- and in LA by Vegsource at the Healthy Lifestyle Expo in the Warner Center Marriott, Woodland Hills. This great event has also been running most years for many years and received high acclaim from hundreds who keep going back.

It will be possible to go to either or both parts of this amazing event - further details will be added via the link below as they become available, The link goes to the plans so far - all subject to change at this stage.

All food in all locations will be completely vegan as always.

www.ivu.org/congress/2012

Visit IVU on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalVegUnion

December 7, Dubai UAE: “We are intricately linked to Mother Earth and hence what we eat and how we source our food are factors we must consider,” said Sandhya Prakash, founder of the Middle East Vegetarian Group (MeVeg) at the recently held first regional Congress.  While inaugurating the event in Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre, Dr Salem Abdul Rahman Al Darmaki, Undersecretary, UAE Ministry of Health, lauded the efforts of MeVeg in creating awareness about food, health and the environment. Following the opening, Sandhya Prakash, felicitated officials from Dubai Municipality, Department of Public Health and Safety headed by Engr. Reda Salman, Engr, Mohammed Al Noori, Director, Environmental Center for Arab Towns and Ms.Wafa Helmi Aish, Director Clinical Nutrition from Dubai Health Authority for their support of the Meveg Congress.

At the conference Sandhya Prakash indicated that the world is currently facing a 'Diet Crisis', which includes the increasing consumption of foods that are high in salt, sugar, fat, dairy and meat. The second is the crisis of ‘clear food labeling' on packaged goods and the third is responsible marketing strategies by the food companies. Children particularly are soft targets as they are bombarded everyday with advertisements about savoury snacks, chips and other packaged food and junk food that are not only stripped of nutrients but also contain harmful ingredients such as mono sodium glutamate or MSG, trans fats, food coloring, additives and preservatives amongst others. All these factors, she stated, adversely affect the health of the entire community as well as the health of our planet as we are all intimately linked to Mother Earth. She pointed out how unbiased food education is vital to empower people in the UAE to make the right food choices.

Fruitarian Loh Yeow Nguan from Singapore made an enlightening presentation on Anti Oxidants. He explained that research indicates how fruits that are rich in colours, especially berries of all kinds, did not only prevent aging and potential for cancer and other auto immune diseases, but also consumption of these fruits could reverse the process of aging and even diseases in certain cases. He cited how several patients having diabetes, blood pressure could reduce the impact of such diseases by adopting a fruit diet. A video showed how antioxidants undo the harm done by free radicals to the integrity of our body cells.

Dr. Robin Tauzin, Health Advisor & Naturopathic Physician, made a presentation on the importance of reading food labels when buying packaged foods. She highlighted harmful ingredients and their so called synonyms. The first on her list was MSG or mono sodium glutamate. Several research findings have  shown that far from contributing to the taste of the food, MSG simply excites our neurons to the point of killing them while simultaneously disengaging the feeling of satiation. This meant that a person eating food containing MSG fails to feel full as his brain sends his stomach messages of ongoing hunger. This results in overeating. The other names of MSG include hydrolyzed protein, textured protein, yeast nutrient, yeast extract etc. She stated that MSG results in several after effects including headache, nausea and many of us are unaware of its varied consequences.

The other ingredient Dr. Tauzin highlighted was High Fructose Corn Syrup, dextrose and sucralose, which are found in several packaged food including cereals and low fat foods. Trans-fats or hydrogenated vegetable oil or vegetable shortening and margarine, research findings show, are fats created in the factory rather than by nature. The body is unable to recognize these fats and these begin to adversely interfere with the normal working of our cells and cell membranes. Dr. Tauzin said it was better to consume natural fats found in seeds and nuts or even animal fat such as butter rather than factory produced trans fats which are found in high amounts in sugar free products.

She also enlightened the delegates about BPA (Bisphenol A) , the harmful plastic lining found in canned products which research has shown is detrimental to health. And finally, Dr. Tauzin, cited the cancer causing 'Acrylamide' -  a well-established carcinogen and neurotoxin (causes nerve damage) which is formed when frying or baking potatoes and other high starch foods such as cookies and breads. She also provided a list of extremely damaging food colouring and preservatives such as Blue Dye 1, Blue Dye 2, Red Dye 3, Red Dye 40, Yellow Dye 6, yellow tartrazine, potassium Bromate, BHA and BHT and Sodium Sulphite that is found in wines.

