April 2006, Argentina
Informative Report for the IVU

This is a report on what is happening in this very moment in Argentina. We do not intend to describe projects or future work, it is simple a description of the present situation.

Even though vegetarianism has a well documented history in Latin America, in the last few years there were no exclusively vegetarian organizations in activity. The Argentinean Vegetarian Union (UVA) was the first organization to be founded in 21th century. Today the UVA is still in growing activity.

The UVA is the first vegetarian organization to be founded in Argentina, in the year 2000. Next may 19, this organization will be 6 years old. This period of time that has been characterized by a remarkable growth in vegetarianisms ‘promotion. In this sense, we must consider that Argentina is a difficult zone for this task, considering that there is a strong cultural custom of consuming a lot of meat. The population is accustomed to eat bovine meat almost every day. 

Argentina has 39 million people and approximately 50 million cows. Nowadays, Argentina shows the highest rate of red meat consumption in the world, 130 pounds per capita in a year. This rate is extraordinarily high, buy it was even worse during the nineties, when the rate was of  175 pounds. That is why Argentina deserves to be called “The country of the meat”. 

Facing this tough reality, arose small group of people concerned by the lack of information about vegetarianism. This group took the decision of organizing the vegetarian movement in Argentina. With the invaluable help of a Spanish activist, David Román, the UVA launched its web page. These were times of little experience a lots of enthusiasm. David’s support was crucial to establish our project, that has today become the most important movement for the spanish speakers in Latin America. The important growth that has been experience shows the great interest that exists in Latin America about vegetable-based diets.

Nowadays, the UVA is the oldest vegetarian organization in activity, that has been continuously promoting vegetarianism in the region. UVA’s internet page, http://www.uva.org.ar is the most visited in the region, with over 84.000 visitors that have seen 186108 pages and downloaded  579327 files, up to march 2006. We must also consider the publication of a vegetarianism specialized magazine “El Vegetariano Vegano” (http://www.el-vegetariano.com.ar) that is published every three months and distributed all across Argentina. This publication is nowadays suffering a strong boycott by people interest in avoiding that this kind of information reaches the public opinion.

The UVA has also created and maintained a virtual news bulletin (see http://ar.groups.yahoo.com/group/boletin-uva) that in its 60^th edition launched in February 2006 reached its 6^th year of publication. We must also consider email groups, such as the “Red-Vegetariana” (http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/red-vegetariana), which is about to be 5 years old and the “Red-Animalista” (http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/red-vegetariana ). These groups have been in constant activity since their creation.

Another line of work has focused on  the organization of public events to promote vegetarianism, such as the “1° Encuentro Vegetariano” held in Buenos Aires in November 2002 (http://www.uva.org.ar/1encuentro.html), the “2° Encuentro Vegetariano”, October 2003 (http://www.uva.org.ar/2encuentro.html), the “1° Congreso Nacional Vegetariano”, October 2004 (http://www.uva.org.ar/1congreso.html), or the “2° Congreso Nacional Vegetariano”, that was held in December 2005, (http://www.uva.org.ar/2congreso.html).

The UVA has also published the first books on veganism in Latin America written in spanish, using its own editorial group. The chosen titles were “La Dieta Ética” by David Román and Estrella Vilaplana (http://www.uva.org.ar/libr1.html), “100 Recetas Vegetarianas Veganas” by Gabriela Mattei  (http://www.uva.org.ar/libr3.html), “Animales Libres” (http://www.uva.org.ar/libr2.html)  and “Guía de Iniciación Vegetariana” (http://www.uva.org.ar/libr4.html), both by Manuel Alfredo Martí, and a VHS video with material from the 1° Vegetarian Encounter (http://www.uva.org.ar/video1.html). The UVA is also working on the project of publishing the rest of the conferences organized so far on DVD.

Besides, the UVA has donated completes collection of magazines to tens of libraries in our country, offered free workshops on vegetarian cooking to schools and institutions in Argentina and donated natural food to Community Centers for children.

Another important line of work focuses on an ecological project in the province of San Luis, were we plan to build an eco-village to produce natural food. This has already started with the inauguration of an animal sanctuary (http://www.santuarioanimal.org.ar) that hosts animals rescued from life threatening situations, such as five donkeys that were saved from becoming sausages. In this place also live free animals, such as deer, foxes and several birds. Besides, in this sanctuary also functions a center of naturist education.

Since its foundation the UVA has also been affiliated to, and promoted the work of the IVU. We also form part of other international projects, such as the creation of a vegetarian radio, the foundation of a Latin American Vegetarian Union, or the creation of regional organizations in Argentina that are affiliated to the UVA. The “Union Vegetariana de Bahía Blanca”-UVBB- has been the first one in this respect, created in the city of Bahía Blanca, in the province of Buenos Aires. 

The UVA has always supported every vegetarian movement that has asked for help, and is continuously expecting and answering queries from people and media that wants to know about our life style.

Summing up, this has been a synthesis of our work in promoting vegetarianism in “the country of the meat”. We expect support from the international vegetarian community so we can be able to continue our mission promoting vegetarianism for the spanish speakers in Latin America.

Veggie greetings from UVA

Manuel Alfredo Martí
Unión Vegetariana Argentina
http://www.uva.org.ar