Veggie Queen Is Planning to Open a Worldwide Chain of Vegetarian Restaurants

Devout vegetarian Radhika Oswal doesn't squirm at the thought of meat - in fact, she still remembers how tasty chicken legs are.

But the wife of fertiliser billionaire Pankaj Oswal has vowed not to eat meat again because of the damage it does to the environment.

Mrs Oswal hit back at criticisms this week after she made a 40-minute presentation on the benefits of vegetarianism on global sustainability at the Oswals' annual ball last weekend.

She told The West Australian that she had nothing against meat-eaters but believed we could help reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by going vegetarian one day a week.

"I don't have a problem with people eating meat," she said. "I think people don't understand the impact of eating meat. I have learnt that vegetarianism is one of the most important and absolutely most ignored concepts relevant to the sustainability of our species, to this planet's ecosystems and to humanity.

"I'm just putting my views out there because I want to show my face to my great-grandchildren and my grandchildren and be able to tell them that I did try. Vegetarianism is something you can do at your own home. All I ever quoted and all I say today, and I say it today again, is try one vegetarian day a week. I've never said stop eating meat."

Mrs Oswal stood by her comments that "we are covering the world in s..." because of the livestock excrement that was clogging the world's rivers and forests. But she had tried meat, having rebelled from her vegetarian family in her teens and eating meat at boarding school.

"Here when you rebel you become vegetarian, but in India it's the opposite. So I rebelled and my friends were all eating these chicken legs and I have to say, it's really sad but they were tasty," she said.

"I started realising the benefits of vegetarianism when someone told me about these benefits less from the angle of religion and more from the angle of sustainability and environmental impact and kindness towards animals. That's when I really understood the importance."

Mrs Oswal is busy with plans to open a worldwide chain of vegetarian restaurants called Otarian. Flagship stores are due to open in Britain and the US this year.


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Super-size Deposits Of Frozen Carbon In Arctic Could Worsen Climate Change

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2009) - The vast amount of carbon stored in the arctic and boreal regions of the world is more than double that previously estimated, according to a study published this week.

The amount of carbon in frozen soils, sediments and river deltas (permafrost) raises new concerns over the role of the northern regions as future sources of greenhouse gases.

"We now estimate the deposits contain over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere", said Dr. Charles Tarnocai, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, and lead author.

Dr. Pep Canadell, Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project at CSIRO, Australia, and co-author of the study says that the existence of these super-sized deposits of frozen carbon means that any thawing of permafrost due to global warming may lead to significant emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.

Carbon deposits frozen thousands of years ago can easily break down when permafrost thaws releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, according to another recent study by some of the same authors.

"Radioactive carbon dating shows that most of the carbon dioxide currently emitted by thawing soils in Alaska was formed and frozen thousands of years ago. The carbon dating demonstrates how easily carbon decomposes when soils thaw under warmer conditions," said Professor Ted Schuur, University of Florida and co-author of the paper.

The authors point out the large uncertainties surrounding the extent to which permafrost carbon thawing could further accelerate climate change.

"Permafrost carbon is a bit of a wildcard in the efforts to predict future climate change," said Dr Canadell. "All evidence to date shows that carbon in permafrost is likely to play a significant role in the 21st century climate given the large carbon deposits, the readiness of its organic matter to release greenhouse gases when thawed, and the fact that high latitudes will experience the largest increase in air temperature of all regions."

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Vegetarian Diets Can Help Prevent Chronic Diseases, American Dietetic Association Says

Vegetarian meal of chickpea or garbanzo beans salad. Appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases, according to the ADA. (Credit: iStockphoto/Elena Elisseeva)

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2009) - The American Dietetic Association has released an updated position paper on vegetarian diets that concludes such diets, if well-planned, are healthful and nutritious for adults, infants, children and adolescents and can help prevent and treat chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes.

ADA's position, published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, represents the Association's official stance on vegetarian diets:

"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes."

ADA's position and accompanying paper were written by Winston Craig, PhD, MPH, RD, professor and chair of the department of nutrition and wellness at Andrews University; and Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, nutrition advisor at the Vegetarian Resource Group, Baltimore, Md.

The revised position paper incorporates new topics and additional information on key nutrients for vegetarians, vegetarian diets in the life cycle and the use of vegetarian diets in prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. "Vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle," according to ADA's position. "There are many reasons for the rising interest in vegetarian diets. The number of vegetarians in the United States is expected to increase over the next decade."

