safe’ limits, on both target and non-target species. The tests are looking for long-term acute and chronic toxicity, reproduction toxicity, and other long-term issues related to human beings and other animal and plant life, including bees and pollinators.
Those who aim to follow a vegan lifestyle find the testing of toxic and poisonous chemicals on animals as something that’s best avoided.
Environmental Concerns
Those who adopt veganism for environmental concerns often cite the run-off of agrochemicals into rivers which not only pollutes but causes eutrophication. This reduces oxygen in certain areas, leading to algal blooms and subsequent dead zones where no life can survive. Biodiversity is lost, and non-target species are killed with negative cumulative effects as time goes by.
The negative impacts of agrochemicals on the biodiversity and health of the planet are not to be underestimated, and supporting practices known to have such a negative impact on the environment should be questioned by anyone who aims to minimize the damage they support on the earth.
But How Can We Feed The Planet?
For thousands of years, humankind understood that it was just another part of the ecosystem, and as such took for granted that its survival depended on the survival of the whole. When humans started acting like they were above the ecosystem and could dominate and subjugate nature, that’s when things started to go downhill ecologically.
The so-called ‘Green Revolution’ post World War 2 offered bountiful harvests at the expense of the health of the planet, and its human and non-human population. Whilst greater harvests were achieved the produce contained far less nutrition as the soils grew poorer year after year.
Humanity is now reaping the rewards of this ideological paradigm shift which erroneously placed humans above and beyond the rest of life. Returning to the understanding that we are part of, and not above the rest of life will allow us to return to a more holistic understanding of what it is to exist on this planet.
Regenerative Models
Any agricultural system which seeks to improve and not exploit can serve to fill this place. Regenerative agriculture is a broad term that can include many different models. What is most appropriate will depend on variables such as climate, and landscape. Discussing different agricultural models beyond industrial agriculture is beyond the scope of this article, but one of the most promising examples includes different types of agroforestry, such as syntropic agroforestry, which seeks to integrate forestry (tree planting) with agriculture.
It aims to maximize harvest through time and space, utilising crops that grow and occupy different areas (e.g. tree canopy, shrub layer and ground layer) and can be harvested both short-term and long-term. In this way, human needs are met and forests are allowed to return and biodiversity increases.
FINAL THOUGHTS
To summarize, industrially grown food involves many practices that, in isolation, would not be accepted by vegans. These include the use of animal produce, land clearing, large-scale ecological destruction, biodiversity loss, and animal testing. Proponents of industrial agriculture will proclaim it a necessary evil, and that we have no other choice when this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Please like and share if you enjoyed, and stay tuned for further instalments on the blog when we’ll explore more vegan-friendly alternatives to industrial agriculture.
