Can A Vegetarian Lifestyle Heal The Earth?

Since I love quotations, I will start by quoting the physicist Albert Einstein: "You cannot solve problems with the ways of thinking that led to their creation." Reforms can only "euphemize" existing conditions, only revolutions can dissolve them. I certainly hope there are some revolutionaries among us as you've probably guessed, I am one of them. I am striving for a new kind of society with a new kind of people. And, as is common knowledge by now, that you can only change society if you change yourself. Not tomorrow, but today. Let me give you a brief resumé of my life. I originally wanted to become a doctor, but due to the chaotic events after the war, I found myself standing in the street with my backpack and forced to feed my family and my four younger sisters and brothers. I worked as a housemaid, as an assistant librarian and as a foreign-language secretary in Copenhagen before becoming an actress. I chanced to have a successful career on stage, in movies and TV productions, which I decided to end after 30 years. Rheumatism forced to change Due to my mother's rheumatism and the fact that I developed the same disease shortly afterwards, I began to think and read about the connections between nutrition, health, animal and environmental protection and the starvation in socalled third world countries. It became more and more obvious to me that I had to change, that I myself had to actively contribute to the salvation or the downfall of this planet by how, what and how much I eat, by what amount of resources I decide to use for myself. Acting grew less and less important. Instead, my work in the field of nutrition, animal and environmental protection and the peace movement became more important. After ending my career as an actress in 1982, I was able to concentrate fully on these tasks, I wrote books on the aforementioned subjects and trained as a health consultant. With grain mills to Bulgaria Chaos theory tells us that the beating of the wing of a butterfly on one side of the globe can lead to a tornado on the other side. Thus, all of my actions, all of my thoughts have negative and positive effects. The universe and myself are one. Allow me to quote Albert Einstein a second time: "Nothing will improve the chance of survival on this earth as much as the step towards a vegetarian lifestyle". So can vegetarianism heal the earth? I would of course be happy if I could live in a world populated only by vegetarians, where, as the prophet Isaiah said, the lion eats grass alongside the zebra. That this illusion can be put into practice on this earth is something I consider even in the age of Aquarius to be a utopian ideal. Some steps in that direction are, however, possible. It is possible to change the awareness of wide segments of the population with regard to approaching a vegetarian lifestyle for one's own health, for animal and environmental protection as well as in order to solve the problem of hunger in poor countries. This effectively means a lower quantity of higher quality is what we are aiming for. This is easy, inexpensive and possible everywhere, if one only sees the light and wants this to happen. I am here today to give you a practical example of how this can work and to convince you that it truly is possible. In the year 1989, the media repeatedly reported that the people in Poland, Rumania, Russia and Bulgaria were going hungry they had no meat, no sausage and no sugar. I asked myself why anyone would have to go hungry, let alone starve, because they didn't have something I don't even need because I've been eating vegetarian whole foods for three decades now. I wrote a letter to a Bulgarian doctor I knew, the president of the Bulgarian society of acupuncture, who had been awarded a prize by the WHO for his research on the immune system, proposing to introduce this type of nutrition for the benefit of the people in Bulgaria. Shortly thereafter, I visited Sofia and brought along several grain mills. We conducted whole foods cooking classes for doctors and cooks. During later visits, a brochure with the most important information was printed and distributed to 15000 households free of charge. Vegetarian whole food nutrition is based on the principle of leaving food as much in its natural state as possible and on the fact that about 7 to 10 kg of plant protein are required (as food for animals) in order to produce 1 kg of animal protein. Thus, the current meat consumption in industrialized countries is irresponsible, particularly in view of the fact that every day, 100.000 people die of starvation all over the world while in Germany alone, 100 billion DM are spent every year on fighting diet-related diseases that are chiefly due to the excess consumption of animal products, refined flour and sugar. How important the move in this direction can be for economic reasons becomes evident when one looks at Bulgaria. At the time I was there, a housewife had to pay 90 Lewa for 1 kg of meat as opposed to 3 Lewa for 1 kg of grain from an average income of 800 Lewa. The meat prices have by now risen in relation to grain prices, and the situation in other Eastern European countries is not much different. Just imagine how little food a family will have if they buy one kg of meat as opposed to how long they will be able to survive on the amount of grain they could buy for the same price grain from which so many delicious dishes can be prepared. Visit to Gorbachev After the success in Sofia, I went to Moscow to see Michail Gorbachev - again toting grain mills in my luggage. He told me he knew nothing about nutrition, used 6 pieces of sugar in his coffee and referred me to the head doctor of his clinic for children with radiation-related illnesses. The doctor was thrilled and suggested I collect the most important information on vegetarian whole food, have it translated into Russian and then return to Russia in order to present grain mills and whole foods in his self-help TV show. That was how the book "Green recipes for the blue planet" came into being. My Russian translator unfortunately gave up on me due to some private problems, but an abbreviated version was translated into Bulgarian. 3 500 brochures were printed with money that was donated and distributed free of charge to those interested. After the mayor of a town near Sofia, Bansko, told me that 123 senior citizens living in poverty would not survive the winter without help, ecological farmers from Salzburg donated 15000 kg of food, money and a large grain mill so that a kitchen for the poor could be started and the people survived. In February of this year, the mayor, a businessman and a baker from Bansko were invited to Salzburg in order to gather information on environmentally friendly tourism, baking whole-grain products and the production of grain mills. The next step is to be a store, in which grain mills, grain, literature on healthy living, etc. are to be sold. In particular, however, grain mill production is to be started in Bulgaria and the planting of ecological grain is to be promoted, which would also create new jobs. Part of this project is the plan to build ecological sewage treatment plants with local workers. In August 1997, a Jazz festival took place in Bansko, the proceeds of which were used to build a home for the 100 orphans in Bansko. This festival was so successful (on a national and international level) that it will be repeated in 1999 (August 8th - 13th). 500 tickets have already been sold, even a TV station from Montreux in Switzerland will be coming. The latest news from Bansko and Bulgaria: on the site of a former scrapyard a spa hotel was built the people are learning foreign languages and the river is being cleaned 2 doctors from Bansko have managed to reduce the meat consumption of the town's population by 20% a complete dentist's practice from Germany donator as well as obstetric instruments are on their way to Bansko Dr. Emil Iliev, president of the Bulgarian society of acupuncture, has a weekly column in the Sofia newspaper "24 hours" where he gives advice on healthy nutrition (less meat, sugar and salt) and is appearing on TV shows in order to demand better nutrition in hospitals the Bulgarian magazine "Meat and Meat Products" reports that the consumption of meat and meat products has dropped by a factor of 8 in Bulgaria since 1869 Conclusion The step towards vegetarian whole foods is at least ONE step towards solving our global problems, because every day 100 000 people die of starvation 100 animal and plant species become extinct 86 million tons of earth are eroded 55000 hectares of tropical rain forest are cut down deserts expand by 20000 hectares 100 million tons of greenhouse gases are released into the air more farmland is lost than can be developed within 1000 days Each of us has an ecological responsibility in their daily life, be it at work, in the house, in our free time, in our eating habits. However, an ecological lifestyle not only means restriction, but also more quality of life, the improvement of one's own health and the health of the entire planet. Barbara Rütting Sommerholz 30 5202 Neumarkt Austria Tel/Fax: +43 6216 4544 © European Vegetarian Union - http://www.ivu.org/evu