Windsor Castle Hosts Vegan Lunch for Interfaith Eco-Conference!
posted by: Heather Moore 23 days ago
How’s this for progress? Windsor Castle is providing an all-vegan lunch for more than 200 people attending an interfaith conference called “Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet.” The conference, which will be attended by leaders from nine different religions, is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a faith-based environmental organization co-founded by Price Philip.
The ARC chose a vegan lunch not only because it’s better for the environment, but because it best accommodates the dietary needs of people of various faiths. Ultimately, it’s the ideal diet for everyone, regardless of religion, who believes that all sentient beings should be treated with kindness and mercy. Revered spiritual leaders from the Buddha to the Prophet Muhammad to the Dalai Lama have preached peace for all beings.
Many prominent Catholic figures believe that animals have souls and should be treated with compassion and respect. Pope John Paul II proclaimed that “the animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.” Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out against animal abuse, specifically saying that is wrong to force-feed birds to produce foie gras and to pack hens together in filthy factory farms. Says Pope Benedict, “It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.”
Other religions are based on similar beliefs. Cruelty to animals is forbidden in Islam—and raising and killing animals for food is inherently cruel. Most animals on factory farms never see the sun, breathe fresh air, or feel grass beneath their feet. They’re torn from their loving mothers and mutilated without pain relievers. At the slaughterhouse, they’re often dismembered while they’re still conscious.
Muslins who strive to live according to Islamic teachings can avoid causing such pain and suffering by eating a naturally Halal vegan diet. According to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, there is an estimable reward for kindness to every living being.
The Jewish religion also has strict laws and teachings forbidding cruelty to animals. There is an entire code of laws, Tsa’ar ba’alei hayim, mandating that all being be treated with kindness and respect.
Nothing in the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, or any other religious publication justifies our modern-day farming practices, which desecrate the environment and inflict pain and suffering on billions of animals every year.
The vegan meal at Windsor Castle is significant for many reasons, not just because the castle is not normally associated with animal- or environmentally-friendly fare. The lunch is a “model” of a compassionate, sustainable choice that the delegates can advocate to their constituencies--and that’s something everyone can believe in!
Read more: religion, faith, vegan, animal welfare, cimate change, windsor castle
comments
James S.
Nov 6, 2009 3:43 AM
CORRECTIONS:
You are sincere and well-meaning. But your argument is specious.
You cannot logically or scientifically conclude that a vegan diet is healthful from the fact that 80% of the best foods are vegan-consistent though 20% are not. You must conclude that a vegan diet is problematic---especially because the 20% are among the best because they supply NECESSARY nutrients that vegetable matter (and synthetic supplements) cannot supply. Human health requires SOME animal food, but a human need not cause suffering (or greater suffering) to obtain needed animal-source food.
I do not eat meat or fowl (which are toxic even if organic and which are the products of torture and slaughter of innocent beasts who suffer). I eat only two kinds of animals: (1) bi-valve molluscs, which CANNOT suffer becaiuse they do not have neural apparatus that could enable them to suffer; (2) WILD salmon caught at or near the start of their swimming upstream to spawn.
The salmon? They are not ever enslaved. They do suffer a bit from being caught & killed for human food. But they would suffer much more if they were not caught by humans. Bear or wolves or racoons or otters would bite chunks from the salmon while the salmon are alive. Or, if the salmon reach their spawning area and spawn, after spawning, they die by disintegrating, very slowly and very, very painfully.
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James S.
Nov 6, 2009 3:43 AM
(1) You are sincere and well-meaning. But your argument is specious. You cannot logically or scientifically conclude that a vegan diet is healthful from the fact that 80% of the best foods are vegan-consistent though 20% are not. You must conclude that a vegan diet is problematic---espceially because the 20% are among the best because they supply NECESSARY nutrients that vegetable matter (and synthetic supplements) cannot supply. Human health requires SOME animal food, but a human need not cause suffering (or greater suffering) to obtain needed animal-source food.
I do note eat meat or fowl (which are toxic even if organic and which are the products of torture and slaughter of innocent beasts who suffer). I eat only two kinds of animals: (1) bi-valve molluscs, which CANNOT suffer becaiuse they do not have neural apparatus that could enable them to suffer; (2) WILD salmon caught at or near the start of their swimming upstream to spawn.
The salmon? They are not ever enslaved. They do suffer a bit from being caught & killed for human food. But they would suffer much more if they were not caught by humans. Bear or wolves or racoons or otters would bite chunks from the salmon while the salmon are alive. Or, if the salmon reach their spawning area and spawn, after spawning, they die by disintegrating, very slowly and very, very painfully.
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Slaughtering a million farm animals per HOUR in this country and importing millions of tons of carcasses from rain forests razed to grow hamburger for the subsidized fast food market is not only cruel. It is also causing the extinction of a third to half the non-human WILD species on earth. Taking 17 times the land to eat at the top of the food chain is as ignorant as using enough water to float a battleship to raise one cow to slaughterhouse weight. Water and habitat for wild creatures is a major issue. Not only that but natural predators have been targeted for trophy and recreation by hunters and trappers who exclusively control wildlife agencies as killing businesses for their agenda. This dovetails nicely with animal agriculture for the destruction of the planet. Scientifically, natural predators in natural numbers PROTECT biodiversity - yet mountains of mountain lions, and wolf and coyote carcasses nailed to fence posts along our public lands leased in perpetuity 10 cents on the dollar to ranchers for their private profit are a testimony to the folly of man. Even groundhogs are down to 2% of their former range as they dig holes (VERBOTEN because cattle can step in them and break a leg). Read the 2006 United Nations animal agriculture report that states that slaughterhouse production creates more global warming by 20-40% than ALL TRANSPORTATION. Not only the heart disease and obesity of the American public is at risk - eating animals is a death plan for earth.
