veganism

"Unusual things can
happen after a switch to a
vegetarian diet. I've seen
people break out in
violent attacks of good
health, followed by bouts
of physical exercise and
sweet thoughts.
--unknown--

Being Vegan is a Simple Matter of Common Sense

At this time the concept of vegan is not well understood—or pronounced—by the
mainstream American public. As if simple vegetarianism is not difficult enough to grasp
(do you eat chicken? How about fish? Can you just eat around the meat?), the vegan has
the added conviction of avoiding all animal-based products entirely. (Your shoes aren’t
made of leather? You don’t drink any milk at all? And how do you pronounce that word,
anyway?) It is pronounced VEE-gan, and it is a lifestyle that reduces harm to the Earth,
animals, and other people. To those of us who practice it, it is simply a common sense
way to attain a better life.

In a nation whose culture and economy have revolved around animal products since its
inception, those of us who eschew them in favor of a plant-based diet are often seen as
part of the lunatic fringe. Never mind the mountains of scientific and anecdotal evidence
that we vegans live longer, healthier lives, perform as well athletically (Carl Lewis has
long been a vegan), use fewer resources, and cause less environmental harm in the span
of our long, happy lives. We are repeatedly asked to justify our dietary and life choices to
those who simply do not understand.

“Do you do it for your health or for the animals?” we are often asked. Sometimes we
would like to answer, “If you already know that it’s better for your health and better for the
animals, why aren’t you a vegan already?” But we usually try to come up with an answer
that somehow summarizes the volumes of information we have learned about the
benefits of veganism without sounding preachy. We try to convey how the quality of our
lives and health has improved since becoming vegan, how we eat better than ever, feel
better than ever, and enjoy our meals more than ever. But our truths are often met with
disbelief by those entrenched in the lifelong habit of meat-eating. We feel the need to
bridge the gap between ourselves and the people who sometimes seem almost to
mistrust us or be threatened by us because of our vegan choices. This gap should not
exist at all, since we all have the same core beliefs.

Have you ever met anyone who really desires poor health rather than good health? Do
you know a single person who would choose a poisoned environment over a pristine
one? How many people do you know who truly have no place in their heart for animals
who are suffering? All of us have the foundation of basic goodness in us. Many of you
who are meat-eaters are just as concerned about avoiding harm as those of us who are
now vegans. And many of us vegans were once meat eaters who thought there was no
way we could ever live a vegan lifestyle. We all want to do good for ourselves and others
and for the Earth. That is the basis of the vegan philosophy. This writing will lay out in
simple terms why being vegan is simply a common sense choice made in good
conscience by millions of people in order to attain a better life. It will also define what we
at Dancing Crane Farm call a mindful vegan philosophy that modifies traditional veganism
in certain respects.

What Mindful Veganism Means To Us

At Dancing Crane Farm, we are devoted to living our lives in harmony with, and not at the
expense of, the Earth and other forms of life. We do not use any outside animal products
in any part of our diets or in our agricultural production, nor do we employ practices that
kill or harm wildlife, including animals usually seen as pests.* This path is not always as
convenient as the more conventional one, but it always feels better and results in
superior quality produce and a healthier life. Our philosophy, which we call mindful
veganism, consists of actions that result in the least possible harm to the Earth and all of
its species. Some of these actions are not practiced by most vegans, but we see the
need to look more deeply into certain issues to see that a standard vegan lifestyle can be
made even less cruel and less harmful by some of the practices that we employ.

Because we love animals, we do keep certain ones as pets and friends. Our dogs, cats,
chickens, and bees give us companionship, love, and other benefits as well. We keep
them also because we truly believe that humans and animals can and should live together
in mutually beneficial ways. We are a part of nature not apart from nature. We can use
our knowledge to improve the animal’s life by keeping it free of pests and parasites, out of
the cold, and well-fed. The animals in turn provide us with certain things that are useless
to them, such as discarded feathers, unfertilized eggs, or surplus honey.

