Are you vegan enough ?

August 3, 2002

I had an interesting talk with a senior gentleman

who was born in India but lives in Richmond CA and

I mentioned our little group here and its nice little

controversies about diet.

He mentioned in thousands of years peculiar religious

practices have developed around the vegetarian diet.

To illustrate this, let's stake out my lifestyle,

which is vegetarian, as opposed to Tammy who is vegan.

(Sorry, Tammy for using you as a guinea pig here)

1) Me - vegetarian, I can eat milk products ;

2) Tammy - vegan, does not eat milk products. Tammy

is more restrictive than me ;

3) Fruitarian - will only eat fruits. These guys

are more restrictive than Tammy.

4) Raw food vegetarian - will only eat natural raw

foods, no cooked or processed food. These guys

are more restrictive than No. 3 persons ;

5) Persons who will eat only that which naturally

dropps from trees or plants. There are some religious

cults which only eat food which naturally drops from

trees or other plants. More restrictive than No r persons.

These guys are waaay more rad than any of us.

6) Fruitarian, eats only that which naturally drops from

trees - more restrictive than 5) will only eat fruit

that naturally drops from trees. Will not eat anything

picked from trees or vegetables. Fruits only. These

guys are waaay out there like in another part of the

galaxy.

7) Direct energy from air and sun by a human. No eating.

Drinking water only. In the book 'Autobiography of a

Yogi' by Paramhansa Yogananda, there is mention

of a an ascetic woman who developed the yoga power

to derive energy directly from sun, air and water

by the practice of pranayama (breath yoga) and mudra

(yoga gestures). Must be the champion restrictive diet

of all.

8) And the grand-daddy of all rad diets - no eating

at all. Complete fasting. In many yoga books, you will

find mention of ascetics who, upon achieving mystic

trance, remain in a motionless contemplative state

for months without harm. (Of course, I've heard

they're really hungry when they come back !)

Whoa, dude - are we veggie/vegan enough ? I feel

pretty weak ! Get a load of these guys !

Krsna & Shaelaja

August 5, 2002

Dear Krsna & other friends,

Although I'm sure you meant it in the kindest way, I must take quick issue with

you, Krsna, on your choice of words. When you describe yourself as a vegetarian,

saying that you " can eat milk products, " the implication is that Tammy, who is

vegan, can not eat milk products. And, you use language that

implies that as one goes through the levels that you've defined, there's a

greater " restrictive index. "

I consider myself a vegan, but I never would think that I " can not " consume

cow's dairy. I *choose* not to eat the mammary secretions of cows and the

products constructed from them because:

* cows are kept constantly impregnated through their starkly abbreviated lives

so that they can produce milk to commercially viable levels,

* many of them (even in California, purported to be the home of " happy cows " )

live their entire lives on concrete, chained in dark sheds, unable to move

around or exercise,

* their babies - for whom the milk was intended - are taken from them one or

two days after birth. The male offspring of cows exploited for dairy go into the

veal industry, so you can be sure that there's a hunk of veal in every glass of

milk,

* after 4 or 5 years (a fraction of the cow's natural life span, which is 20 to

25 years), the poor dairy cow - her body entirely worn out from the stresses of

her life - is sent to slaughter down the same chutes through which animals

destined for meat are sent. There are no retirement

homes for dairy cows in the United States, and it is arguably the case that

dairy cows and egg-laying hens are the most abused in factory farming systems.

Given that this is the case, it is not that I " can not " consume dairy products.

It is that I will not consume such products, that I choose not to consume such

products, that I do not view such products as being the stuff of " food " (much

the way I'm sure you agree that the muscle tissue of a deceased

animal is scarcely appetizing fare).

I don't, in the least, feel that the choice to be vegan is restrictive. On the

contrary, my experience with going vegan (back in '89) is that it opened many

culinary doors for me, opening up a world of flavors and textures to my palate

with which I was not familiar in my pre-vegan days.