Wanda Embar (WE)  is the Founder of Veganpeace, a website dedicated to “inspire people to strive towards a more peaceful world where animal and human rights are respected and honored.” 

Embar, who was born in Leiden, the Netherlands studied mathematics at the University of Leiden and later at the University of Toulouse, France. She then relocated to Wisconsin, U.S.A., where she currently resides. Embar became vegetarian around 1985, by following her older sister’s example. After reading about the suffering dairy cows go through, she turned vegan in 1990. It was then she saw how connected the meat and dairy industry are. 

Livestock is now estimated to cause around 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and has huge environmental impact. In this interview, Embar highlights the philosophy behind veganism and some of the key behavioural issues related to it. 

EWTT: When did you become sensitive to animal suffering?

Wanda Embar:

Embar: I grew up eating meat. I was surrounded by cats and other little creatures and loved animals, but I’d never made the connection. Meat was just a normal part of the meal on our dinner table. When I was about 15 years old, my older sister had become vegetarian after a teacher had talked to her class about animal suffering. As a younger sister I just followed her lead. After that I looked up books about vegetarianism in the library and started to read about the issues. I was shocked when I found out how animals are raised and killed for our meals. I was also completely convinced that other people would immediately become vegetarian if they found out what I had just read. My parents were the first people I shared my new found knowledge with. It was a very rude awakening for me when they didn’t react the way I expected them too. I was hurt, upset, but as a teenager, I was especially angry. After that I started to talk to basically anyone who wanted to listen to me about vegetarianism, mostly to my friends at school.

Asian Asparagus Wraps-(c) Vegan Peace

EWTT: Was your decision to turn vegan because of a love for all animals or the belief that animals have a right to a good life?

Embar: I would say both. I definitely have a love for animals, which I’m sure has influenced the decisions I’ve made in life. I was also born with a very strong belief in justice. That’s why I can’t help but care about so many different issues in this world.

EWTT: Was your shift to a vegan diet a gradual process or more like an overnight decision?

Embar: I turned vegan the day I read a paragraph about dairy cows in a Dutch book about vegetarianism. (I’d been vegetarian for about 5 years.) The book talked about how calves are removed from their mothers, very soon after birth. It also mentioned how dairy cows are slaughtered at about the age of 3 to 4 years, whereas they can live to be 25 years old. That’s when I realized that the dairy industry was just as cruel as the meat industry. I was still living at home and remember opening my bedroom door, calling my mother (who was about to buy groceries) and saying that I didn’t want to drink milk anymore. That’s the day I became vegan. It was on February 27th 1990.

EWTT: How did your family react?

Friendly Sheperd's Pie-(c)Vegan Peace

Embar: My mother was a bit worried. I hardly knew anything about veganism yet and didn’t even know whether there were any other vegans in Holland. So it was all still new for us. But my family supported me, mostly because they knew that there was absolutely no way they could possibly change my mind.

EWTT: How about your children?

Vegan Cupcakes-(c)Vegan Peace.

Embar: Since my husband and I, are both vegan, we are raising our two children (aged 10 and 12) as vegan. I believe that a vegan diet is healthier, so it’s a natural choice to raise our children that way. And of course it also makes a lot of sense to raise children with compassion. It’s very easy and gentle to explain to them that a tomato grows on a plant, but I can’t imagine how I would explain to them about  how a piece of meat reaches the dinner table. Children are born with a natural love for animals and it’s beautiful to be able to nurture that.

EWTT: What is the hardest thing about becoming a vegan?

Embar: If I have to answer this question for me personally, then the answer is “nothing”. I’ve never had any trouble becoming vegan and never missed anything. I’ve been a vegan for 21 years now and there hasn’t been a single day where I “missed” something or had a craving for a non-vegan food. I know that’s not the same for other people though. Many vegans (including my husband) are really helped by having other vegans around them for support. I also know that many vegans (especially here in America) really have a hard time giving up cheese. Cheese seems to be more difficult to give up than meat.

                                                                                                                             

EWTT: You believe that going completely vegan instead of cutting down on meat or dairy consumption is the ideal situation. But for most people, isn’t meat reduction a more achievable goal?

Embar: That is a very good question. You correctly assumed that I consider being totally vegan the ideal situation and I would like to elaborate on the reasons why a bit. Firstly – and what brought me personally to ‘veganism‘ - I don’t believe that animals exist on this Earth simply to serve us humans. Unless it’s necessary for our own survival, I don’t see any valid reason to exploit and abuse our fellow sentient beings.

