Mona Seymour

I have been vegan for several years, but was not immediately cognizant of the extent to which animal wastes and remains are integrated into organic plant agriculture. As I began to learn about veganic agriculture, it appealed to me greatly as a way to sever ties between chemical-free food production and animal agriculture.

About two years ago I became involved in organizing around veganic growing with Seed the Commons, a San Francisco-based vegan food sovereignty organization, and have also begun to take an academic approach to veganics, as there is little qualitative, social science research that might help us better understand and support this practice.

My degrees are from UCLA (BA, Environmental Studies) and the University of Southern California (PhD, Geography). My training in human-environment relations, experience with interview-based research, and work in and about the veganic movement have prepared me to undertake this project.

Relevant publications and presentations:

Seymour, M. 2018 (expected). Veganic agriculture. In I.W. Hawkins (ed.). Promoting Biodiversity in Food Systems. CRC Press.

Seymour, M., Halstead, E., and Halstead, E. 2017, May 26. Halstead Farm. [Web log post.] http://seedthecommons.org/halstead-farm; http://veganic.world/halstead-farm/

Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Boston, MA, April 2017. Paper: “Veganic growing in the United States.”

Seymour, M. 2016, December 28. Spoke & Leaf Farm. [Web log post.] http://seedthecommons.org/spoke-and-leaf-farm/; http://veganic.world/spoke-and-leaf-farm/

People’s Harvest Forum annual conference, San Francisco, CA, December 2016. Talk: “Status of veganic agriculture in the United States.”

November 2017