"Healthy Plate" talk was given by Director of Clinical Nutrition, Wafaa Helmi Aish, Dubai Health Authority. The MEVEG Congress program held alongwith the Middle East Natural & Organic Products Exhibition (MENOPE 2011)  included a group discussion on ‘Natural Living - Health or Wealth’, the challenges and possible solutions, the importance of research and public education on such topics. The lunch and workshops were supported by Barakat, Choithrams and Dubai World Trade Centre.

For more details or to attend the conference, visit www.mevegcongress.com.

About MEVEG:

The Middle East Vegetarian Group (MEVEG) is a non-profit, focus and support group providing a one stop platform for information exchange regarding health and food topics. MEVEG  aims at promoting increased consumption of plant-based regional diets to reap health and eco-benefits. The group holds monthly seminars where experts speak to members on related topics of nutrition and health. The group is open to all communities including non-vegetarians who are looking to expanding their knowledge about food-health related issues.

IVU on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalVegUnion

"Veggie? No meat... No meal!

From: Citizen Initiative for Vegetarians Rights [mailto:contact@icdv.info]
Sent: 12 October 2011 04:41
Subject: In France, eating animals becomes legal obligation. Vegetarians struggle for their freedom of conviction

Hello,

We send you the press release below (in English) which deals with an extremely important issue for vegetarianism and veganism development in France, and ask you to send it in local, regional and national medias among the contacts you have: we expect that if your medias talk about this issue and so give a bad image of France, it will have more impact on our government than the French opinion itself... (The French government did not give sign that it took into account the French public opinion for these last years.)

You can read this press release in French and in Italian too.

Best regards, and thank you

yves 

In France, eating animals becomes legal obligation

Vegetarians* struggle for their freedom of conviction

A decree has just been published making compulsory rules for the composition of meals in all public and private school catering. These rules force six millions of children of school age to eat meat, fish, dairy products and eggs.

Similar decrees are in preparation for almost all French catering, from nursery schools up to old people's home, including colleges, hospitals and prisons.

And so French law, on behalf of a public health measure, forbids the concrete expression of a conviction.

Vegetarian citizens stand up for their food choice rights.

A good piece of news? Not for vegetarians!

A decree and bylaw published in the "Journal Officiel" on October 2nd [1] force school canteens to respect a set of standards meant to guarantee the nutritional balance of the meals. Each meal necessarily has to contain a protein dish where proteins are exclusively animal-based (meat, fish, eggs or cheese), overriding plentiful availability of vegetable proteins. A dairy product is meant to represent the only way to cover calcium needs, ignoring untold vegetable and mineral alternatives. For meats (beef, veal, lamb, or offal...) and fish, a minimum frequency is specified as mandatory.

So it is from now on impossible for school cafeterias regular users to be vegetarian, or impossible for them to maintain their vegetarian diet every day. And it will be impossible to be vegan for even one meal.

Vegetarian children who would eventually manage to leave the meat on the edge of their plate would be forced to have unbalanced meals, as no alternative would be available. 

Attack on freedom of conviction

A lot of people in the world hold a deep conviction that the consumption of animals and animal exploitation is an abuse. Vegetarianism and veganism are the main concrete expression of this conviction.

The governmental decree is an infringement of fundamental rights by restricting the free practice of personal convictions such as it is proclaimed by United Nations:

"Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, observance, practice, and teaching." [2]

The treatment of animals is the object of a growing public opinion debate in France, as can be seen by several recent works released questioning, or on the opposite standing for, the legitimacy of meat consumption [3].

French government will to impose, in this context, its own ideological and economical choices is openly admitted:

Current French Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Bruno Le Maire, announced the implementation of a national program for the food which also aims at slowing down the impact of some speeches, like the one ex-Beatle Paul McCartney held, who called in December, outside the Copenhagen summit, for a "go meat free once a week" to slow global warming. This call had sparked a general outcry among farmers [4]

The pursuit of an institutional nutritional lie

For several years, through several releases from the French National Nutrition and Health Program (PNNS) ,and its public website: www.mangerbouger.fr, public authorities libel Vegetarianism and Veganism.

