Not for ethical reasons, but for practical ones --- used blood meal in my garden not too long after new neighbor with multiple roaming cats moved in...lesson learned.

mx??? did the bone meal attract or deter the cats??? ... ken

Excluding earthworms wouldn't be a logical move in vegan gardening. The principle is to not use products which exploit or harm animals ie from farmed animals or animals which have been killed by humans. I'm pretty sure if a bird poops on the garden or a mouse dies and decomposes there it wouldn't conflict with vegan gardening. They are just going about their natural lives - and deaths. Our local organic gardening group has a section of their allotment maintained as a vegan area.

Whether a worm bin would count as 'exploiting' I don't know.

Interesting. Noble sentiments.

Manure is basically equivalent to worm castings, but worms operate as part of a natural ecological system. You obviously couldn't say the same about manure and animal husbandry, especially factory farming.

Personally, I wouldn't take these matters out of an ethical context (particularly the humane treatment of animals). As to bone and blood meal, I'd assume they're available as byproduct of the popular consumption of meat. They might as well be used by gardeners.

Ken -- it was blood meal, not bone meal. &!%@$# cat dug up my planting.

Re: Manure. Horses cr@p. A LOT. The two that I have produce more than enough waste to supply compost for myself and extra to share. I don't get what the ethical argument is here -- if I leave it in the field, it's going to compost naturally, what's the difference if I collect it and put it in a bin and then spread it myself once it's done cookin'.

Gotta agree there mxk3. My short-lived chicken keeping effort was entirely driven by lust for some decent, non-compromised animal poo -when the amypyrolid herbicide and manure disaster of a few years ago, made relying on horsepoo quite literally, a crap shoot.

Eggs were just a handy by-product - it was all about the chicken poo.

Have never observed the blood meal-cat effect myself but it certainly makes sense.

Just did a little reading re veganic and veganic farming. Apparently the avoidance of animal waste (and other animal by-products) would be to avoid the antibiotics and hormones fed to animals, plus the pesticides and other chemical farm animals are also exposed to. Re potential plant (feed) exposure to pesticides and other chemicals, I'm guessing that bioaccumulation is relevant.

Nevertheless, for me, anything that leads away from factory farming and industrial slaughter houses is likely to be a step in the direction of human decency.

Just like I source my meat from farms that treat their animals well, my manure comes from farmers I know and like. As MXK3 said, farm animals produce a lot of manure, and it might as well get recycled into my gardens and fields just like it does for the farms that produce it. I might feel differently if I lived in a city, but my observation is that my local organic farm doesn't treat their animals nearly as well as the local "traditional" farm that does its best to minimize fuel and pesticide use.

I suspect a hard core vegan gardener would include keeping horses for riding as 'exploitation' and therefore their manure would not be permitted.

Gardening is inherently an unnatural activity that exploits some life forms at the expense of others.

Even "organic" composting, if done properly, raises the temperature in the pile sufficient to kill or inhibit some organisms. Use of the most innocuous-sounding organic pest controls kills some animals and may be more toxic to some (including humans) than some "chemical" products.

Short of turning your yard into prairie and not interfering with it in any way (except maybe allowing it to burn every so often), you're making choices that negatively impact some life forms for the ultimate purpose of your enjoyment.

I wouldn't say that growing crops is "enjoyment"; food is necessary for survival...

"Use of the most innocuous-sounding organic pest controls kill some animals and may be more toxic to some (including humans) than some "chemical" products".

I agree, products or natural, it's all chemical. On the other hand. it would be disingenuous to dispute the claim, that in their overall and net effect, using commercially produced agricultural chemical products represents an infinitely greater threat to human and ecological health than does not using them.

I realize, of course, it depends on the particular product. To me one glaring example of a real potential negative is the introduction of the pre-harvest spraying of crops with Round-up.