Vegetarian diets are often associated with health advantages including lower blood cholesterol levels, lower risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure levels and lower risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes, according to ADA's position. "Vegetarians tend to have a lower body mass index and lower overall cancer rates. Vegetarian diets tend to be lower in saturated fat and cholesterol and have higher levels of dietary fiber, magnesium and potassium, vitamins C and E, folate, carotenoids, flavonoids and other phytochemicals. These nutritional differences may explain some of the health advantages of those following a varied, balanced vegetarian diet."

The position paper draws on results from ADA's evidence analysis process and information from the ADA Evidence Analysis Library to show vegetarian diets can be nutritionally adequate in pregnancy and result in positive maternal and infant health outcomes. Additionally, an evidence-based review showed a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease.

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Puttanesca Scramble

Recipe from Post Punk Kitchen

Serves 4

Inspired by the classic Italian dish, pasta puttanesca, this scramble is screaming with flavor. Olives, capers and plenty of fresh herbs make for an easy to throw together scramble that tastes like a Mediterranean feast you've been slaving over for hours.

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 - 8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 lb extra firm tofu, diced

4 roma tomatoes, diced

2 tablespoons fresh thyme

2 tablespoons fresh oregano

1/2 cup mixed olives, roughly chopped

1 tablespoons capers

1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Preheat a large heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic in the olive oil until lightly browned, but be careful not to burn. 3 minutes ought to do it. Add the red pepper flakes and the tofu and saute for about 10 minutes, until tofu is browned. Add a little extra oil if necessary.

Mix in tomatoes, thyme and oregano and cook for about 5 minutes, until tomatoes are a bit broken down but still whole. Add olives, capers and salt to taste. Cook just until heated through.

Prevent Bone Loss: Eat Fruits!

By Eccentric Vegan on June 27th, 2009

A new study points to potassium in fruits as a bone-saver, not calcium in dairy or supplements:
"a group of 176 post-menopausal women was randomized to one of four diets based on a different protein source: animal, dairy, soy, or vegetarian. All diets were equal in calories as well as in total amounts of protein, calcium, and salt. Dietitians bought the food, weighed and measured it, and prepared it. Study participants picked up their meals every day for eight weeks."

"We used actual food that real people could buy in the store to see what kind of impact we could have", Sellmeyer [the first director of the new metabolic bone center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center] says.

"Although she is still analyzing the data, her initial findings show that diets based on meat and other animal and dairy-based proteins cause more calcium loss because they increase the amount of acid in the body. On the other hand, low-acid vegetable and soy-based diets reduce the excretion of calcium."

Vegan Cashew Cheese

By David R Brooks

Ingredients:
2/3 cup cashews (raw is best, roasted is still great, and try flavored cashews too)
1/2 cup water (or slightly more)
1/4 cup red capsicum (raw or roasted)
1/4 small red onion (if you're cooking for a date, or more otherwise!)
1/4 cup yeast flakes
2 garlic cloves (see "red onion")
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp lite soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sea salt (optional) if the cashews are unsalted

Put everything in a food processor and blend it until it's creamy. If it's too thick, add more water. If it's too watery, add more cashews. It should have a cream of wheat-like consistency, or just a bit thicker. For a pizza, spread it thinly over pizza sauce (it's very rich, so a little bit goes a long way), top it off with your favorite vegetables, and pop it in the oven. If the cashew cheese becomes golden-brown more than a few minutes before the pizza crust is done, cover the top of the pizza with foil. This recipe is plenty for a medium-sized pizza. I like making larger batches and keeping leftovers in the fridge.

Farmed fish may pose risk for mad cow disease

June 16th, 2009

University of Louisville neurologist Robert P. Friedland, M.D., questions the safety of eating farmed fish in the June issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, adding a new worry to concerns about the nation's food supply.

Friedland and his co-authors suggest farmed fish could transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease--commonly known as mad cow disease--if they are fed byproducts rendered from cows. The scientists urge government regulators to ban feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish until the safety of this common practice can be confirmed.

"We have not proven that it's possible for fish to transmit the disease to humans. Still, we believe that out of reasonable caution for public health, the practice of feeding rendered cows to fish should be prohibited," Friedland said. "Fish do very well in the seas without eating cows," he added.

Creutzfeldt Jakob disease is an untreatable, universally-fatal disease that can be contracted by eating parts of an animal infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease). An outbreak in England attributed to infected beef prompted most countries to outlaw feeding rendered cow material to other cattle because the disease is so easily spread within the same species.

