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Vegetarian Societies and Animal Right Groups
- by Narendra Sheth, San Diego, CA -
There are nearly 150 vegetarian societies and animal right groups in America, under different names, one or more in almost each city. There are also several large organizations, reaching out the vegetarian minded people all over the nation. In almost all the nations on the globe, there are similar vegetarian societies. And then there is also one world congress of all those too. The primary purpose of each one of these is the same: promoting vegetarianism; and coordinating efforts of all in such a manner, so as to get maximum benefit out of all the efforts.
This year The World Vegetarian Congress met in Madras, India, January 5 through 10. They meet every other year. This was their 30th such meeting. Previous one, number 29, was in Tel Aviv, Israel, in April, 1991. This year the Vegetarian Union of North America will meet in Portland, Oregon, August 4 through 8. The name of Indian counterpart is Indian Vegetarian Congress.
In this article, I will give a brief introduction to five major organizations in America, which follow more or less the same principles that we the Jains follow. They are NAVS (North American Vegetarian Society), VRG (Vegetarian Resource Group), PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals), PCRM (Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicines), and Beyond Beef. There are also many other groups, such as Save Earth, which are rapidly gaining acceptance in American household, and news media.
North American Vegetarian Society: This was the first one to propose "World Vegetarian Day" in connection with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. We at JAINA also started following the same formula last year, for celebrating "Ahimsa Day" on first Sunday in October. Last year they had mounted a "Vegetarian Express" rally on many fast food chains, demanding that more pure vegetarian meals be offered and advertised in their menus. NAVS also publishes a bimonthly magazine, "Vegetarian Voice," discussing many related issues.
Vegetarian Resource Group: This group encourages and helps all new forming local vegetarian societies. Upon asking, they will send you their printout of all their members in that area, who are most likely to join you. VRG also publishes a bimonthly magazine, "Vegetarian Journal." They also have a beautiful poster, and information packet, "Vegetarianism in a Nutshell." Their bumper stickers, such as "Vegetarians are Sprouting up All Over", are very inspiring. They publish and sell many recipe books too.
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals: This group has become most known as an Animals Rights group, for rescuing animals from laboratories. Their slogan, "Animals are not for ours to eat, wear, or experiment on", agreess perfectly with our Jain principles. However, sometimes their strong actions put them in wrong media light, especially when they break in university or private laboratories to free animals. However, their strong stand and many demonstrations at campuses against testing cosmetics on rabbits and other poor creatures has slowly turned the tables. More and more companies are replacing animal tests with other alternatives. But PETA doesn't stop at animal testing only. For promoting vegetarianism in restaurants, recently they have issued signs to display, saying "We Serve Vegetarians".
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: This organization has nearly 4000 doctors, who want to concentrate efforts on prevention, rather than curing diseases. They say that animal products are unhealthy and unnecessary for humans. If we stop eating them, our needs for health care will go down. They pushed the USDA to remove meat from most favored food. In the previous "Basic Four", meat and dairy products used to enjoy the most favorable place. In the new food pyramid now published by USDA, because of the efforts of PCRM, grains, fruits, and vegetables have regained the most favored place. PCRM says, that we do not need even milk, as no other specie is known to drink milk of another specie. Milk is high in fat and cholesterol, so if we do take them, we should limit it to only two servings a day. Also, thanks to the efforts of PCRM, legumes now have been accepted as more favored source of protein than meats, by American Dietetics Association.
Beyond Beef: This group has set a precedence of filing a petition with the USDA. The petition asks to prepare an environmental impact statement on the effects of beef promotion programs, citing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and to stop funding its beef promotion programs until the assessment is completed. "It's incredible that the USDA spends our tax dollars to promote beef- a food that, when produced, is devastating to the health of the environment, and, when consumed, is devastating to the human health", they argue. This year they have set up special task teams all across the nation, called "Adopt-A-McDonald". In this campaign, they lobbied customers at nearly three thousand McDonald's Restaurants. They drew attention of the customers to the true cost of eating beef: "If all the water subsidies to factory farms are removed, the cost of beef would skyrocket to nearly $ 35 a pound! On top, you add the cost of additional health care needed because of beef." Besides, the way the forests have to be cleared for growing cow's grazing grass, we can not go on for very many years. We need to look beyond beef for a stable food supply. They predict, that Americans will have no choice, but to turn to vegetarianism, within a decade!
.... And isn't that the new trend in corporate America? We are seeing cigarettes being put out by high level executives, and meat will be the next one on that line. I have compiled a large list of vegetarian groups. Try to locate the one nearest to you. Join it, and participate in their activities. Let us combine our efforts with them, and see that vegetarianism becomes the way of life for us and our children.
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