Left to its own devices, a happy and healthy chicken will do certain things such as
shedding feathers and laying eggs. If we pick up a discarded feather and make use of it,
are we in some way harming the chicken? Likewise an egg. Once laid, it is useless to
the chicken and quickly passes out of its life. Being unfertilized, it is not and never will be
a living being. It is up to us to remove the egg for the good of the chicken so it does not
rot inside the chicken’s home, causing unhealthy and unpleasant conditions. If we throw
the egg in a landfill, we can call ourselves conventionally vegan because we did not eat
the animal product. Our brand of mindful veganism allows us to feed that egg to our dogs
or cats and use the shell as a slug control or additional calcium in the garden and still call
ourselves vegan because the egg did not cause any cruelty whatsoever in its production,
and because using it actually benefits the dogs, cats and garden. No good would have
come from throwing the egg in a landfill.

It must be reiterated that we do not eat eggs and object strongly to commercial egg
production, in which chickens are forced to endure crowding, unsanitary conditions, cruel
practices such as debeaking, and force-fed hormones and antibiotics to keep them alive
and laying eggs. The cruelty and harm caused by factory egg production is multi-faceted
and self-evident. Anyone, vegan or meat-eater, would be disturbed by the conditions
inside these egg factories. These unfortunate birds are seen by the factory farmers as
mere production units, without needs of their own. Our chickens, however, have plenty of
space, food, and water, company, sunlight, room to walk around, protection from
predators, parasites, and the elements, and they prove to us daily in a variety of ways that
they are as grateful to us as we are to them. Like all our animals, our chickens live out
their natural life spans and are never slaughtered, but provided with the best of care until
they finally say a tearful farewell at the natural end of their lives.

All of our animals are treated this way, and our bees are no exception. A healthy hive of
bees will often produce more honey than it can use. We do not kill queens or any other
bees. We do not use poisons or antibiotics in our hives. We keep the hives healthy and
disease-and parasite-free without using chemicals of any kind. If left alone, a colony of
honeybees would soon die due to weather, mites, and diseases. With our protection and
help, a colony can continue for many years. Each year, we use only their surplus honey
and provide them in turn with a clean and orderly home, acres of flowers, and chemical-
free protection from diseases and parasites. In winter, we keep them out of the
elements. In spring, we feed them until nectar starts flowing again. We protect our bees
from suffering rather than causing them to suffer, and we feel good about the life we
provide them with. The only energy used in processing the honey comes from our own
muscles rather than fossil fuels. We know most vegans do not use honey, but we feel
that our honey is a completely cruelty-free product and we feel better using our own
honey than using sugar. After all, sugar cane is grown thousands of miles away on
chemically-intensive and exploitative farms, processed through bone char, and
transported using fossil fuels that pollute the environment. Why should a vegan eat such
a product? As mindful vegans, we prefer our cruelty-free, local honey.
Being cruelty-free, then, goes beyond simply being vegan. It is important to consider all of
our life choices rather than to complacently feel that we are doing enough just because
we do not directly eat or use animal products. Even a person following a conventional
vegan diet can be harming people, animals, and the Earth in ways not apparent at first
glance. For example, we need to consider whether eating conventionally-raised plant
products is consistent with a true vegan lifestyle.

This point can be illustrated by looking more deeply at bread, a large part of a typical
vegan diet. The wheat in a loaf of vegan bread, if grown conventionally, was raised at
great expense to the Earth and other forms of life. It requires space to grow, which
destroys animal habitat. The soil will be plowed and tilled, probably yearly, which can kill
worms, insects, and other organisms. It will then be spread with chemical fertilizers,
pesticides, and herbicides, which kill insects and poison the birds, frogs, and toads that
eat them. It was likely grown in an area where the farmer obtained block permits to kill
dozens or hundreds of deer. The bread is transported to a processing plant and then to
the store on a semi that arrives splattered with the corpses of bugs, butterflies, and
birds. The semi operates on fossil fuels, the mining and processing of which degrades
sensitive ecosystems at the expense of marine life or other wildlife. And yet some
vegans will eat this bread with its legacy of harm, and shun our cruelty-free egg. These
types of common sense, cruelty-free choices are the basis of our mindful veganism
philosophy.