This, when it is clearly admitted nowadays and by numerous medical and sanitary authorities all around the world, that to the contrary, we can live, and be in a very good shape, without consuming any meat and animal products. For example:

The position of the American Dietetic Association is that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. [5]

The debate on the animal exploitation legitimacy is of philosophical, ethical and political nature and must continue. It is not acceptable that the French State, on behalf of some public health measure based on nutritional lies, wants to forbid this debate by outlawing the concrete expression of a conviction.

Vegetarians mobilize

Vegetarian collectives and associations get organized everywhere in France to express their indignation in front of this decree, warn public opinion and deny food assertions spread by public authorities. Actions are going to be organized in an imminent way in all France regions.

They call all individuals and organizations willing to struggle for freedom of conviction, whatever are their own positions concerning the animal exploitation, to join their voice to these protests.

Citizen Initiative for Vegetarians Rights (ICDV) has already contacted the United Nations in May to indicate concrete episodes of discrimination against vegetarians in France [6]. If the decree is not removed, the ICDV announces a new complaint against France for violation of the freedom of conviction.

Agreed by :
ACTA (Bordeaux), Aquitaine Décroissance, ALARM (Marseille), Animal Amnistie (Toulouse), Animal Libre (Albi), Animalsace, Animavie, Les Animaux de Maurice, APSARES, Association pour un homme plus humain, Association végétarienne de France, Avis (Toulouse), CABle (Besançon), CLEDA (Paris), CLAM (Montpellier), Collectif Diois pour l'égalité (Die), Convention Vie et Nature, Dignité animale (Lyon), Droits des Animaux, Fondation Brigitte Bardot, ICDV, L214, One Voice, Nea (Rennes), Rêv'Animal, Revégez-vous (Rennes), Société végane, Végétariens Magazine, Veggie Pride, VegFest, VG56 (Finistère), Vivants (Sedan)...

Mail : contact@icdv.info
David Olivier 00 33 6 42 06 07 47
http://www.icdv.info/

Notes :

* Vegetarians includes vegans in this text.
Vegetarians eat no red meat, white meat, fish or other aquatic animals (prawns, crabs, lobsters etc) or slaughterhouse by-products such as gelatine, animal fat, lard or rennet.
Vegans eat no animal products at all including red and white meat, fish and other water creatures, dairy products (eg cow's or goat's milk or derivatives such as yoghurt or cheese) or eggs.
A vegan lifestyle also avoids leather, wool, silk and other animal products for clothing or any other purpose.

[1] Decree N 2011-1227 of September 30th, 2011 and order of September 30th, 2011. These texts follow upon the law n°2010-874 of July 27th, 2010 called "agriculture and fishing modernization law", which arranges that: "the public and private school and university catering services administrators, as well as children under 6 years old catering services, health care establishment, social and medical and social establishments and penitentiaries have to stick to those rules, determined by decree, of nutritional quality of the meals which they propose []."

[2] Statement on the elimination of all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on November 25th, 1981 (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/religion.htm), the art. 1.1.

[3] In particular Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating animals" (Kinkle editions, January, 2011); Marcela Iacub, "Confessions d'une mangeuse de viande - Pourquoi je ne suis plus carnivore" (Fayard editions, March, 2011); Dominique Lestel, "Apologie du carnivore" (Fayard editions, April, 2011).

[4] AFP news of 21/01/2010 (http://tinyurl.com/FlashLeFigaro).

[5] Official position of the American Dietetic Association; see http://www.adajournal.org/article/S0002-8223(09)00700-7/fulltext.

[6] See on the blog of the ICDV, http://www.icdv.info/

IVU on facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalVegUnion

Note: the 'prize draw' is only relevant in the UK.