The risk of transmission of BSE to humans who eat farmed fish would appear to be low because of perceived barriers between species. But, according to the authors, it is possible for a disease to be spread by eating a carrier that is not infected itself. It's also possible that eating diseased cow parts could cause fish to experience a pathological change that allows the infection to be passed between the two species.

"The fact that no cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease have been linked to eating farmed fish does not assure that feeding rendered cow parts to fish is safe. The incubation period of these diseases may last for decades, which makes the association between feeding practices and infection difficult. Enhanced safeguards need to be put in place to protect the public," Friedland said.

There have been 163 deaths from Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in the United Kingdom attributed to eating infected beef. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been identified in nine Canadian and three U.S. cattle.

Source: IOS Press (news : web)

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese

By eHow Food & Drink Editor

Things You'll Need:
Large pot
400g dry macaroni
250g tofu
1 cup plain soy milk (or other vegan milk)
½ cup tahini
6 tbsps. nutritional yeast
1 tbsp. turmeric
Blender
Large bowl
Onion and garlic powder to taste, optional
Salt to taste
Oil
Baking dish
2 tbsps. margarine
Paprika

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to boil and add the macaroni. Cover, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. This method saves energy, but you can make the macaroni however you like.

Place tofu, soy milk, tahini, nutritional yeast and turmeric in the blender and blend until creamy. Pour the tofu mixture into a large bowl.

Add optional seasonings, such as garlic or onion powder, or any herbs and spices you like in your macaroni and cheese. Add salt to taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Drain the macaroni and add the noodles to the sauce. Stir gently until the macaroni and sauce are fully incorporated.

Lightly oil a baking dish and pour the macaroni into the dish. Dot the top with 2 tbsps. margarine. Dust with paprika and garlic powder if desired.

Bake in a 180-degree oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until a golden-brown crust forms on the top of your vegan macaroni and cheese.

Tofu Cream Cheese

recipe from VegCooking

Spread this on your bagel or roti for a quick snack. Tofu cream cheese is friendlier to cows than traditional cheese. With half the fat, it 's also friendlier to your waistline!

350 g extra firm silken tofu
3 1/2 Tbsp. cashew butter or 5 Tbsp. raw cashews, finely ground
4 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. liquid sweetener (optional)

• Place the tofu in a clean tea towel, gather the end up and twist and squeeze for a couple of minutes to extract most of the water.
• Crumble into a food processor with the remaining ingredients and process for several minutes until the mixture is very smooth. You may have to stop the machine and loosen the mixture with a spatula once or twice.
• Use right away or scrape into a covered container and refrigerate. It firms up with refrigeration.

Makes 2 cups

Broccoli slashes cancer risk, WA research reveals

10th June 2009

WA researchers have made a major breakthrough into preventing a common cancer, finding that leafy green vegetables such as spinach and broccoli can slash the risk of bowel cancer in many people.

Scientists from the University of WA and the WA Institute of Medical Research found that a common version of the gene MTHFR - already linked to an increased risk of migraines and stroke - was carried by about half the population and increased their risk of cancer.

But lead researcher Professor Barry Iacopetta, from UWA's school of surgery, said the gene variation increased the risk of cancer only in the right side of the large bowel, suggesting that tumours that developed in different parts of the bowel had different risk factors.

This led them to look at different factors, including folate, which might reduce those risks, and their findings have been reported in the International Journal of Cancer.

Fellow researcher Lyn Fritschi from WAIMR said the study found that the risk of cancer in the right side of the bowel jumped to 70 per cent if a person did not eat enough folate - a vitamin found in a range of foods, particularly green leafy vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and brussel sprouts.

"But in a fascinating discovery we've also found that by boosting their folate intake, people with the high-risk version of the MTHFR gene might be able to lower that 70 per cent risk down to an average risk," Professor Fritschi said."

"Folate is found in many everyday foods, including spinach, brussel sprouts, lentils and peanuts, and eating the right daily amount is as simple as eating an orange, a cup of cooked broccoli and a cup of baked beans. "

"And because alcohol tends to block the absorption of folate, it is also recommended that people drink it in moderation if they want to boost their levels of the vitamin."

The researchers said it was not necessary for people to find out if they had the gene version that increased the risk of bowel cancer but instead everyone should boost their folate intake, preferably through their diet rather than by supplements.

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Junk food, red meat, lollies linked to mental illness in teens

A WA study has found a link between Western-style diets and increased mental health problems in teenagers.

The study, completed at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, was led by Dr Wendy Oddy who said the results were based on the detailed analysis of diet records and behaviour checklists collected from more than 1600 West Australian 14-year-olds in the Raine Cohort Study.

