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Warm Responses to the Plant-Based Diet in Halting Global Warming
By Chiayi News Group (Originally in Chinese)
In Yunlin, The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association held three seminars, in Mailiao, Taixi and Huwei, each followed by a vegetarian luncheon. After attending these seminars, Yunlin County Magistrate Su Chih-fen and Councillor Liao Ching-hsiang promised to push for the provision of nutritious vegetarian lunches twice a week in elementary and junior high schools.
The County Council has passed a resolution to this end and the County Government is committed to implementing the policy. Our fellow initiates were invited to give talks on this topic at the County Hall, where they received the earnest support from high-ranking officials. With encouragement from Magistrate Su, the County Government invited the principals of 200 junior high schools and elementary schools to a seminar entitled “Reduce Carbon Emissions to Help Cool the Earth,” aiming to advocate the plant-based diet and environmental protection. Deputy Magistrate Lee Ying-yuan presided over the seminar, and our Association served delicious vegan meals, which greatly impressed all the school principals present. Magistrate Su also invited our fellow initiates to prepare a vegan breakfast for representatives of various sports organizations, to whom she introduced our Association and the concept of a plant-based diet in preventing global warming. On another occasion, Deputy Magistrate Lee spoke extensively to participants in a biking tour on the veg diet and its connection to environmental protection.
In Chiayi City, the Environmental Protection Bureau invited the Love Ocean Puppet Troupe and the Chiayi Puppet Troupe to perform and give related talks to young audiences at the Cultural Affairs Bureau on three consecutive weekends starting the week prior to Earth Day on April 22, Golden Year 6 (2009). The Love Ocean Puppet Troupe delivered 18 performances in elementary schools, kindergartens and orphanages in the area, while the Chiayi Puppet Troupe had about 10 presentations. Together with the Chiayi Environmental Protection Bureau, our Chiayi Center convened community seminars on environmental protection and halting global warming. They offered assistance to some NGOs in holding a fair and a Mother’s Day singing competition, supplying vegan dinners and conducting discussions on global warming. All these endeavors received extensive support from local political leaders including city councilors and their assistants. In addition to that, fellow initiates were also invited to serve a vegan lunch at the Zhucun Elementary School anniversary celebration, evoking the interest of all the teachers and students in the plant-based diet. ![]() Every day from February to April of this year, Chuiyang Loving Hut in Chiayi offered 37 “Good Luck! Find a Job!” lunch boxes to jobless people, hoping they would soon find employment and more people would know about preventing global warming with the plant-based diet.
Starting early this year until mid-May, Association members have delivered more than a hundred talks to more than 40,000 people participating in activities held by the Environmental Protection Bureau, Health Department, Police Department, schools and civic groups. These informative gatherings have effectively persuaded students to switch to the plant-based diet, and introduced a new concept to parents and school principals. The principal of an elementary school, after reading the recipe and preparation instructions of the vegan hamburger printed in the “Go Veg to Halt Global Warming” handbook, invited fellow initiates to teach the students how to prepare vegan hamburger. The suggestion had the immediate support of the students and teachers, who wasted no time scheduling the next talk and vegan burger teaching session.
At the Chiayi Railway Station, fellow initiates set up display stands showing Supreme Master Television programs and allowing commuters to freely take global warming flyers. Our Formosan initiates in the medical profession funded and published a booklet entitled The Animal-Free Diet, Nutrition and Health — a Compilation of Scientific Evidence, to serve as reference for both government and people. Fellow initiates also compiled and published the Yunlin Plant-Based Diet Guide Book with detailed listings of vegetarian food outlets in Yunlin, which is welcomed by both restaurants and the general public. A fellow initiate who retired early from government service to devote his time to advocating the plant-based diet and halting global warming, caught the attention of journalists, whose news reports have helped readers realize the urgency of and the solution to the climate change crisis. Through Master’s blessing and the hard work of fellow
initiates, the idea of the plant-based diet has gained greater attention
from the government and reached the hearts of the people through media
reports.
A New Vegan Lifestyle for All People Report compiled by Formosa News Group (Originally in Chinese)
[Formosa] As the global warming situation worsens, Supreme Master Ching Hai is working tirelessly appealing to the world through videoconferences and other channels, to adopt a plant-based diet in order to mitigate the crisis. Inspired by Master’s loving endeavors, local Centers around Formosa continue to devote all their efforts toward inspiring people to save the world with a vegan diet. In Support of Earth Day The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association has been taking active and practical actions to coordinate and support the government’s “Eat More Vegetables and Less Meat” campaign in implementing the policy of energy conservation and carbon reduction. On Earth Day, April 22, our Association launched the “Cherish and Love Our Earth with a New Vegan Lifestyle” campaign with Formosa’s vegetarian industry, aiming to draw attention to the environmental crisis facing the whole world and humankind. On that day, Minister Stephen Shen of the Environmental Protection Administration accepted an interview with Supreme Master Television. He was very glad to learn that more than 1,500 vegetarian food suppliers were participating in the New Vegan Lifestyle campaign. He also shared his views on the vegan diet with members of the media, who later approached Supreme Master Television reporters for more information related to the new diet. ![]() Our fellow initiates in Taipei have established an Internet Web site (http://www.vegannewlife.org) exclusively for promoting the New Vegan Lifestyle to people looking for vegan food; it lists in detail more than 550 vegetarian food suppliers in the city who participated in this campaign. Many of the suppliers appeal on their own Web sites for greater support of the lifestyle, and some offer attractive discounts to encourage people to eat more vegan food. China Television and the Economic Daily News carried special reports about the New Vegan Lifestyle movement. Fellow initiates from Taipei’s College Group held information-sharing events and provided delicious vegan snacks at the crowded Arts Park. Our Keelung Center participated in an Earth Day activity held by the Keelung EP Bureau titled “A New Lifestyle for a Sustainable Home, Cool the Earth by Reducing Carbon, Work Together to Recycle Resources.” It was a lively event encouraging citizens to change their diet and habits. Our Tainan Center and the Tainan EP Bureau together held an activity especially addressing the conservation of water sources and the rivers of the Earth. In addition to showing videos on global warming, fellow initiates launched an Earth Day Be Veg! Go Green! Save the Earth! signature campaign. Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair and EP Bureau Director Jhang Huang-jhen signed the petition to show their support; they were joined by more than 500 people on that day. Each of them received a Green mug, biscuits and informative material related to the campaign. Our Center served over a thousand delicious and sumptuous vegan lunch boxes and distributed flyers to all exhibitors and visitors.
