As a follow up to the UN International Conference on the Social, Economic and Institutional Aspects of Land and Ecosystems Restoration, I’m in Goa to work with Devprakash Sathyanarayanan, founder of the VEGAN city concept called APTI, which is meant to be implemented as an ecosystems restoration project on degraded “wasteland.” APTI is part of the VEGAN Revolution that Dr. Richard Schwartz conceived of in his eponymous book of 2020.

The VEGAN Revolution is undoubtedly the greatest transformation in human history, eclipsing the agricultural revolution, the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, the computer revolution, the communications revolution and even the discovery of fire. It is a revolution that aligns all of us with our deeply held core beliefs and brings us home to who we really are. As such, it is a celebration, not a chore to undertake.

Today, the signs of this ongoing VEGAN Revolution are all around us. Through the pandemic and through the various ecological, economic and political catastrophes that we have been muddling through in the past few years, Mother Nature has been slapping us awake to the inescapable conclusion that our system of normalized violence is well past its use by date. It is time to co-create a new system of normal nonviolence and invite everyone to jump ship and come along.

Though the VEGAN Revolution may be nascent today, in my mind, the world is already largely VEGAN on Kimaya’s 16th birthday, Nov 19, 2026, as humanity rushes to keep the Pinky Promise made to her and her generation. On that day, the majority of humans on planet Earth identify as Vitally Engaged Guardians of Animals and Nature (VEGANs) and “Homo Ahimsa,” a term coined by Judy Carman, is widely accepted as the evolutionary next step for Homo Sapiens. The VEGAN Revolution is on a roll and there are celebrations galore even as the planetary cleanup crew is busy detoxifying myriad cesspools of violence left behind by the largely defunct global industrial civilization.

APTI and the VEGAN Revolution are founded on the three simple Cinderella principles,
1. Have courage, be kind and all will be well.
2. Just because it is what is done doesn’t mean it is what should be done, and
3. Imagine the world as it should be and work for it, not the world as it is.

Dev has a detailed concept deck on APTI and the APTI team is creating a digital implementation model in order to attract 6000 expressions of interest to materialize the funds to create it. Please stay tuned!

The Million Vegan Grandmothers Take on the USDA

May 10, 2023

Secretary Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington DC 20250
e: secretary@usda.gov
t: +1-(202) 720-2791

Re: FNS-2022-0043, Proposed Rule: Child Nutrition Programs – Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

We, the Million Vegan Grandmothers, urge the USDA to expand our children’s access to plant-based foods and plant-based milk options in K-12 schools through its proposed school meal patterns. Just as the 2019 Canada Food Guide had eliminated dairy as a food group, we urge the USDA school milk programs to promote plant-based milks as a nutritional cornerstone for school-aged children, instead of dairy.

We would like to draw your attention to the recent introduction in the U.S. House of Representatives of the bipartisan Addressing Digestive Distress in the Stomachs of Our Youths (ADD SOY) Act, a bill that seeks to reform American school milk programs to offer plant-based milk options to the substantial numbers of children who cannot digest lactose. Since most BIPOC children cannot digest lactose, your promotion of plant-based milks would go a long way to meet your commitment to root out systemic racism at the USDA.

We are also deeply concerned that our school children are being served processed meat options such as deli sandwiches and pepperoni pizza in their school lunches. Almost a decade ago, the World Health Organization had classified such processed meats as Group 1 carcinogens, leading to higher incidences of stomach and bowel cancers. We urge the USDA to design school lunch meal plans with plant-based foods instead of such known carcinogens.

Our fierce love for the children of all species compels us to speak out.

With Compassion,
The Million Vegan Grandmothers
Climate Healers
3145 E Chandler Blvd #110-233
Phoenix, AZ 85048
t: +1-732-809-3526
e: grandmothers@climatehealers.org
w: https://climatehealers.org/million-vegan-grandmothers

Please copy this letter, modify it as necessary and send it to the USDA as soon as possible. Let’s get some pressure on the USDA to do the needful.

Thank you for your support.

HELP us every day to

Heal the planet.
Eat plants.
Love animals.
Plant trees.

It’s that simple.

Thanks again for being a superhero and joining our herd. Please forward this post to all your friends and let’s grow our MOOOvement together.

With much love,
Sailesh on behalf of Vega, Cow and Climate Healer and the Climate Healers core team
(Akhil, Alison, Anne, BJ, Carl, Chip, Debra, Gabriele, Giva, Ilse, Jamen, Kelly, Ken, Kimaya, Krish, Maggie, Marco, Paige, Pareen, Paul, Ray, Sailesh, Sarah, Shankar, Stacey, Suzanne, Tami and Vega, the Cow and Climate Healer).