On Tue, Mar 23, 1999 at 06:38:33AM -0800, Nan Swane wrote:
>
> Wow, unleesh, I had not even realize I had spoken in such "economic"
> terms--that's my agriculture college education "shining" through!
> Thanks for pointing it out. But my point was, if animals are not part
> of agriculture, what is a good source of organic fertilizer to grow a
> vegan diet? This is a real question, I don't know the answer.
Well when one gets down to it, the nutrients are "conserved", ie
there is a finite quantity of them in the biosphere. So in theory
we need to feek back ALL nutrient-containing waste back to where
our food comes from. This includes (human) poop. :-) This is
not strictly true if you consider nitrogen fixing symbioses as
found with most legumes (if innoculated with the natural organisms
they need in roots to fix nitrogen?? I think...), but by and large..
Practically speaking, how do people feel about worm farms? Supposedly
excellent fertiliser. Although, again, they can only put out what you
put in, in terms of actual nutrient content -- they merely transform
it into a more immediately useful form. Then again, I suppose the same
thing could be said about animals. One could, for example, dig up the
plants that otherwise would be eaten by goats, and compost them. The
nutritional content must be higher since goats must absorb some of
the nutrients they take in as food...
Cheers
Russell
P.S. These are just the thoughts of someone very inexperienced
with gardening in general!! (me)
