RFD America

When I tell people that organic vegetable producers, certified by the USDA, are allowed to use manure from confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) to fertilize their “organic” vegetables, the reaction is most often disbelief, which invariably turns to disillusionment, not only with the whole concept of “green government,” but with the practice of vegetarianism. In fact, if it weren’t for vegetarians there wouldn’t be any global warming or CAFOs.

There are an estimated 5.7 million vegetarians in the United States, according to the The Vegetarian Resource Group. Consumers who identify themselves as vegetarians generate an estimated $2.8 billion in retail sales annually. Someone is making a pile of money. To supply the growing number of vegetarians, corporate organic growers must find a way to boost yields. They accomplish this the same way their conventional counterparts do–they apply copious amounts of fertilizer.

The problem is the limited amount of approved organic fertilizers. The best fertilizer is still good old fashioned manure. To small-scale family farmers, the stuff worth its weight in gold. We manage our manure to get as much nutrient per acre as we possibly can. Because we are a small sustainable farm, we don’t have any manure left over; we use it all. So where do commercial organic vegetable growers get their manure? Not from organic family farms, but from conventional CAFOs that have more manure than they know what to do with, literally.

What urban folks don’t realize is that there is only so much manure that can be applied to land before it becomes a hazard. CAFOs have too much to legally apply to their surrounding property, so they sell it to organic vegetable growers, antibiotics, hormones and all. I guess it doesn’t matter that there have been studies showing organic vegetables grown on ground fertilized with chemical-laced manure contain a measurable amount of those chemicals. This is about as far from organic as you can get.