Meet the VUNA Regional Council: In Their Own Words

VUNA VIEWS - July 1998

Meet the VUNA Regional Council: In Their Own Words

Continuing our series of introductions to VUNA Regional Council members, this time we meet two of the newest additions to the Council, Dennis Bayomi of Manitoba and Paul Turner of Maryland. Dennis was elected at the VUNA Biennial Meeting held in conjunction with VegFest DC in October, 1997, and Paul was appointed to fill a vacancy by vote of the Regional Council.

Dennis Bayomi

Besides being a rookie VUNA regional councillor, I'm President of the Winnipeg Vegetarian Association. Winnipeg's a relatively small city of about 600,000 located in central Canada, just north of North Dakota. Yes, it gets freezing COLD in winter! But what we lack in warm winter weather, we make up for with our warm community feeling and large-city amenities--multicultural, vibrant music and arts community, two universities, terrific public libraries, one vegan restaurant and one vegetarian coffeehouse.

I've been vegetarian for ethical reasons for almost seven years and vegan for almost five. After attending the Portland vegetarian convention, at which I became vegan, and the Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair that fall, I knew I had to organize a local vegetarian group in Winnipeg. I'll be forever grateful to my Toronto mentors Peter McQueen and Kevin Pickard, who helped me get things off the ground in Winnipeg!

When I'm not immersed in the vegetarian movement, I've been working for fifteen years at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine as a computer analyst. In the fall I'll be leaving the University as an employee to return part-time as a student in biostatistics and epidemiology. I also plan to offer an information service to information technology professionals and to write Internet-based software. I also serve as Vice Chair of the Manitoba Eco-Network, an umbrella organization of about forty environmental groups in the province of Manitoba.

Five years after the WVA started, we have a vibrant and healthy organization of 150 to 200 members, where volunteers are always eager to help out. We've tried to emphasize networking, working closely with healthcare professionals, environmentalists, animal rights acitivists, schools and food services organizations, to list just a few. We have a bimonthly newsletter, a simple web site and alternating potluck/restaurant dinners. Our always-successful Nutrition Month Gourmet Vegetarian Dinner provides an excellent opportunity to introduce tomorrow's chefs to gourmet vegan meal preparation as well as offering the general public a chance to enjoy a delicious vegetarian meal. This year, we moved our dinner to a new venue--the restaurant in the Health Sciences Center, Winnipeg's largest hospital. The dinner was a huge success and featured a spectacular vegan meal, much to our pleasant surprise. We plan to repeat this dinner next year (March) and will invite members of the provincial Department of Health and local healthcare community.

One of our biggest challenges on the prairies is the dramatic increase in the hog industry. With our provincial government's overly eager assistance, the Manitoba hog industry looks to becoming the leading hog-producing region in Canada, with kill projections of over five million hogs per year by 2000. We're working hard to organize a concerted effort, with other groups around North America, to change this trend.

I'm looking forward to reconnecting with many of you at upcoming v-conventions and would especially like to hear from any of you considering attending the World Congress in Thailand.

Paul Turner

I became interested in vegetarianism when I read a Seventh-Day Adventist health magazine. I was eighteen years old then and very soon after that I came in touch with the Krishnas and their free vegetarian restaurants. The food just blew me away! I never looked back and have been a vegetarian for seventeen years.

Although health and the thrill of eating so many wonderful vegetarian foods motivated me early on, after learning more about the real meaning of vegetarianism I soon felt more motivated by the understanding that vegetarianism demonstrated respect for other living beings and the earth, was conducive to peace within myself and the world outside, and was obviously what God wanted me to do. This has become my most intense motivation over the years as I appreciate more and more the importance of honoring God through food.

In 1993 I was elected the global director of Food for Life, the Hare Krishna movement's international vegetarian food relief program, which operates in over 50 countries. Food for Life's mandate is to bring about peace and prosperity in the world through the liberal distribution of sanctified vegetarian food. Food for Life Global in Maryland is the international headquarters and it is from here that we provide training and promotional materials to members, maintain the global web site, liaison with vegetarian groups, the UN and the media, correspond with members and supporters, oversee Feed the World Week (October 15-21), and raise funds.

I would like to see VUNA and the vegetarian movement get fully behind Feed the World Week. Although education and activism are important, there also need to be "positive contributions" that the world can stand up and applaud. I firmly believe that "vegetarian free food" programs are the answer. Not only will they impress even hard-hearted nonvegetarians, but they will also increase the opportunities for the public to experience the higher taste of vegetarianism. The way to a person's heart is through their belly!

I was born in Australia in 1963 and am a singer, songwriter, graphic designer, website developer, lecturer and vegetarian chef. As a Hare Krishna devotee I follow four principles of purity: no eating of meat, fish and eggs; no gambling; no intoxication; and no sex outside of marriage and then only for producing children. I also do two to three hours of daily private meditation. I am married to Rupal Mehta from India and we now have a beautiful five-month-old baby girl named Kishori Priya.

Maintained by Judy Miner jwminer@accessvt.com