| International Vegetarian Union (IVU) | |
|
|
IVU
|
France
|
Greece |
Grenada |
Guatemala |
India
|
|
|
|
|
Italy |
Japan
|
Welcome
|
|
Spain |
How to be
From Past
|
| --- |
IVU Online
News – November 2009 Table of Contents
Interview with a Leader of Brazil’s Meatless Mondays Campaign In our October issue, we reported on the launch of a Meatless Monday campaign in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a metropolis of approximately 20 million people. Marly Winckler, head of the Vegetarian Society of Brazil and IVU Regional Coordinator for Latin America, kindly provided some additional information about the campaign. How did you think of the idea of a weekly meatless day?
How do you publicize the Meatless Day?
Do you communicate with vegetarian organizations in other countries who are doing Meatless Days or who are planning Meatless Days?
Brazil is known for beef and other meat dishes. How can a weekly Meatless Day succeed in your country?
What other factors have helped you succeed?
Are other cities/towns showing interest?
What are some popular Brazilian veg dishes?
Update on 2010 IVU World Vegetarian Congress More information is now available on the 2010 IVU World Vegetarian Congress - www.wvc2010.org - to be held in Indonesia, in Jakarta, the country’s largest city and capital, from 1-6 October, and in Bali, the country’s most famous tourist destination from 7-9 October. It’s an unmistakable trend. Countries that used to be considered as vegetarian obstacle courses are now becoming veg-friendly. Korea is a case in point, as described in the following article (in English) from a Korean newspaper: english.chosun.com/....61017.html And, here’s something about veg-themed films at a film festival in Korea: tinyurl.com/yko8pw2 For veg vocab in Korean: www.ivu.org/phrases/easia.html How I Became a Vegetarian – A Stop-Start Story This is a five-page article from the New York Times by Jonathan Safran Foer - www.nytimes.com/...page part of a book titled ‘Eating Animals’ to be published this month - www.time.com/time/...86,00.html Here’s an excerpt from the middle of the article, but the best part is right at the end, about the author’s grandmother who almost died of hunger during WWII. While the cultural uses of meat can be replaced — my mother and I now eat Italian, my father grills veggie burgers, my grandmother invented her own “vegetarian chopped liver” — there is still the question of pleasure. A vegetarian diet can be rich and fully enjoyable, but I couldn’t honestly argue, as many vegetarians try to, that it is as rich as a diet that includes meat. (Those who eat chimpanzee look at the Western diet as sadly deficient of a great pleasure.) I love calamari, I love roasted chicken, I love a good steak. But I don’t love them without limit. This isn’t animal experimentation, where you can imagine some proportionate good at the other end of the suffering. This is what we feel like eating. Yet taste, the crudest of our senses, has been exempted from the ethical rules that govern our other senses. Why? Why doesn’t a horny person have as strong a claim to raping an animal as a hungry one does to confining, killing and eating it? It’s easy to dismiss that question but hard to respond to it. Try to imagine any end other than taste for which it would be justifiable to do what we do to farmed animals.
