written/translated by: Marius Cristian Vasilescu

Romania

List of the Vegetarian Societies

Societatea Vegetarienilor din Romania, O.P. 7 - C.P. 135, Bucuresti

info@svr.ro, www.svr.ro/


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Vegetarianism in Romania

There is not yet a true vegetarian movement in Romania. We cannot say exactly how many true vegetarians are in Romania, but we can say that there are many people concerned about their health and many with vegetarian-friendly diets. That's why alternative medicine and health food stores are very popular. Most Romanians enjoy meat and would only give it up for health reasons, and so most of the people who go vegetarian in Romania return to eating meat if and when their health problems disappear. At weddings serving meat is a must. Vegetarian restaurants are very very rare. In fact, there is no vegetarian restaurant even in Bucharest, the capital of the country. However, some restaurants offer vegetarian options because about 85% of Romanians are Christian Orthodox and many of them keep the Orthodox Lent, which means having a vegan diet for certain lengths of time (which can add up to be more than half the year). This is a good thing for the vegetarian industry. In the last several years even the meat industry has begun to offer vegetarian versions of their products.

Recently, the Romanian Vegetarian Society, which was founded in '91 but had been inactive for quite a while, has started working on changing this situation. The first step was the development of a website in Romanian that aims to promote vegetarianism and give support to vegetarians. Another important part of this project was to gather a community of people interested in getting involved with RVS and organizing vegetarian events and activities. The website has proved to be a success so far. The society is getting active again, but this time with a younger leadership, and an eagerness to change people's views on eating animals and animal products. The most immediate need is for basic vegetarian information to be available in Romanian. That is why our next step is to translate and produce brochures relevant to the reality in Romania and to then distribute them for free. For now, the Romanian Vegetarian Society is distributing free CDs with movies on the horrors of the animal industry. Besides brochures, we plan to translate and make available some documentary films and even books. And we want to organize lectures, meetings, and other activities that promote a compassionate vegetarian lifestyle in Romania.