The Raine Study started 20 years ago when 2,900 pregnant women were recruited into a research study at King Edward Memorial Hospital to examine ultrasound imaging.

The mothers to be were assessed at 18 weeks of pregnancy, then again at 24, 28, 34 and 38 weeks of pregnancy. During this time information was collected on the mother and the father, relating to diet, exercise, work and health.

Further information was collected during the child's teenage years.

"Our analysis found that higher levels of behaviour and emotional problems were associated with a more Western-style way of eating, namely a diet high in takeaway foods, red meat, confectionary, soft drinks, white bread and unrefined cereals," Dr Oddy said.

"We also showed that these problems were less among teens with a healthier style of eating, specifically those who ate more fruit and vegetables.

“This suggests that if we want to reduce the high rates of mental health problems among young people, then improving their overall diet could be a good place to start."

Dr Oddy said the study found there has been an increase in depression, anxiety and aggressive disorders among children.

She said previous studies had shown one in five children were expected to develop some form of mental health problem by the time they reached adulthood, and that 50 per cent of all adult mental health problems developed during adolescence.

"We know that since 1985, children and teenagers have been increasing their energy intake by consuming more soft drinks and processed foods," Dr Oddy said.

"The number of overweight adolescents has doubled and obesity has tripled in that age group."

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Vegan Ricotta Ravioli with Basil Pine Nut Pesto

SupremeMasterTV.com

Ingredients:
Pine Nut Basil Pesto
2 cups basil
⅓ cup pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
¾ teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper
½ cup olive oil

Ravioli Pasta Dough
1⅔ cups flour
½ cup chickpea flour
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup water

Tofu Cashew Ricotta
1 pound firm tofu
½ cup cashews
Fresh parsley, chopped
Fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
⅓ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil
Agave (to taste)

Home a film by Yann Arthus Bertrand

by sidonie June 5, 2009

Walking in the footsteps of Al Gore, Yann Arthus-Bertrand sign a film Home with artistic and activist who has a global distribution to warn about the threat climate.

Unable to ignore Home, the new documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. On the occasion of World Environment Day and to reach as many people as possible, his fate Friday SOS together in a film, on France 2 television on big screens (the Champ de Mars Paris, London and New York), on the Internet (YouToube) and DVD. A general mobilization to save the planet, supported by Nicolas Sarkozy: "This is a beautiful film with great images, a French production which we can be proud because it will be distributed free of charge."

Produced by Luc Besson (producer of the trilogy Taxi) and EuropaCorp, Home was funded by François-Henri Pinault, the owner of the global luxury group PPR, which has disbursed 12 million euros. It required more than two and a half years of filming with a helicopter in over 50 countries and resulted in 500 hours of rush, which decreased to 2 hours to film and 90 minutes for television.

"The beauty is food for thought"

Distributed in 126 countries (Glenn Close provides the comments in English and Spanish with Salma Hayek), the advocacy retrace the history of the planet and humanity by playing on the contrast between the beauty of the footage of the sky high definition and severity of threats to the Earth. On the one hand, a mother bear that comes out of crunchy water, followed by his two grandchildren on the other, melting the ice that promises to lead to disruptions in supply chain.

Even the images of polluted sites is a magnificent breathtaking. "The beauty creates emotion and thinking," says Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The message carried by this film is extremely important because it highlights the question of survival. Without realizing it, molecule after molecule, we have upset the balance of the earth climate. "And to emphasize the urgency of the situation:" There are more than ten years for humanity to reverse the trend .

Sponsors famous, including Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize and author of "An Inconvenient Truth, have provided scientific caution to the film. But Yann Arthus-Bertrand has encountered hostility from some countries, disturbed by his probing camera. Syria and Dubai did not wish to open their borders. India has retained half of its film and China has lifted its censorship in extremis. Argentina has adopted a weeks under a false pretext. Evidence that the photographer is often green finger where it hurts.

The movie "Home", showing the planet in distress, tumbling in a free distribution in 126 countries in film, television and internet. The French Yann Arthus-Bertrand, photographer hit the Earth from the sky, hopes to convene consciences at the bedside of the planet.

Drought, urbanization, water shortages, pollution, competition for oil and fossil fuels, climate change, each subject was filmed from the sky, the shooting mode preferred by the author. The commentary is scientifically impeccable. It was submitted to Al Gore, former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and Lester Brown, pope of ecology in the United States.

