Blood meal
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Blood meal is dried, powdered blood used as a high-nitrogen fertilizer. It is one of the highest non-synthetic sources of nitrogen and if over-applied it can burn plants with excessive ammonia. Blood meal is completely soluble and can be mixed with water to be used as a liquid fertilizer. It usually comes from cattle as a slaughterhouse by-product. It may also be spread on gardens to deter animals such as rabbits, or as a compost activator.
Blood meal, bone meal, and other animal by-products are permitted in certified organic production as soil amendments, though they cannot be fed to organic livestock. In the United States, fear of BSE (mad cow disease) and the related Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease prompted Demeter International—which certifies Biodynamic farms—to completely prohibit the use of bone meal and blood meal, since these could be avenues of infection for BSE.
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