We understand that the strictest of vegans may not agree with the use of any animal
products whatsoever. We feel confident in stating that our limited use of our own animal
products is a sustainable and cruelty-free practice that furthers the cause of reducing
harm to the Earth and all its species. Although our philosophy has minor differences from
a strict vegan philosophy, we hope that these differences do not distract us from our
larger, shared goals of reducing cruelty and harm. We view vegetarians, vegans,
environmentalists, homesteaders, “greens,” and other like-minded individuals as allies in
the journey toward a sustainable, cruelty-free planet.

What We Do On Our Farm

At Dancing Crane Farm, we approach veganism and farming with common sense and a
true commitment to minimizing harm to the Earth and other organisms. In our farming
practices, we are not certified organic because what we do goes beyond current organic
standards. We want the customer to be his or her own inspector rather than trusting a
stranger from 500 miles away who gives the organic stamp of approval. We also feel
that since the U.S.D.A. took over the organic standards, they have become diluted and
less meaningful, allowing certain chemicals and practices that we feel are harmful and
are therefore not acceptable to us. Many large-scale corporate farmers have now
jumped on the organic bandwagon solely to take advantage of the higher prices that
organic products now command. This is not fair to the small-scale, local organic grower
whose original intent was to provide a more healthful product. Not being certified
organic does not mean that we look down on organic agriculture. We feel that growers
and purchasers of organic products are strong allies in the journey toward a more
cruelty-free lifestyle. However, our farming practices are somewhat different from
those of today’s typical organic farms.

We definitely do not use any chemical inputs, anything artificial, or any animal products
other than the composted litter from our own animals (but not dogs or cats). We employ
practices that minimize or eliminate the use of resources from outside the borders of
our farm and that cause the least possible harm to other forms of life. We find that by
using cruelty-free practices such as companion planting, bait crops, cover crops, row
covers, and fences, the need for pesticides can be eliminated. Time and again, we learn
that the best protection from pests is to grow healthy, chemical-free plants that can
resist pests on their own. These organisms can then be left alone rather than poisoned,
trapped, or shot.

Since we believe in the elegance of nature, we also believe in preserving nature in as
close to its natural condition as possible. The use of poisons and fertilizers always has
effects beyond those intended and probably beyond our comprehension. When people
dump chemicals into the environment, they never disappear, but become part of the
ecosystem and are later found in the worms, birds, deer, and other animals that live in
the area. The chemicals also end up in the water supply, the people who are applying the
chemicals, and in their children. The average American today has measurable levels of
over 500 agricultural chemical poisons inside them. And nearly half of us will get cancer
in our lifetimes. Is this acceptable? Is it ok that our children will live on a less healthy
Earth than we do, and that our grandchildren’s planet will be even worse? More
immediately, can we tolerate practices in our own lives that cause harm to ourselves,
the Earth, and other life forms every day? Our answer is an emphatic no! Though it may
seem more convenient in the short term to take care of problems with chemicals, it is
harmful, unhealthy, and not even necessary. A little work will lead us to sustainable and
harmless ways to deal with the same problems. An attitude of mindfulness will show us
the way to live a life that doesn’t harm ourselves and others. This is the essence of our
mindful vegan philosophy. It begins with the caring that is in all of us, guides us with
common sense and leads us to a lifestyle that minimizes harm.

*During the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons we had no choice but to use animal manure on our fields.
We did our best to source local manure from family farms. Our fields were so nutrient deficient from
having been sodded twice in the last 25 years that even cover crops would not grow for us. It would have
taken us years to achieve the same level of soil nutrients using only plant materials. We hope to use
only compost and cover crops in the future.

We do use diatomaceous earth (substance from the earth) on our plant leaves to ward off chewing
insects. If sprinkled directly on an insect, the insect will most likely die. Additionally, there is no way
natural way to get rid of Colorado Potato beetles other than squashing them by hand or purchasing
beneficial nematodes to eat their larvae.