This post answers the question which I have been asked many times “Why are you vegan?”

Well…there is a Chinese proverb which will explain this post very well.

One picture is worth ten thousand words.

This is why I am vegan.

This is 1000 Year Old Vegan Poem which was shared on the JainVegans Yahoo group.

You are diseased in understanding and religion.
Come to me, that you may hear something of sound truth.
Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up,
And do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals,
Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught
for their young, not noble ladies.
And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking eggs;
for injustice is the worst of crimes.
And spare the honey which the bees get industriously
from the flowers of fragrant plants;
For they did not store it that it might belong to others,
Nor did they gather it for bounty and gifts.
I washed my hands of all this; and wish that I
Perceived my way before my hair went gray!

Al-Ma’arri (973-1057)
Baghdad (modern Iraq)

My friend Sagar wrote the message below. He sent it to many of us last year. I saved it in order to send it out this year. I’ve had so many responses to the one and only reply I received about it; I had to share them.

Below you’ll find the message by Sagar, followed by the message from my anonymous friend. The comments that followed will appear in the comment section below the post. Please feel free to add your tuppence!

The message I forwarded which was originally written by Sagar: -

Dear friends,

As many of you will know, Paryushan, the Jain festival of penance and forgiveness has begun.

During this festival, members of the Jain faith traditionally fast and participate in pratikraman. For lay members, fasting often entails avoiding activities that are traditionally thought to cause more himsa than others, such as eating root vegetables.

In today’s complex society, the process of milk production causes far more suffering and killing than typically meets the eye. Dairy cows are forcefully and artificially inseminated to stimulate pregnancy and milk production. They are immediately separated from their offspring at birth. Any male calves that are not reared for veal or beef are slaughtered immediately after birth (since they have no intrinsic value to a dairy farmer), and their sisters are forced to go through the same agony and suffering as their mothers. A dairy cow could live up to 30 years in a natural environment, but will almost always get slaughtered before the age of 10, as her milk yield drops, and it is no longer financially viable for a farmer to use her for milk production (or anything else).

It is the unfortunate (and inconvenient) truth that our consumption of milk and other dairy products contributes to the above processes. In light of this, it seems natural that Jains (adherents of Ahimsa) should acknowledge and consider the suffering caused to cows in the milk production.

So…. why not give up dairy products this Paryushan?

For more information, please see the following documents addressing the reasons to give up / reduce animal product usage, alternatives to dairy products, and possible health concerns:

Problems with dairy products: http://sagarkiritshah.googlepages.com/ProblemswithAnimalProducts.rtf
Alternatives to dairy: http://sagarkiritshah.googlepages.com/DairyAlternatives.rtf
Health concerns: http://sagarkiritshah.googlepages.com/Healthconcerns.rtf

Many members of the Jain community have made steps to completely remove dairy and other animal products from their diets in order to reduce their himsa footprint. If you would like to find more, or have any questions about reducing dairy from your diet (over Paryushana or longer), please feel free to JainVegans-owner@yahoogroups.com, or join the Jain Vegans e-group by e-mailing JainVegans-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

If you think giving up all dairy products will be too difficult, please consider reducing dairy products. For example, you could have two dairy free meals a day, or try and just replace milk and chaas with soy milk or rice milk. Every little step will help reduce the harm and suffering caused.

Please forward this message on to anyone who you think would find it relevant or of interest.

Micchami Dukkadam (sorry for any offence or harm caused by this message),

Sagar Shah

The reply from my anonymous friend: -

I want you to consider the result of this action.

The dairy farmer is in business for money.
His sales of milk and milk products drop.
He starts making losses on his dairy farm.
He thinks. There is more demand of beef than dairy!
He changes his farm to beef farm.
Presently he sends his bulls to the abattoir because they are of no use.
If the cows also become of no use to his dairy profits?
Then of course he will fatten them with hormones and non-eatables!
He will send the cows to the abattoir with the bulls.

By not using dairy products ARE YOU DOING ANY FAVOURS TO THE COWS?

This is a deception being spread by a few who do not respond to the above thought process.

What do you think? Any comments?

This article is not my own. However, it is so worth reading, I asked the author if I could post it on my blog. Thus with his permission…here it is.

This article was first published on Internet (Jain-list) in August 1997.  Later on more information was added to this article.

Dairy Visit in USA:

I visited a dairy farm located on Route 2 north of Burlington, Vermont (USA) in May of 1995.  The dairy owns approximately 150 cows.  All of its milk production is used to make ice cream.

Here is the summary of what I saw and learnt:

It was milking time (5:00 PM) and the cows were being milked in 3.5 minutes each by a machine. This is done without regard to how hard it is on the cow.  It was extremely difficult to watch the cows’ sufferings during the milking.  The machine has no feeling.  To extract the last drop of milk sometimes traces of blood get mixed with the milk.

Since cows produce the most milk after pregnancy, they are kept pregnant for their entire fertile life through artificial insemination. Every morning hormones or drugs are injected into the cows. They are also fed a diet geared toward high production of milk.  The dairy cow produces about 8 times the amount of milk a cow on the traditional family farm produces.

The gestation period of cow is 9 months same as human does.  If a male calf, of no use to the dairy industry, is born, he is shipped to the veal industry within two or three days of birth.

The evening I was there, the farm was shipping three baby calves in a truck to a veal factory.  The mother cows were crying when their babies were separated from them.  I cannot forget the scene and can still hear the cries of the mother cows.

