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IVU Online News - November 2006 Table of Contents
One of the highlights of
the 2006 IVU World Vegetarian Congress in Goa was the delegation of
20+ participants from the newly formed Chinese
Vegetarian Union Here, long-time IVU Asia coordinator, Jashu
Shah provides some
background Initial List of Speakers for 2008 IVU World Congress in Dresden With pleasant memories of this past September's 2006 IVU World Vegetarian Congress in Goa still fresh in our minds, our thoughts now turn to the rapidly unfolding plans for the 2008 Congress in Dresden, Germany. Here's the list of speakers who have already confirmed their participation:
For more information, please visit http://www.ivu.org/congress/2008 International Meatless Day - Every 25 November The featured speaker on the opening day of the 2006 IVU World Vegetarian Congress was Dada J.P. Vaswani of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission: http://www.sadhuvaswani.org/meatlessday.html. They are the folks who originated International Meatless Day, an event held every 25 November since 1986. Later at the Congress, Mr Pishu Murli Hassaram of Sadhu Vaswani explained the impressive efforts of himself and colleagues in organizing International Meatless Day events in Penang Malaysia: http://www.ivu.org/congress/2006/texts/meatless.html. For instance, they have organized charity carnivals and food fairs, persuaded 1000s of people to pledge to go meatless on 25 November, and involved government leaders and celebrities. For more information, Vote for 2006 Vegetarian Restaurants of the Year
Welcome Two New IVU Business Supporters Business Supporters help
provide IVU with the funds we need to function: http://www.ivu.org/members
Tina Fox, IVU chairperson, would like to invite vegetarians to join her aboard The Black Watch, for a gourmet vegetarian experience. Aboard this truly world-class cruise ship, vegetarians will feel a warm sense of welcome from the very first moment. Tina will not be receiving any payment for this project. As many people know, she is very interested in ensuring that vegetarians receive the same benefits as any other passenger or holidaymaker, and she hopes to develop this area of interest in her new-found leisure time after stepping down as Vegetarian Society UK. A generous donation will be paid to the VSUK by Didsbury Travel for every booking made. Didsbury Travel will assist those travelling from beyond the UK with their arrangements to Dover if required. Please complete email to Tina at tinari@btinternet.com to register your interest or to ask questions. Itinerary 1
The Vegan Society (UK) has recently published a free 16-page full colour booklet on Healthy Eating Without Animal Products. Based on the ever popular Plant Based Nutrition and Health by Stephen Walsh PhD (see www.vegansociety.com/shop), the booklet can be obtained from The Vegan Society, 7 Battle Road, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex TN37 7AA, United Kingdom or download from http://www.vegansociety.com/html/publications/leaflets.php Other free booklets available are Why Vegan and the recent environmental booklet Eating the Earth. Both can also be downloaded from the website. All three booklets are free of charge, though donations from those who can afford it are always welcome. For permission to quote or translate, contact 'Love Us, Not Eat Us' Decal Available
The design juxtaposes non-human animals who we often eat with ones who we often bring into our lives as companions. Via this juxtaposition, T Y challenges meat eaters to ask themselves why they treat some of our fellow animals so nicely while treating others so cruelly by subjecting them to factory farming and an early death. Below is an online interview
that T Y did with IVU Online News.
More on Genetically Modified Agriculture
Study Finds Higher Yields & Lower Production Costs with Organic Cotton With India's indebted cotton farmers taking their own lives in ever increasing numbers after being ruined by expensive Bt seeds and other input costs, here's an eye catching study on organic cotton production in India. Over a period of two years, an Indo-Swiss research team collected and compared agronomic data on 60 organic and conventional farms. They found the organic producers benefited from:
There were, of course, some problems to be overcome but there is now a rapidly expanding international market for organic cotton - with even the likes of Wal-Mart and Levis getting in on the act. And this research comes on the heels of the still more striking findings of a study undertaken by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in India which found Bt cotton cultivation lead to 690% higher costs for pest management when compared to growing conventional cotton varieties with the help of bio-pesticides and natural control agents. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5172 And then there's the remarkable
success of the Punukula village initiative in the Indian state of Andhra
Pradesh, which has been so overwhelmingly successful in enabling the
growing of cotton without Bt seeds or any pesticides that it is now
being taken as a model
to hundreds of other villages in the state The Indian government has an increasingly clear choice. It can get behind such approaches and help farmers escape the debt-trap and end the burgeoning scandal of farm suicides, or it can continue to cosy up to Bush and Monsanto and hype expensive GM crops to its farmers. Vegan
Justice Poem WE CAN'T HAVE A MEATING OF
THE MINDS TALK SOFTLY AS IF TO A COCONUT, YOU CAN'T GO GMO OR NUKE
A CUKE WITHOUT REBUKE. (Code Words: Meating = Meeting; Peas = Peace; Okra = Social; Carrot = Care a lot; Berry = Very; Spirit Dill=Spiritual; Olive Seeds = Policies; Dulse = False; Pulse = Edible Seeds) Web Resources on the Link between Global Warming and Meat
Here are some web resources that may be helpful in raising this issue.
