Continuing our series of email interviews with leaders of IVU member societies, here is an interview with Alejandro Steve Ayala Polanco, president of the Chilean Vegetarian Vegan Society:

 We have put together an online library of old (with a couple more recent works) veg-related books (many from the 19th century and earlier) - complete copies, mostly courtesy of the scanning being done by Google and Microsoft.

We now have a collection of 186 old books and journals in the IVU Online Libary - these are mostly complete original books in PDF format (some of them quite large so do check the file size).

At the IVU Centenary Congress in Dresden, summer 2008, Supreme Master TV conducted interviews which were combined with other footage to create two programs, broadcast worldwide by satellite on November 9 and 16, 2008.

Both programs – each about 12-13 minutes - are now available from the IVU website  - see 'Congress on TV' near the top.

This interview, with Marly Winckler - is the fourth in a series of interviews with IVU representatives in various parts of the world. To find the contact information for the representative in your part of the world.

 Here’s the latest update to the History pages of the IVU website.

The diary of George Bernard Shaw, October 12, 1890 records: ". . . I wrote some stuff for The Star about Salt's forthcoming lecture at the Shelley Society."

 Paul Appleby sent along the following article, along with this commentary:

A new study has provided more evidence linking a vegetarian diet during pregnancy with a higher risk of hypospadias in baby boys.

 Paul Appleby of Oxford Vegetarians sends along this research report with a short introduction by Paul.

Here is a recent study by David Jenkins and colleagues showing that a vegan diet
compares favourably with a conventional diabetes management diet.

In 1975, the first IVU World Veg Congress to be held in North America convened at the University of Maine, at Orono. American historians have stated: "Arguably it was the most important gathering of vegetarians in the United States in the twentieth century."

In 1981, Julia (now Professor) Twigg wrote her Ph.D. thesis, titled, ‘The Vegetarian Movement in England, 1847-1981: A Study in the Structure of its Ideology’. The thesis was never published, and only two or three copies existed, despite which all the more serious veg historians over the last 26 years have managed to gain access to it, and have made extensive use of it.

Julia recently agreed to the entire thesis, all 456 pages, being published on the IVU website, and this is now done. It covers a vast range of interests including health & nutrition, religion, organisations, sociology & politics, feminism, animal rights, education, the environment, and each of those for each of the historical periods covered.