"In 20 years the world will be completely different: how will there be a world without oil, with a completely different climate? We must get out of denial." "To contemplate what else should we help them to respond" assène photographer-filmmaker, who hopes "aware of a massive, hard and brutal."

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To watch the movie click here

One World

Environmentally friendly Vegetarian Dining Which Also Presents A Sustainable Financial Message.

Article from UWA Green-e-News

Recently a friend asked me to accompany her to a vegetarian restaurant. Knowing that I was Environmental Officer at UWA, she exclaimed that the proprietors of this restaurant were interested in sustainability. Ok then I thought, and told her "I would love to go."

I arrived at One World Cuisine early, thinking it will be nice to chat to some of the staff about their views on sustainability and this would make for some stimulating dinner conversation.

It wasn't long before I realised that these perceptions were limiting. In fact, upon entering One World Cuisine, I knew I had entered into a different world. A large screen at the front of the restaurant played shows on vegetarian cooking, sustainable eating, holistic living and environmental issues. Beside the screen there was a library containing, an assortment of literature on the benefits of vegetarianism, sustainability and animal ethics. I indulged in the viewing and literature as I waited for my friend.

She arrived, we greeted, sat and she explained how the food was served. The buffet style vegetarian meal is not only meat free, but GMO and MSG also. To top this, the cost of the food is 'pay as you feel.' The more I learned about this restaurant, the more I saw that this was a business operating on a foundation and ethos of sustainability.

Can you imagine the feeling of eating food that is great for your body while feeling a freedom about what you pay for it? It was very liberating indeed.

We ate, talked, and I marveled at the many creative foods and individual flavors that I was enjoying. While I had been a vegetarian at one time in my life, I had never managed to create such a variety and taste in my cooking.

It was about then that I thought to write an article on the place. I communicated this to my friend, who said "I know the Manager, I will call her over" Bonus, this was all too good and too easy.

I met Manager Lee-Lin, and introduced myself. She was impressed with my role as Environmental Officer, and really excited about my desire to write an article on One World Cuisine. Lee-Lin showered me with pamphlets which explained and supported the One World Cuisine philosophy of vegetarianism and sustainability.

For social sustainability, the pay what you feel concept was introduced to encourage trust, generosity and respect. Further, this is used as a strategy to draw customers and highlight the urgency of sustainable eating. One World Cuisine operates on the belief that the vegetarian diet is more environmentally friendly because it uses fewer resources and promotes respect for life. Specifically, they are concerned about the high use of water and emission of methane that results from animal husbandry practices.

One World Cuisine staff will gladly present you with a variety of literature that presents scientific and philosophical arguments for vegetarianism. Plus, they are more than happy to provide you with vegetarian cooking support.

I I thoroughly recommend a visit to One World Cuisine. The staff are friendly, the food gorgeous, the atmosphere inspiring, and the sentiment infectious. A meal at One world Cuisine is memorable on a variety of levels.

One World Cuisine
Where: Shop 7, 23 South St, Kardinya
Opening hours: Lunch 11:30 - 2:00,
Dinner 5:45 - 9:00pm
Closed Mon and Tue
How much: pay as you feel
Phone: 9331 6677
Web: http://www.oneworldcuisine.com.au/

Climate Change responsible for 300,000 deaths a year

Article from Global Humanitarian Forum

First ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change calculates more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year

> Report projects that by 2030, worldwide deaths will reach almost 500,000 per year; people affected by climate change annually expected to rise to over 600 million and the total annual economic cost increase to around $300 billion

> To avert worst possible outcomes, climate change adaptation efforts need to be scaled up by a factor of 100 in developing countries, which account for 99% of casualties due to climate change

London 29 May – Kofi A. Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, today introduced a major new report into the human impact of climate change. The 'Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis' is the first ever comprehensive report looking at the human impact of climate change.

The report was issued immediately prior to official preparatory talks in Bonn for a new UN international climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. These talks will culminate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. The report was reviewed by leading international experts, including Rajendra Pachauri of the IPCC, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.

The report estimates that climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year, the equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year. By 2030, the annual death toll from climate change will reach half a million people a year.

It also indicates that climate change today seriously impacts on the lives of 325 million people. In twenty years time that number will more than double to an estimated 660 million, making it the biggest emerging humanitarian challenge in the world, impacting on the lives of 10% of the world's population.

Economic losses due to climate change already today amount to over $125 billion per year. This is more than the individual GDP of 73% of the world's countries, and is greater than the total amount of aid that currently flows from industrialised countries to developing nations each year. By 2030, the economic losses due to climate change will have almost trebled to $340 billion annually.