Secondly the vegan lifestyle can be the solution to some other major problems we are dealing with. It’s important for us to realize that ‘veganism’ doesn’t just benefit the lives of the non-human inhabitants of this Earth but us too. Here is why:

We are growing gigantic amounts of grains to be fed to farmed animals, while people in this world are dying from hunger. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat. That’s a very inefficient way of producing food, which we can’t afford in this overpopulated world.

To make room to grow these huge amounts of grains, we also destroy the beautiful nature on this Earth. We are destroying millions of acres of rain-forests so we can grow crops to feed to factory-farmed animals.

And if that weren’t bad enough, meat consumption has also been linked to major health problems like heart disease, obesity and cancer.

So yes, veganism is the ideal situation for this planet and all the creatures who inhabit it.

                                    

EWTT: Our society is largely non-vegan and most meat is factory-farmed.  How to you stay positive that the transition will come about?

Embar: It is not easy, but I deal with it by trying to understand how humans behave and why they behave that way. We are all born in this very complex world, with already existing norms and values. It is very normal to just want to blend in with our current society and to accept their way of life. That’s the easy way to live and it’s understandable that most people choose to go that direction.

Branding Animals.Courtesy:The Animals Voice

It’s comforting for me to know, that the majority of people seem to have a natural love for the animals that they encounter in life (like pets or zoo animals). It’s also comforting to know that most people would be absolutely disgusted if they were face to face with what goes on in a factory farm. This is both comforting and frustrating, because people seem to have a natural reaction to want to close their eyes and ignore whatever makes them feel uncomfortable, which is made very easy for them since most animal cruelty happens completely out of sight. What also helps me to deal with people, is being very aware of my own imperfections and my own tendencies to want to ignore suffering. When money is tight, I’ll also buy clothing in a regular store, regardless of everything I know about sweatshops.

And what helps me maybe most is the way I became vegan. As I’d mentioned, I became vegan after reading just one simple paragraph about the dairy industry in a Dutch book about vegetarianism. This book was a newer and changed edition of the same book I had read a few years earlier.

After I’d become vegan, out of curiosity, I went to the library and looked at the older edition. I was absolutely shocked and amazed when I found that same paragraph about the dairy industry in this older version. This meant that I’d already read it a few years back, without it having any effect on me at all. This really helped me to understand other people and to know that they not only need the right information, but they also have to be at the right time in their lives to want to change.This all helps me to understand and stay patient, which doesn’t mean that I don’t have moments of frustration.

EWTT: How do you think a transition to a less meat oriented society can come about?

Embar: Every person is different and has their own comfort levels, that’s why I don’t suggest any single way in doing this. Some people might have no problem switching to a vegan diet overnight, while other people are more comfortable incorporating a vegan meal once a week. There is no right or wrong, it all helps. Caring is what matters most.However I encourage people to try eating more plant-based foods. An important reason people might want to try transitioning towards a vegan diet is the message it gives to society. Money is a major tool people have to voice their opinion. The way you spend your money lets society know what actions you do and don’t support. Every time you buy a vegan food product instead of an animal product, you increase the demand of vegan products and decrease the demand of animal products.This might not seem like much while you are doing your groceries, but it definitely counts.

 

EWTT: Do you believe a humane way to raise animals for meat is possible?

Courtesy: Veganpeace

Embar: No. I really don’t believe that it is possible to commercially raise animals in a humane way. Any commercial institution has to make economic decisions, to be able to both exist and thrive. I believe that it is impossible to put animal lives in this equation, without it negatively affecting their quality of life. It is simply impossible to meet the demands for animal products, while treating animals compassionately.                                                       

A few years ago I contacted this small Dutch farm where they raise chickens for eggs. This farm allowed you to ‘adopt’ chickens and to see them on a webcam. I asked them about common issues in the egg industry. A woman, one of the owners of the farm, answered me in an admirable honest way. She told me that they indeed have to dispose of male chicks (which are useless in the egg industry). She also mentioned that when the chickens are about 2 years old, they are slaughtered, because their eggs become too fragile to transport. She mentioned that as long as people demand animal products, they have to make economic decisions like that. And this is of course true for all animal industries, not just the egg industry.

