February 18, 2020 // UrbanAroma Staff

What Is Vegan Weed?

For many people, the thought of consuming the meat of another creature is unacceptable. After all, it is entirely possible to obtain all of the nutrients and protein we need from plants. What determines a vegetarian lifestyle can vary from one person to another. Some vegetarians will eat eggs, but won't use dairy products. Others choose to eat an entirely vegan diet.

Being vegan means that you try not to consume or use anything that comes from an animal. Being vegan can be more than just what you eat; it is a lifestyle to adhere to. In the past, it was often hard for vegans to find a variety of products that were in line with vegan dietary restrictions. Now, vegan products are everywhere.

What Defines A Vegan Product?

Sticking strictly to vegan guidelines can be difficult. It seems like almost everything we eat or buy includes an animal by-product. Being vegan means avoiding meat, dairy, fish, poultry, eggs, honey, seafood, some wines, and more. Fur and leather garments, wool and fleece, and many cosmetics are sourced from animals and are therefore avoided by strict vegans.

It can be challenging for vegans to not eat or buy anything animal-related. Even weed might not be as vegan as you might think — just because it's a plant doesn't always mean it's vegan-friendly. The fertilization and packaging process for weed can involve the use of animal products.

In organic growing, natural fertilizer often includes animal excrement like cow manure, bat guano, rabbit poop, or other animal elements. While some vegans may be alright with this growing method because it comes from excrement and doesn't harm the animal source, others are not. If you grow weed, you know that in order to to get high yields from your crop, you need to provide it with extra nutrients from things like bone meal, fish hydrolysate, or blood meal.

These added nutrients are derived from animal farming and are not vegan. A bone meal is made from a fine powder of bones from a slaughterhouse. Fish hydrolysate can come from rejected fish, or bycatch, caught by commercial fishermen, which are ground up and turned into liquids for natural fertilizer. A blood meal is usually sourced from the dried blood of cattle or hogs.

As gruesome as all of that may sound to vegans, even the packaging some products come in is animal-derived. Adhesives and inks often contain elements that are derived from animals. These issues can make being vegan complicated and harder to adhere to than they would like.

How Do I Get Vegan-Friendly Weed?

Plenty of vegans love to smoke weed. Rastafarians are famed not only for their sacramental use of cannabis but also for their style of primarily vegan eating, known as ital cooking. Whether you want to grow your own weed or buy it, there are ways to ensure your weed is as vegan as possible: this is known as veganic. If you grow your own weed, you can make vegan-friendly compost and compost teas, or you can buy them.

If you closely monitor the products you eat, most leftovers should be good for your compost. Things like plant pits, fruit skins, vegetable skins, and grains work great. You can also include lime, gypsum, dolomite, hay mulches, rock dust, wood ash, and green salad.

Alfalfa meal is a good substitute for blood meal because it contains a lot of nitrogen. It's great for growing roses and some types of cabbage. Kelp extracts are plant-based fertilizers. Kelp contains many micronutrients along with natural growth hormones. Spraying your plants with liquid kelp if they need a boost can be helpful. However, some liquid kelp sprays may include fish products.

If mixing your own vegan fertilizer seems too complicated, there are store-bought brands available now in fertilizers for vegans! They might cost you a bit more than making your own, but they could save you time and energy.

Buying Vegan-Friendly Weed

As most cannabis consumers know, it's easy to find almost any type of weed you want, especially if you're in a legal market with lab testing. Whether you buy a cannabis product in the form of oil, tincture, edible, or other, always look carefully at all the ingredients that are used in growing and processing, which should be listed on the label.

If you're vegan, the right products are available for you without all of the stress and headache of trying to grow your own weed or buying a product that goes against your principles. As cannabis becomes more widely available, better product labeling is increasing. You can get the ingredients you like (weed!) and avoid those you don't.