Updates on Veg Congresses in USA & China

Thought Provoking Poster

Vegetarian Week Contest

Animal Activists Arrested in Spain

Korean Animal Protection Law Passed Of Pandas and Cats

Book News 1

Book News 2

Why People Stop Being Veg

Diabetes Doubles

Latest on Nutrition from Dr Michael Greger

Argument #5: Carnivorous Fellow Animals

Welcome to New IVU Members

Upcoming Events

Welcome to Organisations That Have Recently Registered with IVU

Other Online Sources of Veg News

Please Send News to IVU Online News

Go to: www.ivu.org/news/online/August2011.pdf

The Global Veg Explosion

San Francisco – Here We Come!

IVU Revises Its Definition of Vegetarian

Welcome to New IVU Members 

The Environmental Case Against Meat

Review of ‘Potato’ the Book

Legumes Speak To Us – Short Video

New from Vegatopia

Review of Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs

Creating Your Own Vegetarian Food Guide - example from Singapore

Upcoming Events

Welcome to Organisations That Have Recently Registered with IVU

Other Online Sources of Veg News

Please Send News to IVU Online News

All articles:
www.ivu.org/news/online/June_2011.pdf

Francisco kindly took time to answer a few questions about the upcoming event.

How often is the International Vegan Festival held? Where were the last two?

The International Vegan Festival is held every two years. The 11^th International Vegan Festival was held in Karnataka, India in 2007, and the last one or 12th International Vegan Festival was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil in 2009.

Why did you choose Malaga as the location for the festival?

In 2006, we held a regional vegetarian/vegan event at the same venue and liked the location. Furthermore, as an attractive tourist destination, Málaga itself justifies holding such an international event there. It is of particular interest to vegans who enjoy the juicy mangos and tasty avocados and fruits that grow in the region.

Please tell us a bit about who will be speaking at the festival?

Participants and representatives of international vegetarian/vegan societies will be attending and speaking at the Festival, such as Dr. Susianto Tseng, president of Vegan Society of Indonesia and IVU Coordinator for Asia-Pacific; Marly Winckler, IVU Coordinator for Latin America and organiser of the last IVF in Brasil; Stephen Walsh, author of Plant Based Nutrition and Health; John Davis, IVU Manager and Historian; David Roman, president Spanish Vegetarian Union; etc., as well as other activists and campaigners working for animal rights, education, ethics, nutrition and the law.

Aside from the usual talks, workshops and panel discussions, what kind of fun events will there be?

Besides addressing all relevant vegan issues, the Festival offers a varied entertainment programme ranging from a jazz quartet and flamenco guitar to circle dancing and singing, theatrical performance, walks on the seashore, local excursions as well as pre and post festival tours to Doñana National Park, Seville and other places of interest.

Is it still possible to register and book a room for the Festival?

Yes, the Festival is just one and a half months away, and participants are advised to register and book their single or double accommodation for their length of stay as soon as they possibly can.

Last, but not least, what about the food at the festival?

The food of course will be vegan and since our last vegan event at the hotel in 2006, the cooks made good use of the vegan books given to them, and they fully understand how to cater to vegan needs. We also have vegan food suppliers - Suryaenterprise S.L. who will deliver food to our Festival; so, please come to the 13th International Vegan Festival to experience the warmth, charm, taste and feel of Southern Spain.

full details at: www.ivu.org/veganfest/2011

More from IVU Online News: www.ivu.org/news

Below is an interview with John Davis.

Has history always been an interest of yours?

It has always been a fascination. I've compiled a history of the ancient English village where my wife Hazel and I live, which I'm now taking on tour to local history groups. We have also traced our family histories back hundreds of years.

When did you first start researching vegetarian history? What was the first topic/era that you looked at?

There is one article on the IVU website that I compiled in 1992, which was probably where it began - I was reading a very large book on the social history of England from 1066 to 1945, and there was quite a lot about food in it, all referring to much earlier books. As the originals were out of copyright I put together a lot the interesting items. 'Food in England Since 1066 -- A Vegetarian Evolution?' at: www.ivu.org/history/renaissance/food-england.html

When I started the IVU website in 1995, I put in a section on 'History' and just started adding whatever came along that was non-copyright. We now have more than 10,000 files of historical info on there.