The veal industry is the most cruel meat industry in the world.  It produces very tender meat that is considered a delicacy.  The baby calves are raised in darkness in a very confining crate, which allows practically no movements.  They are fed an iron-deficient diet.  This way the meat gets very tender and properly textured.  They slaughter the baby calves after six months.  There is much literature available about cruelty in the veal industry.

Within two months of delivery, the cows are impregnated again.  I did not have the stamina to watch the process of artificial insemination that the farm was showing off.

About four to five times a year, this farm would take the cows outside for a walk.  Otherwise, the cows are tied in one place and they have no choice but to defecate where they are confined.  It badly stunk when I was there; the farm would wash the confinement areas once or twice a day, and the remaining times the cows would live in their own waste.

The life expectancy of cows is about 15 to 20 years.  However, after about 4 to 5 years, their milk production capacity drops significantly so these cows are sent to the slaughterhouse for cheap meat which is used in fast food restaurants, hot dog filler, dog & cat food and a variety of other “foodstuffs”.  The rest of the body material (by products) turns up in the products like floor wax, pet food, medicines, insulin, gelatin, footwear, upholstery, taco filling, cosmetics, candles, and soaps.

During her fertile life, cow delivers about four babies.  Statistically only one female baby is needed to replace the existing cow.  Hence all other babies (males or females) are sent to veal industry where they are tortured for six months and then slaughtered for the meat (delicacy meal).

As I learned and observed the cruelty in the dairy industry, I at first found it hard to believe.  On a personal level, I feared that it would be impossible for me to give up the dairy products and become vegan (absolutely no animal product).  How could I eliminate milk, yogurt, butter, ghee, and cheese from my diet?  To become vegan means that I cannot drink tea with milk, eat any Indian sweets, pizza, milk chocolate, ice cream, eggless but dairy-containing cake, and many other items.

At this time I remembered my daughter Shilpa’s (who became vegan few months prior to my visit) word, “Dad, cows’ milk is for baby cows and not for humans or their babies. No other animal consumes the milk of another species.  We do not have the right to consume the milk of other animals for our benefit by exploiting and torturing them.  Furthermore milk and its products are not essential for our survival or for healthy life”.

However, needless to say, the dairy farm tour made me an instant vegan.

Pravin K. Shah

Jaina Education Committee Chairperson

Director, Jain Study Center of North Carolina (Raleigh)

education@jaina.org

www.jaineLibrary.or

October 26, 2009

Are Tesco meeting your needs?

They have asked the Vegan Society how they can improve for their vegan customers as part of a general review.

Here’s a message from the Vegan Society: -

Please let Tesco know your thoughts by sending an email to customer.service@tesco.co.uk Please also send a copy to media@vegansociety.com for Amanda Baker, the Media Officer. Lastly, please include that you follow a vegan diet in the subject heading so that they can track the comments coming in.

This is a great way to provide feedback. Do use it

I wrote to Wrigley after being told that most chewing gum is made of bladders and such like. The reply I got from them was beyond what I was hoping.

It provides a quick and easy to understand list for those who need/want to know!

From: consumer.affairs@wrigley.co.uk

Dear Heena,

Thank you for your email regarding the use of animal/meat based ingredients in our products.

Please be reassured that the Wrigley Company’s priority is, and always will be, to manufacture high-quality products that are safe, enjoyable and meet domestic and international food regulations.  All the ingredients used in Wrigley products are of the highest standards of safety and purity.

We confirm that while the vast majority of Wrigley products sold in the UK & ROI are free from ingredients of animal origin, including egg and dairy products; the following Wrigley products contain ingredients which are not suitable for:

Vegan Diet

Altoid Mints

Extra Fusion® Berry Tronic

Extra Fusion® Electric Fruits

Hubba Bubba® Max™ Strawberry & Watermelon

Hubba Bubba® Max™ Sour Double Berry

Hubba Bubba® Glob

Vegetarian Diet

Hubba Bubba® Max™ Strawberry & Watermelon

Hubba Bubba® Max™ Sour Double Berry

Altoid Mints

Hubba Bubba® Glob

Our Altoid Mints do contain very small quantities of gelatine which is derived from pork.  Gelatine does not impart any flavour to the mints but it’s a necessary ingredient for the texture.  When we use gelatine it is thoroughly purified and dried during its manufacturing process.  As a company we are continually looking at alternatives to animal gelatine, but at the moment we’ve not been able to find a substitute that produces the same quality our consumers have come to enjoy with Altoid Mints.

We hope this information is of assistance and thank you for taking the time to contact The Wrigley Company Limited.

On behalf of,

Beverley Brown (Ms)

Office & Consumer Services Manager

There’s been a discussion on the JainVegan group about making your own alternatives to dairy milk. It sounds so easy, I thought I should share it with those of you who are willing to try it at home!

Sagar wrote: -

I believe Oatly is a Swedish brand and that the cartons available in the UK are imported from Sweden. I really like the taste of oatly – and its a good (low protein) plant milk which can help reduce the over-dose that many of us will probably be getting from soya products.

I think many of us in the UK probably end up having too much wheat, and too much soya in our diet compared to other beneficial grains (corn/maize, millet, rye, spelt etc) – so unless you have porridge every morning – drinking oatly could be a good way to ensure balance on the grain sides of things. Though porridge in the morning might be a more affordable and equally nutritious option…

Just a quick note about Oatley. It’s amazingly easy to make your own oat milk. Soak a cup of oats with 4 cups water overnight in the fridge, then blend and use on cereal the following morning!  Keeps well for a good few days and tastes almost as good.  A friend of mine sifts it through a muslin cloth go get rid of the residue, but I don’t bother as don’t think it matters about the lumps!

Do you know how to make any other forms of alternative milks at home?