{"id":126,"date":"2009-07-13T18:36:17","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T18:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html"},"modified":"2009-07-13T18:36:17","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T18:36:17","slug":"vegetarian-summerfest-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html","title":{"rendered":"Vegetarian Summerfest 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gosh, I had a great 5 days. I know I didn’t do much to catch up on blogging after my computer crash, but being online at Summerfest (http:\/\/vegetariansummerfest.org)\u00a0was tough. There was WiFi in the public spaces, but that was the problem: since I was one of the speakers, I couldn’t sit in a public space without people wanting to talk. I managed to post one blog and then I thought: “You know what? This is the time for the people who are here.”<\/p>\n


<\/div>\n
Vegetarian Summerfest is sponsored by the North American Vegetarian Society (www.navs-online.org) and was launched back in 1975 with the World Vegetarian Congress in Orono, Maine. I was there. In those days, in the world at large, veganism was considered strange and vegetarians ate too much cheese. People confused “yoga” and “yogurt” and both were suspect. The only soy milk was what you made out of beans, or from a powder you could get mail-order from somebody in Ohio.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
There was no animal rights movement, at least not by that name, and it was pre-PeTA.\u00a0Those of us who wore makeup had to either order Beauty Without Cruelty (www.beautywithoutcruelty.com) products from England, or try to make blush and lip gloss out of Crisco and food coloring.\u00a0 Non-leather shoes were either canvas Keds, those cloth Mary Janes from a place we still called “Red China,” or cheap plastic models that were like little sweat lodges for the feet. But we were committed to living with as much compassion as we could muster, and it really didn’t seem that difficult.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
2009 is a whole different animal. Summerfest speakers included medical doctors, biophysicists, and registered dieticians. Heather Mills (www.heathermills.org) was there (What an amazing woman! She’s done so much more in the world besides marrying a Beatle), and Howard Lyman of Mad Cowboy<\/span> fame — he was sued with Oprah\u00a0when she said she’d never eat another burger.\u00a0And nobody’s using Crisco anymore.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Here’s the gist: With all respect and understanding toward people being where they are and needing to change to the degree they’re willing and to the extent they can, animal agriculture is rapidly become unsustainable, both practically or spiritually. An FAO report in 2006 (http:\/\/www.un.org\/apps\/news\/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment)\u00a0cited raising cattle as contributing more to climate change than all motor vehicles combined. It is impossible to feed a hungry on an American-style, meat-centered diet.\u00a0<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The health status of vegans and near-vegans routinely shows this as the most effective dietary strategy for eliminating a high percentage of the coronary disease, cancer, diabetes that plague the Western world. This has been, and continues to be, shown in research such as The China Study (www.thechinastudy.com), the largest epidemiological study in nutrition ever conducted, and in ongoing research looking at Seventh Day Adventists (the perfect group to study: church members lead similar lives — none smoke or drink, for example — but only about half are vegetarian).\u00a0<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
In addition, more and more people have awakened to see that animals are not unfeeling machines but rather intelligent individuals with needs, concerns, and value. We’re starting to understand what Mahavira (www.ivu.org\/history\/east\/<\/span>mahavira<\/span><\/span>.html<\/span>)<\/span><\/cite>, the Jain saint, stated around 500 BC: “To every creature, his own life is very dear.”<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
This is an idea whose time is coming. I feel blessed to be alive now when eating a plant-based diet is an accepted alternative. And I hope to be alive when it tips the scale as the majority choice.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Note: When my hard drive was replaced, the blog software didn’t fully load. This means that I can’t do links until I take the computer in for more work. My apologies. — VM<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gosh, I had a great 5 days. I know I didn’t do much to catch up on blogging after my computer crash, but being online at Summerfest (http:\/\/vegetariansummerfest.org)\u00a0was tough. There was WiFi in the public spaces, but that was the problem: since I was one of the speakers, I couldn’t sit in a public space…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-happiness"],"yoast_head":"\nVegetarian Summerfest 2009 - Your Charmed Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vegetarian Summerfest 2009 - Your Charmed Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gosh, I had a great 5 days. I know I didn’t do much to catch up on blogging after my computer crash, but being online at Summerfest (http:\/\/vegetariansummerfest.org)\u00a0was tough. There was WiFi in the public spaces, but that was the problem: since I was one of the speakers, I couldn’t sit in a public space…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Charmed Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-13T18:36:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Victoria Moran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vegetarian Summerfest 2009 - Your Charmed Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vegetarian Summerfest 2009 - Your Charmed Life","og_description":"Gosh, I had a great 5 days. I know I didn’t do much to catch up on blogging after my computer crash, but being online at Summerfest (http:\/\/vegetariansummerfest.org)\u00a0was tough. There was WiFi in the public spaces, but that was the problem: since I was one of the speakers, I couldn’t sit in a public space…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html","og_site_name":"Your Charmed Life","article_published_time":"2009-07-13T18:36:17+00:00","author":"Victoria Moran","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html","name":"Vegetarian Summerfest 2009 - Your Charmed Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-13T18:36:17+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-13T18:36:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ebb794f0d368bdf88a1a63a4e4461b75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/07\/vegetarian-summerfest-2009.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vegetarian Summerfest 2009"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/","name":"Your Charmed Life","description":"Victoria Moran on living with heart and soul in the real world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ebb794f0d368bdf88a1a63a4e4461b75","name":"Victoria Moran","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e82\/e82418f1930873d06f20efd5782c1bb9x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e82\/e82418f1930873d06f20efd5782c1bb9x96.jpg","caption":"Victoria Moran"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/author\/vmoran"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}