In 2002 we agreed to hold the IVU Centenary Congress in Dresden, in 2008; so during those six years I did a lot of research into the history of IVU itself, mainly from the Vegetarian Society UK library which has all the journals back to 1847.

How has the internet changed the nature of historical research?

Dramatically. The biggest difference for veg*n history is having old books available - Google has about 10 million non-copyright books scanned, so now we can read them without needing direct access to the biggest libraries. 

Crucially we can also search those 10 million books in a matter of seconds - so,  for example, finding all uses of the word 'vegetarian' in old books would have been almost impossible in the past, now we've done it.

How do you try for accuracy in your work?

Mostly by encouraging others to double check it - known as 'peer reviewing' in research terms. We have a small ivu-history email group with some great people who soon pick up anything I get wrong, and they add more of their own research which the rest of us check too.

The other priority is to try to get back to original sources. In recent years there have been many books on various aspects of veg history, but many of them contain mistakes, some of them just referring to each other and perpetuating the errors.

Now so much more is online it does get much easier to find the original texts and check for ourselves exactly what people were writing hundreds of years ago. Putting all our research on the website also means it can be easily updated when new information is found, whereas once a book is printed there is no easy way of correcting it. Anyone with an interest in veg history is welcome to join us at: groups.yahoo.com/group/ivu-history

What topics have caught your interest of late? And, what have you learned?

Over the last few months the ivu-history group been looking at the history of 'veganism' before the word 'vegan' was invented in 1944. As they had no word to describe themselves, it takes a lot of detailed research to look at everything we can find about what people were eating, and their ethical views. There was no consistent meaning to phrases like 'strict vegetarian', so we have to examine every scrap of evidence available.

I'll be giving a presentation about this at the International Vegan Festival in Spain this June. The results, so far, are at: www.ivu.org/history/vegan.html

What one article, book, etc. from 50 or more years ago would you strongly recommend to today's veg activists, and where can they find that?

The most remarkable of the older books has to be 'The Ethics of Diet' compiled by Howard Williams, MA from 1878 onwards. This is effectively the first ever 'history of vegetarianism', with articles on almost 100 significant people who adopted the meatless diet. Williams not only had no internet - there were not even any previous printed histories to refer to.

The amount of research involved must have been staggering. Gandhi knew Williams and read his book; Tolstoy wrote an essay 'The First Step' as a preface for the Russian edition.

There were some changes in later editions, but we now have almost everything from all the editions online at: www.ivu.org/history/williams

If you had the power to go back and change one historical event, what event would that be and how would you change it?

That would have to be to try to stop the awful confusion that has arisen around the word 'vegetarian'! Now we just have to try to resolve it as best we can. For what it originally meant, and how it all got confused see: www.vegsource.com/john-davis/vegetarian-equals-vegan.html

More from IVU Online News: www.ivu.org/news

Eric Brent is founder & director of HappyCow.net, a global guide to vegetarian restaurants and health food stores. Eric kindly agreed to be interviewed for IVU Online News.

What is the story of your own evolution as a vegetarian?

In the late 1980s while I was attending college in Santa Cruz, California, a friend brought me to the local vegetarian restaurant, then named McDharma and introduced me to a veggie burger. After I ate it, I had a small awakening about the source of meat burgers. I felt that I could no longer eat red meat again.

Then, I stopped eating fish while traveling and living in China, and gradually I removed eggs and dairy from my diet, partly due to my encounter with a Buddhist master in Taiwan. Then in 1999, while living in India, I felt an inspiration to create the HappyCow.net website to help other veg travelers in finding "safe" food.

How can IVU member organisations help make Happy Cow an even better resource?

HappyCow is peer content website, which means that the content published is contributed by visitors, members, and volunteers. We rely on passionate individuals everywhere who want to help others access up-to-date information about where to find a veg restaurant or health food store. Presently, our restaurant/store guide features nearly 15,000 veg & veg-friendly listings with 30,000 reviews.

IVU member organizations can contribute by going to HappyCow.net regularly and checking that the restaurants and stores in their cities are accurately represented. You could also write reviews for the places you've patronized. Plus, do participate in our forum discussions. By keeping the information on HappyCow accurate and sharing your experiences, you are helping other veg travelers and vegheads.

