Mid-2020 “Growing Veganic” Project Update
Hello to our project backers and supporters. We hope that this finds you all healthy, safe, and well during this distressing time.
Alisha and I are tacking back and forth between several manuscripts at this point in time (as listed in our Spring 2019 Updates lab note), and in this lab note I’ll provide a brief update on one and discuss some observations and findings from another.
First, we are happy to report that our manuscript titled “Veganic agriculture in the United States: opportunities for research, outreach, and education” is now awaiting assignment of peer reviewers at Journal of Extension. We received helpful feedback from the journal’s editorial board this winter after submitting it in the fall of 2019, and we returned the revised manuscript to the journal editor this spring. The recent coronavirus outbreak has impacted journal review and publication processes, so the timeframe for this article moving forward is not clear. (Alisha’s Fall 2019 Update lab note contains an overview of this journal and manuscript. Briefly, though, the purpose of the article – and of submitting it to this particular journal – is to communicate with extension professionals about veganic methods and values in order to raise awareness of veganic approaches and, hopefully, support for veganic practitioners.)
Another piece from this project is what we have been referring to as our “centerpiece” article. This is a major empirical piece that will include results from both the survey and the interview components of the project, focusing on farmers’ veganic learning/education tactics, motivations for farming veganically, and challenges encountered in veganic farming. This article is still in progress and we hope to submit it to a journal by the end of the year. One of the most surprising findings was the sheer volume of reasons why our participants farm veganically or find it rewarding. Many of our participants were vegans, and veganic production was a natural extension of their values and commitments. Another key motivator was to avoid food safety issues (e.g., E. coli transmission from manures, veterinary antibiotic uptake by plants) associated with the use of animal products in agriculture. The benefits of plant- and mineral-based approaches for plant and soil health were also recounted by many participants. These were among the most oft-discussed values, and they were not unexpected findings; veganic advocacy groups, media coverage, and peer-reviewed research have all suggested these as benefits. However, the dozens of additional, less-frequently-articulated motivations and values that participants attributed to veganics were enlightening. A few of these include the actual and potential marketing advantages of veganics, feeling rewarded by being able to offer veganic produce to the vegan community, veganics as a way to farm in line with religious beliefs, linking veganics to food security for families without livestock, and enjoying the challenge of undertaking a veganic approach to farming.
On the note of challenges, two of the most important findings to emerge from this part of the project concerned the low level of veganic-specific resources available to our participants and difficulties in sourcing veganic-appropriate inputs. An earlier lab note touched on preliminary results about the former, and here I’ll outline the latter. Farmers seeking items including transplants, potting soil, compost, and fertilizers were in many cases hard-pressed to locate items that were 1)reliably animal-product-free 2)organic and/or 3)in sufficient volume. As one participant commented, “That's actually one of the most challenging things that I see questions on nonstop from people who want to garden veganically or grow veganically is, "What's on the market that's vegan?" Well, there's all these seedling mixes but no potting mixes ...” Unclear or inadequate product labelling regarding animal products appeared to be a key factor with soil amendment sourcing. This situation impacts on farmer time budgets, as those sourcing off-farm inputs must spend more time doing product research, communicating with suppliers, or investing in a transition to more on-farm product generation. At least one farmer remarked that this is a challenge for which a supporting body, such as a veganic farmers’ association, could provide assistance.
We look forward to sharing more research perspectives and publication updates with you as we continue to move forward.
Be well,
Mona and Alisha
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