Beginning on the eve of Earth Day, our Penghu Center launched a series of anti-global warming seminars at government organizations, schools and hospitals. The county government proclaimed Earth Day as Penghu No-Meat Day. The EP Bureau convened a series of activities and requested our Center to provide vegetarian snacks to the participating guests. County Magistrate Wang Chien-fa openly urged the county government staff to set a leading example by taking vegetarian meals on Earth Day, so as to reduce carbon emissions to save the Earth. The EP Bureau sent a letter to our Center expressing their gratitude for our full support. Fellow initiates also approached local vegetarian food outlets encouraging them to promote the New Vegan Lifestyle by providing vegan meals at discount prices from Earth Day to Environment Day, in order to attract more people to adopt the plant-based diet and understand the importance of this healthy and compassionate lifestyle. Caotun Loving Hut sponsored the Earth Day activity jointly held by the Nantou County Government and the Nan Kai University of Technology by providing delectable vegan lunch boxes free of charge to all teachers, students and other participants. Sharing the Message with Students ![]() In March and April, our Taipei Center held nearly a hundred global warming seminars, research workshops for teachers and puppet shows, attracting a total of more than 20,000 guests at dozens of colleges and universities, including National Taiwan University. During those two months, the Tainan Center held activities at Kun Shan University and 41 schools to encourage people to mitigate global warming through a plant-based diet, energy conservation and carbon reduction. The events featured puppet shows, exhibitions and seminars for teachers. Our Penghu Center has been committed to helping various schools launch a-vegetarian-day-a-week campaign. Apart from providing vegetarian recipes to the schools, they also paid a visit to Miss Chen Qiu-xi, head of the Health Education Section under the Education Bureau. Miss Chen plans to upload the recipes and information on the benefits of the plant-based diet onto the bureau’s website as a reference for school lunch providers so that the children may enjoy more nutritious and healthy vegan lunches. ![]() Community and Public-Benefit Activities To share the message of reducing global warming, our Taipei Center participated in a Yanliao community meeting in Tucheng, a hiking activity in Neihu, a strawberry picking trip in Baishihu and the Fauna and Flora Cultural Festival in Xindian. In March and April, fellow initiates distributed 330,000 SOS flyers and 6,000 DVDs, 30,000 vegan recipes as well as 70,000 flyers in the effort to ban meat, alcohol, tobacco and drugs. ![]() The Tainan Center held information-sharing activities for people living and working in Yongkang and for the EP Bureau staff. Fellow initiates also participated in beach-cleaning efforts held by the bureau and distributed 1,500 bags of vegetarian snacks together with SOS flyers to the participants. On invitation, our fellow initiates in Changhua prepared a vegetarian dinner for a Lugang Rotary Club meeting and delivered a speech titled “A Crisis of the 21st Century—the Feverish Planet,” which was positively received by the club members. Our Penghu Center was invited to participate in the Penghu Aviation Fair and Flight Safety Promotion Activity. Fellow initiates put flags and banners of the New Vegan Lifestyle campaign around the venue, hoping to remind people of the importance to Be Veg! Go Green! Save the Planet!
Free Meals and Vegan Sale In April, Xinyue Loving Hut in Yilan provided low-carbon vegetarian meals daily to destitute students of National Yilan Commercial Vocational High School and street friends under the care of the Ren An Foundation. While extending love and concern to them, they also hope to influence a change in their diet. The vegetarian meal boxes prepared by fellow initiates in Kaoshiung have become increasingly popular, with sales peaking at 2,382 one day. Each meal was accompanied by a SOS flyer and 80% of the customers were non-vegetarian. Visiting Government Officials ![]() Supreme Master Television Broadcasts at Railway Station Thanks to Master’s blessing and the hard work of fellow initiates, the “Go Veg to Save the Earth” campaign in Nantou County has proved to be very effective. In supporting the policy of saving energy and reducing carbon emissions, the Nantou County Government started last year to provide vegetarian meals in their office canteen twice a month. This policy has now expanded to elementary and junior high schools, which are encouraged to provide a weekly vegetarian lunch. ![]() The vegetarian concept has also begun to take root in many
Taipei schools. For instance, on Earth Day, all teachers and staff at
Municipal Dazhi Senior High School ate vegetarian meals. They also encourage
the two thousand and more students to go veg, to do their part in saving
the planet, by ordering vegetarian lunches for them. At Conglin Junior
High School, about a third of the teachers now have a vegan lunch; they
are being joined by more colleagues and students as well. At Shipai Junior
High School, more teachers are taking one vegetarian meal a week.
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