Fruit Made Using Blood, Fish & Bone

[Hau Apraadhi]

VJKKVJKF Jee

The Vegan Society says:

"...the fact is that animal manures and slaughterhouse by-products are used extensively to grow our groceries – especially if we buy ‘organic.’" (http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/home-and-garden/vegan-organic-gardening.aspx)

Specifically, agriculturists use 'Blood, Fish & Bone' (!!!) to give more nutrients etc to help grow the plants. Now, if we are trying to follow gurmath, then we shouldn't really be consuming fruit because we don't know whether they have been grown using 'Blood, Fish & Bone' or vegetarian nutrients.

Now, I know there will probably be some people who are going to say that this level/depth of thinking is too extreme, but I guess everyone's entitled to their opinions.

And to think we should now stop eating fruit, seems crazy!

But at the same time, growing your own fruit seems quite unrealistic...

I don't know what to think about this issue to be honest with you.

=/

VJKKVJKF Jee

[Singhstah]

There is no doubt that a Gursikh cannot eat any meat, fish egg etc. However, the fruits and veg do not contain blood, fish or bone, rather the necessary nutrients needed for the plant's growth were taken from these sources. Yes, if a Gursikh wished to farm for themselves them maybe they would make a decision to use veggie fertilisers on ethical grounds, but this would be more because of the fact something was killed to make the fertiliser, not because it would end up in the fruit/veg! If we are buying items like this from elsewhere I don't think its a big deal what was used to help grow them, you are certainly not eating any prohibited item yourself. If you wanted to abstain from eating it simply on the grounds that you don't agree animal products were used at some point, I think that while use of something that has been slaughtered is not good, to abstain from a pure vegetarian final product is going past the realm of sikhi and into some form of ethical veganism.

Look at it this way, there could be all manner of insects, maybe even animals around where your fruit/veg is growing, they are dying all the time and without a doubt their blood is going into the soil or onto the fruit, there is nothing we can do about it and neither does Guru Sahib expect any action from us regarding this. Next we could say we don't know whether or not an animal was killed and thrown into the river from where our water came, what then? (the fruit and veg scenario is even further removed from the animal than the water one!)

The simple rule: there is nothing at all to worry about when it comes to fruit straight from the trees and veg direct from the ground, that have not then been altered in any way once out or picked. If you look to even the strictest bibeki gursikhs, they have no hesitation in accepting raw fruit or veg.

On a side note, I myself used to get a lot of different 'thoughts' about Sikhi like this one, but personally I realised these were not thoughts but mild OCD, so I would suggest while it is very important to preserve our rehat, we should be careful of bharams, it is important to up the naam abhiyas and gurbani paath to avoid this. Do ardaas for clarity.

[Wicked Warrior]

Look up the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Everything comes from the earth and returns back to it. An animal dies and its body will decompose, essentially fertilising the ground. This then allows things to grow.

Think about your own body. Every atom would have from a mixture of plants, animals, ocean, air and stars.