How do advances in technology help Happy Cow?

Besides being able to access our web guide using computers from their homes and offices, people can also access HappyCow via their cell phones. We offer an app for the iPhone (VegOut), one for Android (HappyCow VeginOut, which works for Droid), one for Palm Pre (HappyCow VeginOut), and one for Symbian OS. Soon we will release an app for Windows 7. Full details at www.happycow.net/mobile.html

You also list restaurants that serve meat. How do you decide on which places to add? How have your policies evolved? How do you expect them to evolve in the future?

HappyCow listings are defined by the level of “veg-ness” (i.e. raw / vegan / vegetarian / or veg-friendly). We give our visitors as much information as possible and provide trustworthy reviews from fellow veg*ns and health food eaters. Deciding on which listings to accept is a time-consuming issue, because each submission is reviewed and investigated. This process enables us to maintain our ntegrity. It's why HappyCow has a good reputation and a loyal following.

To get a better perspective on this please see our submission guidelines, at www.happycow.net/submitrestaurant1.php. Basically, in order to get listed on HappyCow, a non-veg place has to demonstrate that it‟s going the extra distance to accommodate veg*ns and is not just about leaving out the meat.

What else does Happy Cow do other than provide restaurant listings?

More than just a restaurant and health food store guide, visitors will also find listings and reviews for all vegan shops and bakeries, veg B&Bs, veg catering companies, veg organizations, and farmers markets. Come to our site, and you will also find a dedicated vegetarian travel section which includes tips to staying healthy while traveling; health articles and food recipes; a community discussion forum; member groups based on interest or region; live chat rooms; a world events calendar; a free extended directory of famous vegetarians; and our monthly vegin' out newsletter MooZine: www.happycow.net/moozine_list.php.

Please tell us a vegetarian joke or share a cartoon related to vegetarianism

Visit www.happycow.net/humor.html and you will find an entire page dedicated to vegetarian humor. Enjoy!

For the complete IVU Online News - April 2011, see:
www.ivu.org/news/online/April2011.pdf

What is the story of your evolution as a vegetarian?

I had a London-based TV production company and was commissioned by Juliet Gellatley, then at the Vegetarian Society (UK), to make a film on vegetarianism for young teenagers (Food Without Fear). I injected humour into it and used the black actor Vaz Blackwood (Lenny Henry‟s one-time side kick) as the lead character. It was reviewing archive footage of factory farming that deeply shocked both me and my business partner, Yvette Vanson. In all, seven people who worked on that production went vegetarian, including my partner‟s husband, Michael Mansfield QC. I was pretty convinced the film would do what was required of it. It won awards at the New York Film & TV Festival and the Prague Ecofest.

How and when did you become involved in activism for vegetarianism?

Juliet founded VIVA! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) in 1994. By this time she and I were married. I was totally behind her decision to found VIVA and became involved from the start in stuffing envelopes, doing street collections and stalls and supporting in any way I could.

It became inevitable that I got drawn in and used my only talent, as a writer, to become Viva!‟s words person. I wrote the magazine, leaflets, appeals, some guides and so on. It coincided with my partner and I going our separate ways and dissolving our company, Vanson Wardle Productions. It was almost „game, set and match‟ now and my involvement with Viva! grew and grew until I ceased TV production and became a full-time campaigner. What does VIVA! do? Viva! started off by campaigning for a vegetarian world, concentrating on what happens to farmed animals in the UK, particularly in intensive (factory) farming. It was always a multi-pronged approach – exposing the brutality of farming and slaughter but also offering support to people wanting to change their diet. Right from the start we brought in arguments on the environment, health and the developing world but our concentration was on animal abuse.

For the first few years we achieved extraordinary media coverage but it gradually became harder and harder to grab the interest of journalists as they adopted the attitude of „seen that, done that, been there‟. This spurred us to do more first hand investigations – actually going into farms and slaughterhouses and filming what we saw. That reinvigorated our campaigns.

How has VIVA! evolved over the years?

