Dear Climate Healers,
“There is no greater mistake than to try to leap an abyss in two jumps” – Lloyd George.
Share Vega’s message about animal agriculture and climate change.
Share Vega’s message about Food Healers.
In his book, Malcolm Gladwell writes that a tipping point is that magic moment when a idea trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips and spreads like wildfire. Rapidly unfolding events indicate that we have reached a breakthrough moment, if not a tipping point towards a Vegan World, and we have to seize it.
In this compelling video, Dr. Michael Greger points out that there were over 7000 scientific studies detailing the harm caused by cigarette smoking in the decades prior to the Surgeon General’s report in 1964 linking smoking to cancer. But it was the open acknowledgement by a public authority, the Surgeon General, that smoking is indeed bad for us, that tipped the scale on cigarette smoking among the general public.
We are in a similar situation today with diet. We now have thousands of scientific studies pointing to the health and environmental efficacy of a diverse whole foods, plant-based vegan diet and the harmful effects of processed foods and animal foods. While it’s true that an attempt was made by Sen. George McGovern’s Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs in 1977 to link diet with disease, that attempt was nullified by the animal agriculture industry through manufactured scientific uncertainties.
The industry then proceeded to emasculate the Senate and moved all dietary recommendation responsibilities to the US Department of Agriculture, whose primary mandate is to help the animal agriculture industry grow. The animal agriculture industry now enjoys an estimated $414 billion in direct and indirect subsidies annually from the public sector in the US alone.
However, now we have entered a new phase and a breakthrough moment in our common desire for a compassionate, climate harmonizing Vegan world. A public official, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, considered the second most powerful person in the United States, has just announced a $44 million program in conjunction with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine to provide remedial nutrition education to all medical professionals operating in the city so that they can genuinely heal their patients with a plant-based diet. Many political, religious and academic leaders around the world surely know the scientific facts linking diet, disease and environmental catastrophes, but Mayor Adams has shown the courage, or as Vega would say it, “CowRage” to actually do something about them.
Coincidentally, the American Journal of Cardiology also published an editorial recently declaring that it is a moral imperative for all medical professionals to promote plant-based nutrition. A moral imperative for medical professionals implies a moral imperative for all politicians, educators, religious leaders, environmentalists and ordinary citizens as well. Therefore, if we leverage these seismic events properly, this could be the Surgeon General moment for the Vegan movement.
In celebration of Mayor Adams’ proclamation in support of Food Healers and as part of the Chilis on Wheels – Bhakti Center – Food Healers food giveaway event in Tompkins Square Park in New York City at 1:30pm EST on Saturday, Dec 17, we will be distributing a special dessert – whole foods, plant-based healthy Vegan “CowRage” laddus, which symbolize the auspicious start of something new and amazing. I’ve been testing the recipe and here’s what works best:
Healthy Vegan “CowRage Laddu” recipe
Ingredients:
1 lb. sweet potatoes
1 lb. pitted dates
1 lb. coarse brown rice flour (idli rawa)
1 tsp cardamom seeds
1/2 liter oat milk
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Dry coconut powder to garnish
Procedure:
1. Lightly dry roast cardamom seeds and sesame seeds and set aside.
2. Dry roast rice flour until it crisps.
3. Boil sweet potatoes until cooked and grind to a paste with dates and oat milk.
4. Mix all dry ingredients with the paste, press into round “laddus” and roll them over coconut powder to finish.
Makes around 70 laddus.
If you are in the New York City area and would like to join us for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and help make these “CowRage” laddus, please reply back to this email. Our goal is to make 1218 “CowRage” laddus and give them away to celebrate this breakthrough moment.
As Dr. Greger says in his video, it is time for all of us Vegans to get active. As a Vegan, you could volunteer with or donate to one of our numerous co-conveners in your area and/or pass a proclamation in support of Food Healers. To do the latter, please find the public request form on the web page for your city and fill in the appropriate blanks in the generic draft proclamation below and include that in the message section of the form. The draft proclamation contains links in each of the clauses to the scientific reports backing those statements, in case your city officials ask for them:
Proclamation
By ___, Mayor
World Food Healers Day
January 15, 2023
WHEREAS, the EAT-Lancet commission declared that because much of the world’s population is inadequately nourished and many environmental systems and processes are pushed beyond safe boundaries by food production, a global transformation of the food system is urgently needed, and
WHEREAS, the United Nations Environmental Program declared that a global shift toward a vegan diet could help save the world from devastating hunger, widespread fuel shortages, and catastrophic climate change, and
WHEREAS, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics declared that appropriately planned vegan diets are healthful for all life cycle stages, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and declared that vegan diets are associated with lower blood cholesterol, lower risk of heart disease, lower risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes, lower body mass index, and lower overall cancer rates, and
WHEREAS, the American Journal of Cardiology declared that it is a moral imperative for all members of the medical profession to promote plant-based nutrition, and
WHEREAS, World Food Healers day calls for global community efforts to make healthy, whole-foods plant-based Universal vegan meals freely available to every human being on the planet, regardless of economic or ethnic background,
THEREFORE, I, ___, Mayor of the City of ___, do hereby proclaim the third Sunday of every month as “WORLD FOOD HEALERS DAY” in ___, and do urge every resident to join in the observance.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set the Great Seal of the City of ___ to be affixed this 15th day of January, two thousand twenty-three.
Signed,
Mayoral Signature”
Thank you for your support.
HELP US on World Food Healers day and 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 MOOvement together.