‘Number of Animals Killed to Produce One Million Calories in Eight Food Categories’ is the latest visual available from ‘Animal Visuals’ - Animalvisuals.org The data are accompanied by a text explanation: Paul Appleby of OxVeg, Oxfordshire Vegetarians & Vegans (UK) - www.oxveg.co.uk – kindly provided the following book review. Ape by John Sorenson, Reaktion Books, 224pp, pbk, 100 illustrations, 48 in colour; ISBN 978 1 86189 422 9, £9-99 With more than 25 titles already published in Reaktion Books' Animal series it is surprising that we have had to wait until now for a book about our closest animal relations. Although each species of non-human ape (bonobos, chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas and orang-utans) could have merited a book of their own, the author chooses to regard apes as a whole, reflecting their similarities and close kinship with humans (to whom chimpanzees are 99.4% identical in functionally important DNA). Close though their genetic relationship may be, humans have had at best an ambivalent attitude to apes, often regarding them as objects of derision or ferocious monsters to be hunted and killed. Only in the past 50 years have apes become the subject of serious scientific study with primatologists such as Jane Goodall and the late Dian Fossey helping to foster a greater appreciation and understanding of these remarkable creatures. Although more enlightened attitudes have led to the founding of campaign groups such as the International Primate Protection League and the Great Ape Project (which seeks to extend basic 'human' rights to apes), and the creation of sanctuaries such as Monkey World in Dorset, apes are still experimented on, exhibited in zoos, safari parks, circuses and tourist hotels, trafficked for the illegal pet trade, hunted for bush-meat in Africa, and suffer loss of habitat through logging and palm oil production. All of this is chronicled in Ape, making the book informative but depressing reading. John Sorenson is a Professor of Sociology at Brock University in Canada where he teaches Critical Animal Studies. In Ape it is clear where his sympathies lie, pointing out that "all non-human apes are under threat, some critically endangered, and it is an open question as to whether they will avoid extinction caused by the most violent apes of all, humans". We must hope that the book's concluding chapter, entitled Extinction, is not prophetic. Other chapters describe the natural history of apes and our attitudes towards them, and apes in captivity, in art and film, and as models for human behaviour. Despite a tendency to blur the distinction between apes and monkeys (a separate primate family), John Sorenson has written a compelling book with a clear message. If apes are to survive in the wild we are going to have to put self-interest aside and treat them with the same care and respect as we show towards our human relatives. Their future is in our hands. Some relevant internet links:
Animal Friends in Bosnia and Herzegovina - www.prijatelji-zivotinja-bih.com To view a listing of international upcoming events online, visit www.ivu.org/diary 1. Opening of Sthitaprajna-Vegan Life Centre – 1 Nov, 2009, Byndoor, Udupi Dist., Karnataka, India. Here, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, one can learn how to live happy and healthy in harmony with nature without hurting or harming others. A vegan event is planned for the occasion with many important people planning to attend and endorse the vegan lifestyle. Be part of this historic moment! For more information, please write to Vn. Shankar Narayan, President, Indian Vegan Society and Councillor and Regional Coordinator for India, South and West Asia-International Vegetarian Union at indianvegansociety@rediffmail.com or visit www.indianvegansociety.com" 2. Asian Vegetarian Congress – 6-10 Nov, 2009, Batam, Indonesia The 4th Asian Vegetarian Congress, organised by the Asian Vegetarian Union and the Indonesia Vegetarian Society, will be held on Batam Island, Indonesia, near Singapore from 6-10 Nov. People from everywhere in the world are warmly welcome to enjoy delicious Indonesian vegetarian food. Among those who have agreed to speak are the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, R.K. Pachauri, and IVU Regional Coordinators for India and for Asia-Pacific, Shankar Narayan and Susianto Tseng. 3. China Xiamen International Vegetarian Food Fair - 12-15 Nov, 2009 4. IVU World Vegetarian Congress – 1-9 Oct, 2010, Jakarta and Bali The 39th IVU World Vegetarian Congress will be held in Indonesia in two places, Jakarta, the capital (and the economic centre of the country) and Bali, the country’s most famous tourist destination. An outline of the programme is available at the congress website. Welcome to Organisations That Have Recently Registered with IVU JAPAN MAURITIUS SERBIA UGANDA UK USA Other Online Sources of Veg News 1. Dawn Watch Please Send News to IVU Online News Dear Veg Activist Please use this newsletter as a way to share your knowledge, ideas and experiences with fellow veg activists. Thx. -–george jacobs – george@vegetarian-society.org IVU Online News is non-copyright. Readers are encouraged to share the contents elsewhere. If you do so, please consider including a link to www.ivu.org/news as others may wish to subscribe to this free publication. |
--- |
Fun Way To Send a Message to Copenhagen 
