Hello Matt, and thanks for taking the time to share all of this useful information with us! I have a question that just crossed my mind, and if it's already been asked somewhere in this post, forgive me, I've only read the first 10 pages so far... So I got to thinking, so technically when you grow something organically, you can use things such as bone and blood meal, fish products, manure, guano, etc... Now I totally agree with your logic in that a plant growing in nature is growing in a soil made mostly of decomposed plant matter, not so much animal waste or decomposing animal bodies... and now that I think about it, how weird it is to use these things for organic growing.
Now here's the question I was getting to: let's say you're a vegan or vegetarian (I try to be vegan, but that damn cheese always gets me!) and you're going to an organic co-op or grocery store to buy organic vegetables. Seeing as these plants were most likely grown with animal byproducts and/or waste, couldn't you argue that the plants themselves have animal in them? Perhaps I'm thinking about this wrong; do the animal by products get broken down in the soil, and the beneficial nutrients and minerals (N, P, K, etc) are taken up? So you technically argue that animal particles then do not make their way into the plants, rather the nutrients from the chemical process of the animal products being broken down... but still if you're a vegetarian/vegan for the reason that you do not want to consume animals, or further you're against any form of animal cruelty - aren't the animals used to make bone meal and blood meal being slaughtered in an unnatural fashion? Further, do the animals used to make bone meal and blood meal live on free range farms where they get to graze grass, and aren't feed corn and whatnot that was covered in pesticides? Is the meat that comes from the cows used to make blood/bone meal sold at organic markets?
It seems that veganics will have to become the future of organic, as people are being more and more concerned with being all natural vegans - the way we were intended to be... I suppose that's opinion, but when you look at the facts, such as we don't have the teeth of a carnivore (everyone's always like "oh but the canine tooth"... in reality that tooth isn't that sharp when compared to that of a TRUE carnivore), our digestive track is longer like herbivores - not like the short digestive track of carnivores. The reasoning behind this is meat rots in the belly if the digestive track is too long... the only reason humans can consume meat on a regular basis is because they cook it... Not to mention the misinformation campaigns that took place back in the day, that told you your children would grow slowly, and would be inferior, protein deprived individuals... most americans have an overabundance of protein, and there is plenty of protein in nuts, seeds, legumes (beans) etc... These are all VERY logical reasons as to why we shouldn't eat meat... Sure there's some great tasting meals (steaks, burgers, hotdogs etc) that have unfortunately become tradition in many cultures, but I think people are beginning to realize the truth; that we've been lied to about meat our whole lives (I'm referencing the mass amount of americans that consume meat, not those of you who have been fortunate enough to be lifelong vegetarians/vegans).
And if you start to look into how these animals are "grown" and "harvested" much like plants, and the whole unnatural process of their lives, from feeding them pesticide-covered corn when they should be eating grass - to the fact that the number one pork provider for the US is located in Mexico (where there are less health codes), whose products are sold at places such as McDonald's and Subway, raise pigs indoors, in a 100% unnatural life, from it's artificial insemination to it's slaughter in the cage it was raised, these pigs never even see the light of day. And the toxic chemical build-up you acquire by eating these products... Oh and let's not forget facts like it takes 8 lbs of grain to produce 1 lb of pork... yet 35,000 children die everyday of starvation? But I digress... I've only been vegetarian for a half a year, so I know what it's like being on the other side, and thinking about how impossible it would be to become a vegetarian... and now I'm left wishing I had done it WAYYY sooner. I'm sure now a good portion of this community says "Okay, this peace-loving-hippie-son-of-a-bitch is going off on ridiculous tangents" but all of these things are tied together... and if you REALLY consider some of these facts, could you honestly say this is really a world you want to live in? Just imagine for a second in the randomness of you being born, you happened to born on the other side of the planet in Africa, and couldn't go get a double cheese burger for a dollar and didn't have the luxury of talking about a plant that you most likely consume for fun on the internet...
All this being said, I've purchased some Sour Diesel claimed to be grown with Kushman Veganics and it truly is some of the most phenomenal smoke I've ever experienced, and I like to consider myself a connoisseur... I've been to 15-20 dispensaries in the NorCal area and the first thing I always say when I walk in is "I need the best of the best, I have a very high tolerance"
Thanks for the inspiration Matt, I've been reading a lot of your work on the internet... good stuff. I'm definitely going to go veganic my next grow, I'll let you know how it goes!
Sensi