Is cannabis vegan?

Published

7 years ago

3 June 2019

Strange question, isn't it? Cannabis is a plant, how could it not be vegan? Well, just like a wide range of everyday products including our vegetables, fruit juices, beers, toothpastes, cosmetics and more, cannabis can contain or use animal components. So when is cannabis vegan and when isn't?

Non-vegan pesticides

Non-organic agriculture uses pesticides to protect crops from attack by pests, fungi or bacteria. However, some of these pesticides contain elements of animal origin, and they may be sprayed on plants that are not of animal origin. cannabis flowers. This practice is perfectly legal, but is not documented on the products.

ADVERTISING

An example of this type of animal-derived pesticide approved for use in agriculture is Lacto-San, a fungicide and bactericide containing lactic acid. This acid is produced by the fermentation of milk and prevents the development of mold. Cyclone pesticide also contains lactic acid. explicitly used in cannabis cultivation in Canada.

That said, lactic acid can also be produced without the need for animal milk, thanks to a bacterium called lactobacillus. However, producers of Lacto-San and Cyclone are authorized to extract this acid from dairy products. On paper, only the words «may contain milk» warn the consumer.

Animal fertilizers

In addition to pesticides fertilizers used to fertilize crops can also come from the animal industry - this is particularly true of organic farming, which seeks to do without synthetic fertilizers. In the animal industry, only 40 to 60 % of livestock is used for meat production. The rest (blood, bones, skin, feathers, hooves, horns) is considered a by-product and generally recycled as fertilizer.

Although this is waste and recycling, the vegan philosophy implies questioning the very existence of this waste in the first place. The fact that waste from animal exploitation is used in the production of plants is enough to consider this production non-vegan.

ADVERTISING

Nevertheless, it is extremely complex for vegans to obtain this kind of information from producers, as production practices generally fall under the heading of intellectual property. What's more, there are few regulations on the subject, as cannabis is not classified as a food product. Only a «vegan» certification can guarantee them a product with no link to animal exploitation.