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J. Roberto L - I'm wondering if the nutrients and substances in fish and yogurt could be found in non-animal sources. I hope so. Also, what do you make of the fact that your list of healthiest foods is 80% vegan? Why do you think you don't see these "foods" on the list: red meat, pork, chicken, dear meat, turkey and all of the other billions of animals that are enslaved, tortured and killed? Do you think we could not only live without eating these animals, but live with thriving health? What does it tell you that, in general, the overwhelming majority of the healthiest, most disease fighting nutrients are supplied by vegan foods? You can get sarcastic with me - that's fine; all I'm trying to do is help animals, which would help people too because it's indisputable that vegan foods are the vast majority of healthy options.
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CORRECTION OF LAST TEXTUAL SENTENCE OF MY LAST-PRECEDING COMMENT [J Roberto L.,
Nov 4, 2009 2:40 PM]:
Both U.K. and U.S. law had to exempt ritual/kosher slaughter from humane slaughter law, because Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter is cruel but Jewish lobbying is fierce & effective.
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From the main article that is the subject of these comments:
"According to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, there is an estimable reward for kindness to every living being.
"The Jewish religion also has strict laws and teachings forbidding cruelty to animals."
------------
From Koran [95]:
"O you who believe! Kill not the game WHILE YOU ARE IN A STATE OF IHRAM [for Hajj or 'Umrah (pilgrimage)], and whosoever of you kills it intentionally [while in such state], the penalty is an offering, brought to the Ka'bah, OF AN EATABLE ANIMAL (i.e. SHEEP, GOAT, COW) equivalent to the one he killed...."
Jewish law and Islamic law require ritual slaughter. "Kosher" slaughter uses ritual slaughter method. Both U.K. and U.S. law had to exempt from humane slaughter law, because Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter is cruel but Jewish lobbying is fierce & effective. See
http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?70+Law+&+Contemp.+Probs.+175+(winter+2007)
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Shechitah
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Bans_on_ritual_slaughter
http://www.vegaresearch.org/news_item.php?NewsID=242
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Shechita
http://www.shechitauk.org/downloads/new1.pdf
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James S.
Nov 3, 2009 5:48 PM
See also
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/health-foods/NU00632
Which lists salmon among the top ten most healthful foods.
See also
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-369042/The-10-super-foods.html
which lists salmon and yogurt among the top ten most healthful foods.
See also
http://www.sjs-vitamins-shop.com/health_foods.html
which lists "salmon and other fatty fish" among the ten most healthful foods.
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James S.
Nov 3, 2009 5:48 PM
More falsehood designed to seduce people into vegan diet, which is unhealthful:
"...check out the top ten healthiest foods and the top ten foods for fighting disease - all vegan."
But, from http://www.ucsfhealth.org/adult/edu/topTenFoods/
"Top 10 Foods for Health
"Water....
"Dark Green Vegetables....
"Whole Grains.... ...whole wheat flour, rye, oatmeal, barley, amaranth, quinoa or a multigrain. ...
"Beans and Lentils...
"Fish -- Try to eat two to three serving of fish a week. A serving consists of 3 to 4 ounces of cooked fish. Good choices are salmon, trout, herring, bluefish, sardines and tuna.
"Berries....
"Winter Squash -- Eat butternut and acorn squash as well as other richly pigmented dark orange and green colored vegetables like sweet potato, cantaloupe and mango.
"Soy....
"Flaxseed, Nuts and Seeds....
"Organic Yogurt -- Men and women between 19 and 50 years of age need 1000 milligrams of calcium a day and 1200 milligrams if 50 or older. Eat calcium rich foods such as non-fat or low-fat dairy products three to four times a day. Include organic choices."
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So, James S., I guess your vegan magic transmutes fish and yogurt into vegetables.
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From the main article that is the subject of these comments:
"Revered spiritual leaders from the Buddha to the Prophet Muhammad to the Dalai Lama have preached peace for all beings."
Mohammed did NOT preach vegetarianism. All indications are that he ate meat (especially lamb and goat).
Buddha held, and Mahayana Buddhism holds, that one ought strive to reduce the SUFFERING of all SENTIENT beings. In the context of that holding, "sentient" means "able to suffer" (which definition follows from Buddha's and Mahayana Buddhism's root holding (that one ought strive to reduce the SUFFERING of all sentient beings).
Some animal-life cannot suffer. Such animal-life includes brainless, spineless creatures like bi-valve molluscs, which I eat, though I follow the Buddhist holding, and others, like jellyfish and sea cucumber, which the Chinese consider delicacies, and sea urchin, which the Japanese consider a delicacy.
The Dalai Lama eats dairy products (as did Ghandi). The Dalai Lama is not a Mahayana Buddist.
Again, we encounter vegan-proselytist fact-contortions, overstatements, and downright falsehoods designed to draw others into pure vegan diet, which, as I showed on the Vegan 1-2-3 threads of Angel Flinn, is a health-dangerous diet.
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Vegan's Rule!!!!!
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