Together, Juliet and I wrote the Silent Ark (Thorsens), a book which sold extremely well and has just gone out of print. Its replacement is being worked on right now. She also wrote The Livewire Guide to Going and Being Vegetarian (all the vegetarian issues for young people) and Born to be Wild (the use and abuse of animals world wide). Both were published by the Women‟s Press). As we grew the quality of our printed material became more imaginative and professional and our successes increased, too.

We were always aware of the cruelty of the dairy industry but have now essentially become a vegan organization. We still use the word vegetarian but that is to be inclusive, encouraging people to engage with Viva! Once they do we help to push them along the road towards veganism. Of our 19 staff, 18 are vegan.

Ten years ago we gave health a specific focus with the formation of the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation. It works solely on issues of health and nutrition, taking over Viva!‟s charitable status, freeing Viva! up to be more independent and no longer confined by the Charity Commissions rules on "political‟ campaigning. We‟ve opened an office in Warsaw, Poland, which has become the pre-eminent campaigning animal group in Poland.

More recently we have been putting undercover investigators into work situations and the results in the last 18 months in exposing the cruelty of modern farming have been extraordinary. Our publication of a report into the environmental impact of livestock farming is hugely popular (Diet of Disaster) and marks our upgrading of environmental concerns.

What is one of VIVA’s success stories?

I really couldn‟t give just one. The first big success was to empty the shelves of all 1,800 supermarkets in the UK of kangaroo meat. This was followed by other "exotic‟ meats. The ostrich farming industry blamed Viva! for its collapse.

Three Christmases running we exposed Bernard Matthews‟ turkey farms and sales slumped and stayed down. We were the first people ever to expose duck farming, showing it to be as intensive as all other poultry. Sales slumped and stayed down. We have done a huge amount of expose work on pigs and again sales are down.

Poland‟s chief vet blamed Viva! for the collapse of live horse exports from his country to Italy – down from 120,000 to 30,000. In the US, we were part of the team which saw foie gras production and sales outlawed.

We were responsible for Wholefoods Markets completely rewriting its animal welfare code to be probably the best in the world and its chief executive became vegan. The latest success is the abandonment by Nocton dairies of their massive proposed zero-grazing dairy farm. We began the campaign with the local group Vegan Lincs. Meat sales in the UK have fallen by 5 per cent over the last three years despite a growing population and increased immigration from essentially meat-eating nations. We believe we have played a big part in that.

Why did VIVA decide to join IVU?

I think we were too busy doing our own thing and were not fully unaware of the IVU‟s work. A meeting with John Davis convinced me that as the largest veg*an campaigning group in Europe, we should put our experience and expertise at the disposal of the IVU for the benefit of others.

see: www.viva.org.uk

Complete IVU Online News - April 2011:
www.ivu.org/news/online/April2011.pdf

On the 22nd of February at 12.51pm, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch causing massive damage on an unprecedented scale. This has far-reaching effects not only in our city, but for the whole of our country, mourning the loss of homes, businesses, iconic buildings, and most tragically the loss of life. Our office was severely damaged, thankfully nobody was hurt but our organisation has suffered immensely.

Despite this we immediately went in to action, and within 24 hours of the quake, the Christchurch Vegetarian Centre had mobilised and responded to meet the needs of our vegetarian and vegan community. The Centre has co-ordinated vegan food, gas stoves, drinking water and practical help such as housing checks by a vegetarian builder and emotional support. The Centre checked and confirmed the safety of every member and responded to emails from around the world as to the whereabouts of vegetarian friends in Christchurch.

In a time of crisis, having a strong community around you is immensely healing. The Christchurch Vegetarian Centre continues to provide support for its shattered and traumatised community, in a time when our futures remain so uncertain.

When the earthquake hit our Events Co-ordinator Anna van den Bosch was inside our office in the Christchurch CBD. Everything in the Centre’s office fell down around her, and as she ran from the building to safety, the ceilings caved in. Thankfully, Anna managed to escape unharmed, but the future of our Centre office is not looking hopeful. We do not know if we will ever be allowed back into Christchurch Community House to retrieve the resources that were so painstakingly built up over the years. As it stands we do not even have a leaflet to our name.