The Global Humanitarian Forum commissioned Dalberg Global Development Advisers to develop thereport in December 2008 by collating all relevant information and current statistics relating to the human impact of climate change. Within the limitations of existing research, the report presents the most plausible estimate of the impact of climate change on human society today.

Mr Annan said: "Climate change is a silent human crisis. Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time. Already today, it causes suffering to hundreds of millions of people most of whom are not even aware that they are victims of climate change. We need an international agreement to contain climate change and reduce its widespread suffering.

"Despite its dangerous impact, climate change is a neglected area of research since much of the debate has focused on the long term physical effects. The point of this report is to focus on today and on the human face climate change.

"Just six months before the Copenhagen summit, the world finds itself at a crossroads. We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. Put simply, the report is a clarion call for negotiators at Copenhagen to come to the most ambitious international agreement ever negotiated, or continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale."

According to the report, a majority of the world's population does not have the capacity to cope with the impact of climate change without suffering a potentially irreversible loss of wellbeing and risk of loss of life. The populations most gravely at risk are over half a billion people in some of the poorest areas that are also highly prone to climate change – in particular, the semi-arid dry land belt countries from the Sahara to the Middle East and Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia, and small island developing states.

Mr Annan was joined at the launch by report review panellist Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam GB and Global Humanitarian Forum Board Member. She said:

"Climate change is a human crisis which threatens to overwhelm the humanitarian system and turn back the clock on development. It is also a gross injustice - poor people in developing countries bear over 90% of the burden - through death, disease, destitution and financial loss - yet are least responsible for creating the problem. Despite this, funding from rich countries to help the poor and vulnerable adapt to climate change is not even 1 percent of what is needed. This glaring injustice must be addressed at Copenhagen in December"

Can vegetarians save the world?

A small town in Belgium has gone meat-free one day a week. A sign of things to come, says one food historian

By Tristram Stuart

For decades, environmental arguments against eating meat have been largely the preserve of vegetarian websites and magazines. Just two years ago it seemed inconceivable that significant numbers of western Europeans would be ready to down their steak knives and graze on vegetation for the sake of the planet. The rapidity with which this situation has changed is astonishing.

The breakthrough came in 2006 when the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published a study, Livestock's Long Shadow, showing that the livestock industry is responsible for a staggering 18% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This is only the beginning of the story. In 2008, Brazil announced that in the 12 months to July it had lost 12,000 sq km (3m acres) of the Amazon rainforest, mainly to cattle ranchers and soy producers supplying European markets with animal feed. There is water scarcity in large parts of the world, yet livestock-rearing can use up to 200 times more water a kilogram (2.2lbs) of meat produced than is used in growing wheat. Given the volatile global food prices, it seems foolhardy to divert 1.2bn tonnes of fodder – including cereals – to fuel global meat consumption, which has increased by more than two and half times since 1970.

Vegetarians have been around for a very long time – Pythagoreans forbade eating animals more than 2,500 years ago – but even as the environmental evidence mounted, they didn't appear to be winning the argument. Today in Britain just 2% of the population is vegetarian.

Thankfully, a more pragmatic alternative to total abstinence now seems to be emerging. In September 2008, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a vegetarian himself, called on people to take personal responsibility for the impacts of their consumption.

"Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there," he said. "In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity." This week the Belgian city of Ghent met his demands by declaring Thursday a meat-free day. Restaurants, canteens and schools will now opt to make vegetarianism the default for one day a week, and promote meat-free meals on other days as well.

This is not the first institutional backing for such a move. In Britain, the NHS now aims to reduce its impact on the environment partly by "increasing the use of sustainably sourced fish and reducing our reliance on eggs, meat and dairy". Last year, Camden council in London announced that it would be issuing a report calling for schools, care homes and canteens on council premises to cut meat from menus and encourage staff to become vegetarian. (In the end the initiative was shot down by Conservative councillors who insisted that people should not be deprived of choice.) While in Germany the federal environment agency in January called on Germans to follow a more Mediterranean diet by reserving meat only for special occasions.

These initiatives may sound novel, but in fact they reinstate what was for centuries an obligatory practice across Europe. The fasting laws of the Catholic church stipulated that on Fridays, fast days, and Lent, no one could eat meat or wine; on some days, dairy products and fish were also banned. Even after the Reformation Elizabeth I upheld the Lenten fast, insisting that while there was no religious basis for fasting, there were sound utilitarian motives: to ­protect the country's livestock from over-exploitation and to promote the fishing industry (which had the ancillary benefit of increasing the number of ships available for the navy).