Study Finds that Vegetables May Keep Brains Young Editor's Note: This
article, by Associated Press writer Lindsey Tanner, is dated
24 Oct 06 CHICAGO (AP) -- New research on vegetables and aging gives mothers another reason to say "I told you so." It found that eating vegetables appears to help keep the brain young and may slow the mental decline sometimes associated with growing old. On measures of mental sharpness, older people who ate more than two servings of vegetables daily appeared about five years younger at the end of the six-year study than those who ate few or no vegetables. The research in almost 2,000 Chicago-area men and women doesn't prove that vegetables reduce mental decline, but it adds to mounting evidence pointing in that direction. The findings also echo previous research in women only. Green leafy vegetables including spinach, kale and collards appeared to be the most beneficial. The researchers said that may be because they contain healthy amounts of vitamin E, an antioxidant that is believed to help fight chemicals produced by the body that can damage cells. Vegetables generally contain more vitamin E than fruits, which were not linked with slowed mental decline in the study. Vegetables also are often eaten with healthy fats such as salad oils, which help the body absorb vitamin E and other antioxidants, said lead author Martha Clare Morris, a researcher at the Rush Institute for Hethy Aging at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center. The fats from healthy oils can help keep cholesterol low and arteries clear, which help the body absorb vitamin E and other antioxidants, said lead author Martha Clare Morris, a researcher at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center. The fats from healthy oils can help keep cholesterol low and arteries clear, which both contribute to brain health. The study was published in this week's issue of the journal Neurology and funded with grants from the National Institute on Aging. "This is a sound paper and contributes to our understanding of cognitive decline," said Dr. Meir Stampfer of Harvard's School of Public Health. "The findings specific for vegetables and not fruit add further credibility that this is not simply a marker of a more healthful lifestyle," said Stampfer, who was not involved in the research. The research involved 1,946 people aged 65 and older who filled out questionnaires about their eating habits. A vegetable serving equaled about a half-cup chopped or one cup if the vegetable was a raw leafy green like spinach. They also had mental function tests three times over about six years; about 60 percent of the study volunteers were black. The tests included measures of short-term and delayed memory, which asked these older people to recall elements of a story that had just been read to them. The participants also were given a flashcard-like exercise using symbols and numbers. Overall, people did gradually worse on these tests over time, but those who ate more than two vegetable servings a day had about 40 percent less mental decline than those who ate few or no vegetables. Their test results resembled what would be expected in people about five years younger, Morris said, The study also found that people who ate lots of vegetables were more physically active, adding to evidence that "what's good for your heart is good for your brain," said neuroscientist Maria Carillo, director of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer's Association. Please
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How
the Chinese Delegation Arrived in Goa
Carol
J. Adams (Feminist-vegetarian author)
VegDining.com
Veg
Italian Style
Vegetarian
Cruises with Tina Fox
Itinerary
2
Free
Downloads from the Vegan Society (UK)
Editor's
Note: T Y Lee is a Singapore vegetarian who came up with a great idea
for spreading the word about going veg to help our fellow animals. T
Y conceptualized, designed and printed the colourful decal that you
can view and order at 
Editor's
Note: Genetically Modified (GM) plant food is still vegetarian, but
some vegetarians are concerned about it nonetheless. At the 2006 IVU
World Vegetarian Congress in Goa, Gerry Coffey on the Vegetarian Union
of North America gave a paper suggesting that vegetarians might want
to avoid GM foods. Gerry sent the following article on a non-food plant,
cotton, which provides further evidence for her concerns: 
Editor's
Note: The release of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth"
is just one of the events that has brought increased attention to global
warming. However, much of the focus in addressing global warming ignores
or minimizes the role of animal-based foods. Production of animal-based
foods worsens global warming in two main ways: (1) the inefficiency
of meat production; (2) the methane content of the waste produced by
our captive fellow animals.
ear Veg
Activist