The Christchurch Vegetarian Centre is housed in the very centre of the city, in Christchurch Community House. The Centre is a branch of The New Zealand Vegetarian Society and is also the official Christchurch contact for the New Zealand Vegan Society. Our attached leaflet outlines what we do. We are New Zealand’s most active vegetarian/vegan community, running many groups and events to support people to go vegetarian, and to stay vegetarian.

Even if our building is deemed safe to return to after the earthquake, its location will be an issue. Traumatised by the experience of the quake many people are not willing to return to the central city. Many of the buildings deemed safe after the September 4th earthquake collapsed on February 22nd. We feel if we were to re-open our Centre there, few people would visit it.

Office space is at a premium; with 50,000 workers being displaced in Christchurch we will struggle to find a suitable and affordable location, let alone materials to replace what we have lost.

This Centre is vital to the vegetarian community of Christchurch, and many of our members and supporters live in the city. They have lost homes, businesses, and sadly some have lost their loved ones. Now is the time for us to be strong for them, provide a place for them to come and rest, share experiences and be comforted. We want to see the city we love rebuilt, and, as many people leave the city, we want to provide support to reassure people that there is a future here in Christchurch.

We are asking you to help us to rebuild our organisation, to help us build a new Centre, a solid foundation to house our strong community spirit. Out of the ashes of this terrible tragedy, we have seen what an amazing community spirit Christchurch has - everyday people rise to the challenge and become heroes, providing hope for us that we can rebuild, we will recover.

We are launching an international appeal to help rebuild the Christchurch Vegetarian Centre. We have two aims:

1. To rebuild our resources (computers, filing cabinets, desks, banners,DVDs, posters, leaflets, library, shop etc) Estimated funds needed: NZ$20,000

2. To open a new Christchurch Vegetarian Centre – a purpose built centre with meeting rooms, office, kitchen for cooking classes, Youth Centre, etc. A real and permanent centre for our community.

Estimated funds needed: NZ$750,000

Please support our appeal by sharing this with your supporters.

The New Zealand Vegetarian Society has opened a bank account: The ‘Christchurch Vegetarian Centre Earthquake Rebuilding Fund’ to take donations. Every donation, no matter how small, will help us rebuild our Centre and our precious vegetarian/vegan community.

For New Zealand donations the account number is:
12 3045 0360126 02
(We are a charitable trust so donations are tax deductable.)

For overseas depositors the number is:
ASBBNZ2A 12 3045 0360126 02

More details at: www.ivu.org/asia-pacific/Christchurch_Vegetarian_Centre.pdf  (1.6mb PDF) Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information. Thank you for your support.

Yours sincerely,
Yolanda Soryl
Christchurch Vegetarian Centre Co-ordinator
Email: co-ordinator@vegetarianchristchurch.org.nz  /  www.vegetarianchristchurch.org.nz

Dixie and her SF colleagues have kindly taken on the task of organizing the 2012 IVU World Vegetarian Congress to be held in San Francisco. The following interview excerpts are reprinted with permission from Open Exchange Magazine, Jul-Sep 2010:

Dixie, how long have you been a vegetarian?

I've been vegetarian 52 years and vegan 32 years. I first wanted to be a vegetarian when at age 5 in 1938. I went fishing with my father and caught a fish, but all I wanted to do was put it back into the water. I saw it suffering and I couldn't eat it. I felt a oneness with the fish, almost a Zen thing.

Did your family support your decision to go vegetarian?

No, growing up I was told I couldn't live without meat, and the rest of my family remained meat eaters. I'm 76 now. I have no medical issues, no arthritis, no cancer, no knee replacements. I buried two of my younger sisters, one 10 years younger. It's sad when you see your own family ignoring you, not connecting the dots.

Why did you go from vegetarian to vegan?

I started learning about problems with raising calves, with milk production, the cruelty involved, and I became a vegan for compassionate reasons. After that I learned about the health reasons, too. Medical doctors such as Dr. McDougall find that milk is perhaps even more harmful than meat.

For the rest of the interview: www.openexchange.org/features/JAS10/mahy.html

Complete IVU Online News - March 2011 - www.ivu.org/news/online/March2011.pdf