Towards the end of the 18th century, two consecutive bad harvests in Europe created shortages. There was a huge public clamour for the wealthy to cut down on their meat consumption in order to leave more grain for the poor. The idea that meat was a cruel profligacy became current, and led Percy Bysshe Shelley to declare that the carnivorous rich literally monopolised land and food by taking more of it than they needed. "The use of animal flesh," he said, "directly militates with this equality of the rights of man."

In the wake of last year's food crisis and with mounting concern over global warming, we appear to have reached a similar crisis moment.

The vegetarian argument is complicated, however, by the fact that in terms of environmental impact, no two pieces of meat are the same. A hunk of beef raised on Scottish moorland has a very different ecological footprint from one created in an intensive feedlot using concentrated cereal feed, and a wild venison or rabbit casserole is arguably greener than a vegetable curry. Likewise, countries have very different animal husbandry methods. For example, in the US, for each calorie of meat or dairy food produced, farm animals consume on average more than 5 calories of feed. In India the rate is a less than 1.5 calories. In Kenya, where there isn't the luxury of feeding grains to animals, livestock yield more calories than they consume because they are fattened on grass and agricultural by-products inedible to humans.

In a paper published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, food ecologist Annika Carlsson-Kanyama showed that kilo for kilo, beef and pork could produce 30 times more CO² emissions than other protein rich foods such as beans. On the other hand, the paper also indicated that poultry and eggs had much lower ­emissions than cheese, which was among the highest polluters. So do meat-free days, and arguments for vegetarianism in general, take adequate consideration of these subtleties, or should we all be chucking out the cheese and going vegan?

"A vegetarian day is a simple message that people can understand," says Carlsson-Kanyama, "though probably what we ultimately need to do is eat less animal products overall."

Alex Evans, fellow at the Centre on International Cooperation at New York University, points out that more and more people – including Sir Nicholas Stern, the author of a 2006 review on the economics of global warming – accept that the only equitable way of achieving an international agreement on climate change is for rich and poor nations to converge on an equal per capita "fair share" of carbon emissions. "The same ought to apply to food," Evans says, "but currently there is no agreed method for calculating what is my 'fair share' of the world's food supply – in particular how much meat."

Based on the global food production figures published by the FAO, I did a few preliminary calculations. Global average consumption of meat and dairy products including milk was 152kg a person in 2003. Average EU and US consumption, by contrast, was over 400kg, while Uganda's was 45kg. In order to reach the equitable fair share of global production, rich western countries would have to cut their consumption by 2.7 times – and this doesn't include the fact that the butter will have to be spread even more thinly if the global population really does increase by another 2.3 billion by 2050.

However, still further reductions would be necessary because global meat production is already at unsustainable levels. The IPCC among other bodies, has called for an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Since high levels of meat and dairy ­consumption are luxuries, it seems reasonable to expect livestock production to take its share of the hit. For rich ­western countries this would mean decreasing meat and dairy consumption to significantly less than one tenth of current levels, the sooner the better.


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Are We So Addicted to Meat That We Can't See Where the Swine Flu Came From?

By Kathy Freston

A virus like swine flu is a completely predictable outcome of our cruel and appallingly filthy factory farming systems.

Are we killing ourselves?

There has been a lot of talk in recent days about how factory farmed animals are the cause of the deadly hybrid virus that is eerily mutating, and some are calling it cosmic retribution, a sort of "chickens coming home to roost" scenario. I don't know about that, but an animal virus like swine flu is a completely predictable (and was a widely predicted) response to our modern horribly cruel and appallingly filthy factory farming systems.

Undoubtedly, some animal welfare people are hoping that swine flu will serve as a wake-up call for humanity, that the "groupthink" in support of intensive farming might move toward thoughtfulness about the health hazards and cruelty of intensively confining animals, and that governments will pass laws to make these "confined animal feeding operations" (CAFOs, the industry term for "factory farm") smaller, cleaner, less cruel, and less dependent on drugs--which are used to keep the animals alive through the filthy and stressful conditions that would otherwise kill them in much greater numbers.

I must admit that this does feel like a wake-up call: Are we really so addicted to eating meat (even as we demand that meat be inexpensive, meat processors want to make more money, which means faster, meaner ways of raising and slaughtering animals for food) that we're willing to risk the millions who could die from such mutating viruses? Has our desire for gustatory pleasure at any cost pushed us into terrible consequences as we creep toward an ugly future? The "big one" may not be this particular version of the flu, but scientists say we have not seen the last of H1N1; not by a long shot.

