As stated elsewhere in this blog, humans have evolved many ways to renew topsoil with no or minimal non-human labor; some of these many methods are used alone or in combination and include crop rotation, companion planting, ley farming, composting, using human waste, green manure, and other ways. In farming, there is no necessary connection between renewal of topsoil and grazing animals whatsover– let alone killing them and/or using their products. We need to talk about this if we are to move forward in our pursuit of minimal animal destruction and maximally sustainable agriculture. It is not for lack of means, but for lack of interest and education, an abundance of misinformation, miseducation, and propaganda, that there is not wider action being taken regarding animal-free farming.
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Lierre Keith’s “vegetarian myth” is a myth. To be vegan in a healthy, ecologically sustainable way is entirely possible. In some ways, this blog isn’t needed to challenge and debunk Keith’s book– the mere existence of successful, thriving, vegan permaculture establishments, all over the world, effectively overrides almost all of Lierre Keith’s major theses in The Vegetarian Myth. This includes New Jersey’s Honeybrook Farm, one of the oldest, successful, and well-regarded CSAs in the US. In the UK, farms can even obtain Stockfree Organic certification for their products. Keith does not talk about any of this in her book. It is unclear as to whether she just doesn’t know about vegan permaculture (this is hard to believe), or she is avoiding a confrontation with its reality for the sake of justifying her wide-ranging biases.
Here are some web resources:
Vegan and vegan-friendly farm communities list on Economads
An informative interview with vegan permaculturalist, Graham Burnett
Plants For a Future—a resource center for plants used in vegan-organic permaculture
Great, in-depth information about vegan permaculture from The Vegan Society
Learn about Veganic Farming on Wikipedia
Going Green International A magazine published twice a year by the Vegan Organic Network
Some quick info about veganic methods
Helpful books:
- Abundant Living in the coming age of the tree by Kathleen Jannaway (towards a vegan, self-sustaining tree-based culture)
- The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins
- Veganic Gardening by Keith Dalziel O’brien
- Growing Green: Organic Techniques For A Sustainable Future by Jenny Hall and Iain Tolhurst (a complete guide to animal-free organic gardening)
- Forest Gardening by Robert A de J Hart (turn your garden or allotment into a vegan-organic, permaculture-based mini-forest)
- Permaculture: A Beginner’s Guide by Graham Burnett
- Plants For A Future by Ken Fern (pioneering book that takes gardening, conservation and ecology into a new dimension; information about growing edible and other useful plants)
- Well Fed – Not Animal Dead by Graham Burnett (sourcebook for vegan cooking, gardening and living)
- Readily available handbooks, which are not wholly vegan but provide good vegan alternatives are: The Organic Bible by Bob Flowerdew and The New Organic Grower by Elliot Coleman.
Here is a handful of the hundreds of vegan ecovillages and veganic farm communities around the world. You can connect with many of these farms and ecovillages through the wonderful WWOOF program, thus giving individuals from all over the world a chance to teach each other about sustainable vegan farming techniques:
Groleau Garden, Quebec, Canada
Sunizona Family Farms, Arizona
Spirit of the Earth Living Center, Ontario, Canada
Glascott Farm, Ontario, Canada
Honey Brook Farm, New Jersey, largest CSA in the US
Gentle World, New Zealand and a vid about them
Ballyroe veganic farm, Ireland
Hugenot Street Veganic farm, New York
Sunizosa Family Farms, Arizona
Humustacia Permaculture Gardens, Maine
Hesperides Organica CSA, California
Friends of Gentleness and Harmony, France
Modir Jord/Mother Earth Farm, Iceland
FINCA SMARAGDINA
Volker-Ray, MirkoRumer
Apartado 18 , 8200 Rio Claro , COSTA RICA
Email : mirkorumerhotmail.com
ARTA BIOLOGICAL FARM
Giorgos Papageorgiou
Eleousa , Arta 47 100 , GREECE
Tel : 0030 26810 74375 or 0030 26810 74924
Fax : 0030 26810 74375
Email : artabioyahoo.com
GALINI
Linda Vincent
Box 6064 , Koroni , Messinias 24004 , GREECE
Tel : 0030 6947 887 342 or 0030 6977 014 346
Email : infogaliniholidays.co.uk
BHAKTIVEDANTA ECO-VILLAGE
Tattva Darshan das
Garuda Guha , Kollur 576 220, Udupi District , Karnataka , INDIA
Tel : 91 8254 758313 or 91 8254 758340
Email : tattva108yahoo.com
SADHANA FOREST
Yorit and Aviram Rozin
Auroville 605101 , TAMIL NADU , INDIA
Tel : 91-413-2677682 or 2677020 or 267020
Email : aviramauroville.org.in
(also a vegan home-schooling community)
Myths about "The Vegetarian Myth" 
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Interesting post. Do you think it’s totally necessary to be a total vegan? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to learn how to cut down our consumption of meat instead of turning into a complete vegan?
For the animals you’re eating, it is incredibly necessary that you be a complete vegan.
[…] Busting myths: Veganic agriculture/permaculture […]
I’d like to offer my own blog to the list of resource above: http://www.veganiculture.blogspot.com
A lot of the links already listed here are on my site; also videos viewers will find pertinent to this topic.
Thanks for the great work folks! 🙂 -Fireweed
Abundant Living in the coming age of the tree by Kathleen Jannaway can be downloaded free or for a donation from here
http://www.mclveganway.org.uk/publications.html