VeganOrganic.net

Welcome to the Vegan Organic Network Website

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Founded in 1996, the Vegan-Organic Network, VON, is an ambitious UK registered charity with an international network of active supporters. Our aims are to research and promote vegan-organic (also known as stockfree organic) methods of agriculture and horticulture throughout the world so that green, clean and cruelty-free food becomes widely available.

Vegan-organic/stockfree organic broadly means any system of cultivation that excludes artificial chemicals, livestock manures, animal remains from slaughterhouses, genetically modified material and indeed anything of animal origin such as fishmeal.

From large farms to window boxes, we show farmers and home growers how to use vegan-organic methods. Our supporters include people of many viewpoints, some involved in growing food, some not, but all united in recognising the need for a fundamental restructuring of food production methods and land use and their importance for human well-being, for animal welfare and biodiversity and in the battle for environmental sustainability.

We publish a magazine “Growing Green International”. There is also a free advice service for members of the public, home growers, smallholders and farmers. Through our Stockfree Organic Services wing, farms can be certified as Stockfree Organic; our Stockfree Organic Standards are inspected by the Soil Association in the UK and QCS in North America. We organise farm walks, allotment and garden visits and volunteer placements on stockfree organic holdings, publish guides for farmers and home growers, support higher education in our methods and as they say, much more.

Please explore our work via the links available! We hope you will become a supporter and thus become part of the VON community.

Press Release: New Database for Animal Free Agriculture - Over 1700 References

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The Vegan-Organic Network, in collaboration with Vegatopia, are pleased to announce a new database of over 1700 scholarly references related to the science, practice and benefits of animal free agriculture:

http://www.vegatopia.org/bibliography.html

The database will be immensely useful for those with a research or practitioner interest in animal free agriculture, including growers, government, NGOs, academics and students. The database includes full academic references for every entry. Most entries are also annotated with summary notes and key quotations.

Press Release: 5th Grower Awarded Stockfree Organic Certification

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Tim Carey, a former student at the Welsh College of Horticulture, funded through VON’s bursary scheme, has recently become the fifth UK grower to be awarded Stockfree Organic Certification.

With co-worker Lloyd English,Tim is busy bringing Oakcroft Organic Gardens, one of the UK’s longest standing organic market gardens, back into production and plans to grow vegetables, salads, herbs, fruit and flowers for sale in the Malpas area of South Cheshire, with a view to possibly setting up a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project in the future.

Press Release: Carbon Capture in Garden & Field

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Improved soil condition, increased yields and reduced global warming are just three of the huge potential benefits of biochar, the residue obtained from burning biomass in a fire without oxygen.

Craig Sams of Carbon Gold, writing in the summer edition of the Vegan-Organic Network’s magazine Growing Green International, is clear about biochar’s future role: “We should minimise burning biomass and avoid feeding it to animals – turning it into biochar is our single most effective tool to reverse global warming.”

Press Release: Farmed Animal Population Expanding

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With Sir David Attenborough becoming a patron of the Optimum Population Trust, attention is finally being focussed on the previously taboo subject of over-population. Alongside human population, politicians should also be looking at the population of farmed animals which is growing at an alarming rate.

World meat production has quadrupled in the past 50 years and livestock now outnumber people by more than 3 to 1.1 The UN’s 2006 report “Livestock’s Long Shadow” recommended an immediate halving of the world's livestock numbers, in order to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. A typical European omnivorous diet requires 5 times the amount of land required for a varied vegan diet.2

Press Release: New Course at Glyndwr University

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Foundation Degree Organic Horticulture - Opportunity to be part of the animal free horticulture initiative

This course aims to develop competent managers capable of driving forward the horticultural business. The course is ideal for those who are aiming to manage or work within the conventional organic or vegan-organic systems. It will provide a sound understanding of crop production under the Stockfree and Soil Association standards which will allow individuals to go on to develop their knowledge and management skills in this “growing” area of production.

Press Release: The Future of Rural Land Use

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“The Future of Rural Land Use” conference to be held in London on 4 June 2009 is a chance to discuss the changes which need to take place in the countryside if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided. The Vegan-Organic Network has a rational and sustainable solution.

The Vegan-Organic Network is a registered charity working to promote stockfree organic agriculture throughout the world. Its members and supporters are farmers, market gardeners, growers and gardeners, not all of whom are vegans or even vegetarians. However, they are united in recognising the need for a fundamental restructuring of food production methods and land use and their importance for human well-being and social justice, for animal welfare and biodiversity and in the battle for environmental sustainability.

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