Photo by Rajesh Kavasseri

The word veganic is a combination of “vegan” and “organic.” Organic, in essence, refers to anything of natural origin, derived from living matter. Vegan, in this context, is best defined as a way of growing that minimizes impact on all life as much as possible. A person who considers themselves vegan would neither kill nor use any animals (including humans) for food or clothing, allow experiments on them, use them for entertainment purposes, or enslave, exploit, or abuse them.

Vegan organic gardening and farming (or, simply, “veganic farming”) involves the cultivation and production of food and fiber crops with minimal exploitation of all animal and plant species. In addition to adhering to National Organic Standards, veganic growing methods exclude the use of any animal products or by-products—such as blood meal, bone meal, manure, urea, fish meal, fish emulsion, or any other animal-derived matter—because producing these materials either directly harms animals or is linked to their exploitation and suffering.

Furthermore, while organic cultivation allows for the use of organo-pesticides and organo-fungicides, veganic growing rejects them, as spraying these chemicals severely disrupts the native floral and faunal balance within farming and gardening systems.

In conventional agriculture, the use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides is the norm in cultivating fruits, vegetables, and herbs. This manner of growing utilizes approximately 99 percent of all farmable acreage in the United States and

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