When the swine flu hit, I was already wondering and talking with friends about whether the economic crisis might inspire a paradigm shift in how we live our lives, especially after reading a remarkable column by generally sober and hyper-realistic Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. Writes Friedman, "What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it's telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically...?"
Friedman concludes that "Often in the middle of something momentous, we can't see its significance. But for me there is no doubt: 2008 will be the marker--the year when 'The Great Disruption' began."

Of course, the economic meltdown is already forcing us to rethink our priorities and what we value, so there is a process of letting go of a lot of things we considered important. People have cut back on buying non-essential items; we're eating out less, using the library more, and generally becoming more reasonable in our consumption and more civic-minded in our overall way of being--the economic crunch is, as Friedman predicted, causing a reevaluation of our priorities.

But will the changes be as massive as Friedman predicts? President Obama certainly hopes so. I recently saw a quote by the president: "History reminds us that, at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas." Yes, we have; and we can again, of course.

In the past, America has faced and overcome enormous difficulties again and again, from the Revolutionary War to World War II to the obstacles of racism and sexism. These challenges, and our ability as a people to address them--with both individual and societal change--should inspire us to optimism in the face of current challenges.

What can we do, as individuals, to create a sea change, to halt the mutation of deadly viruses, to say no to out-of-control business practices, to stop creating environmental havoc, and to bring our health up to a better level? All of this can be covered, incredibly, by thinking very seriously about the foods we choose to eat, and then changing our habits if we find that our choices are generating problems. And as we change as individuals, society and governments will change with us.

Here's a home run solution that I can't help coming back to: eat less (and eventually no) animal protein. A diet high in animal protein bloats us physically by clogging our bodies with saturated fat, growth hormones, and antibiotics; it has been proven conclusively to cause cancer, heart disease, and obesity.

And the meat industry poisons and depletes our clean air, potable water, and fertile topsoil almost more than any other sector of business. As just one example, the meat industry is responsible for about 18 percent of all global warming--that's almost half again as much as all cars, planes, and trucks combined. And now it's become all too clear that factory farms are breeding grounds for viruses to mutate and become deadly.

Basically, our current food choices (the average American eats about 200 pounds of meat annually) are killing us on a host of different levels. Perhaps now more than ever, it's time to clear out old, tired, uninformed ways of eating and opt instead for food that nourishes us, is easy on the planet, and gives the animals some breathing room.

Oh, and especially useful in these exceedingly difficult economic times: Eating a plant-based diet is cheap relative to eating meat. Compare the price of grains and beans with that of chicken and cheese. And growing grains and vegetables is by no means the filthy business that animal agriculture has become.

I realize it's not painless to give up what we are used to, what we like the taste and tradition of, in favor of a diet that we know is better for us and the planet. But if we lean into the shift of eating consciously by giving up one animal at a time (give up chickens first, as I discuss here), or eating only vegetarian for two out of three meals, we will find our way and get used to new tastes. We will grow to love different foods that are kinder to our bodies, the environment, and the animals.

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*Kathy Freston is a health and wellness expert and a New York Times best-selling author. Her latest book is The Quantum Wellness Cleanse: A 21 Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind and Spirit. Freston promotes a body/mind/spirit approach to health and happiness that includes a concentration on healthy diet, emotional introspection, spiritual practice, and loving relationships. Kathy's recent television appearances include The Oprah Winfrey Show, Ellen, The View and Good Morning America. www.kathyfreston.com

Maybe J.C. (was a vegetarian)

Song and video by songwriter Paul Seymour, about how some of the greatest people throughout history have been ethical vegetarians, maybe even Jesus?!

Belgian City First In World To Go Vegetarian At Least Once A Week

Starting this week there will be a regular weekly meatless day, in which civil servants and elected councillors will opt for vegetarian meals.

Ghent means to recognise the impact of livestock on the environment.

Read the whole story: BBC

Vegan Food Coming to Murdoch University

One World Cuisine restaurant has started to provide delicious vegan meals in the canteen of Murdoch University since May 11.

Thanks to Laura Williams, the sustainability representative of Murdoch Guild of Students, we had the chance to meet Cheryl, the manager of Walters Café in Murdoch University, and provide vegan meals to the students. It turned out that the vegan meals such as sweet & sour veggie pork with fried rice, curry and Vietnamese rice rolls were so popular that they were sold out in no time.

We deeply appreciate Laura's help and Cheryl's support for promoting and providing eco-friendly meals at the café.