Today’s episode is for anyone who wants to grow a more self-reliant, earth-friendly home garden.
Even as a vegan, I routinely used garden fertilizers containing animal byproducts like blood meal and bone meal, as well as chicken and cow manures. It honestly didn’t occur to me that there was an issue, which in hindsight is ridiculous.
Erin Riley had the same experience and the same epiphany. The difference is, she took it upon herself to research where these products came from.
Erin discovered that the ingredients in almost all commercially available fertilizers, even the highest quality “organic” ones, are sourced from industrial animal agriculture, via rendering plants.
Aside from the ethical concerns (not just for vegans, but for anyone horrified by the industrial livestock industry), this supply chain poses incomprehensibly serious potential health risks to consumers of the produce grown in these products. Between the pathogens that could easily start another (and much worse) pandemic, and the forever chemicals accumulating in animal tissue (and don’t forget, we’re animals too), the modern fertilizer industry is a ticking time bomb.
We don’t just talk doom and gloom, though. Erin shares with us how to stop using industrial fertilizers, and what you can do instead as a home gardener or small time farmer. We talk about the importance of micronutrients and soil microbes for plant and soil health, and how we can make our own compost and fertilizer teas.
Erin has started a company called Cabbage Hill Fertilizer to create vegan, organic soil amendments and fertilizers using natural plant and mineral ingredients. She’s got a kickstarter coming up on 11 November, 2023, and hopes to have products in garden centers around the US by 2024.
Links
Cabbage Hill Instagram Account
Pastoral Song, by James Rebanks
The Yes Men impersonate McDonalds and the World Trade Organization - Post Consumer W
And here's the video that I keep coming back to this week when I'm scared and angry and outraged and shocked and horrified:
Don't Give Up on Me