EWTT: What about Dairy? What about milk that comes from cows that are allowed to graze on pasture and be their natural self. No hormones and antibiotics are administered. Would you consume dairy products from such farms?

Embar: No. I believe that the breast milk from cows is meant for their

Dairy Cows Courtesy:Veganpeace

own babies. And like I mentioned in a previous question, I don’t believe it is possible to raise animals in a humane way. Even small farms have to deal with issues like male calves , as male calves aren’t of much use at a dairy farm. And issues like older cows not giving enough milk anymore.

I also would like to mention that “natural cows” don’t need to be milked. Cows have been bred in a way that makes them produce these huge quantities of breast milk. A “natural cow” would produce just enough breast milk for her own baby to drink.

EWTT: What is your view on the following statement “Plants may also feel pain”

Embar: Unless you want to go the fruitarian route (I know some fruitarians), we have to eat plants. The meat industry kills more plants than eating these plants directly. The meat industry has to first feed plants to the animals that produce the meat. Then the animal has to be killed. That causes a lot more suffering then directly eating the plants.

 

EWTT: From the time you became a vegan 1990s to now, do you see any dramatic changes about how people perceive Veganism. 

Embar: One huge change I see is that more people now know what the word ‘vegan’ means. In the 1990s, vegans were basically treated like weird aliens. Today when you mention the word “vegan”, many people even know someone that is vegan in their inner circle. So we are definitely growing as a group. This of course is helped a lot by the presence of the internet, which we didn’t have in 1990. Spreading information has become so much easier now.

People also seem to be more open to accept the vegan diet as a healthy option, even though the old “where to you get your protein” question never seems to go away.

I’ve also noticed how through the years ‘veganism’ is slowly becoming a more integrated and accepted part of our society. In 1990 it was as good as impossible to enter a restaurant and to ask about vegan menu options. Today it still doesn’t always work, but it’s a lot easier (at least in the US). You can even find some “regular” restaurants that use the word “vegan” in their menu.

Vegan Food Pyramid

The quality and selection of vegan products in health food stores has definitely greatly improved these last few years, which helps in making vegan products a lot more accessible. Regular grocery stores are also starting to carry more and more vegetarian items.

 

 

 EWTT: What is the future of veganism?

Embar: My dream is that one day the animal industry will be abolished, but I highly doubt that I will live to see that happen. What I do know is that we will continue to grow and spread information. The majority of people like to follow the general way society is set up and I believe that ‘veganism’ is slowly becoming one accepted way of living. That will make it easier for future generations to decide to go in that direction. It’s never easy to join a minority, let alone be the only one you know that chooses a certain lifestyle, which is currently still the reality for many vegans. I’m confident that will change.

 

What Every Vegan Should Know About Vitamin B12

Very low B12 intakes can cause anaemia and nervous system damage.

The only reliable vegan sources of B12 are foods fortified with B12 (including some plant milks, some soy products and some breakfast cereals) and B12 supplements. Vitamin B12, whether in supplements, fortified foods, or animal products, comes from micro-organisms.

Most vegans consume enough B12 to avoid anaemia and nervous system damage, but many do not get enough to minimise potential risk of heart disease or pregnancy complications.

To get the full benefit of a vegan diet, vegans should do one of the following:

• eat fortified foods two or three times a day to get at least three micrograms (μg or mcg) of B12 a day or
• take one B12 supplement daily providing at least 10 micrograms or
• take a weekly B12 supplement providing at least 2000 micrograms.

 Read more from The Vegan Society

 

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About the Interviewer:

Bharathi Shiva volunteers as Editor for Eco WALK the Talk.com

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Madhu Verma is the brains and spirit behind SoCh in Action, a Singapore based non-profit that organises a yearly event to showcase the best social change initiatives by children between the ages of 9 and 14.  The event is just around the corner, with the ” Be the Change” Exposition to be held on Saturday, 12th November 2011, from 9:30 am to 1 pm at Level 4 of SCAPE, at 2 Orchard Link, Singapore.

We talk to Madhu to find out how it all started and about this year’s theme for the expo, “If Food Could Talk.”

EWTT: What made you leave a corporate career to work on social change?

MV: We all can make a difference in society no matter where we work. I always had the inclination to work for the social sector but didn’t know how I could use my knowledge and experience there. While finishing my Masters in marketing, I did my research in Strategic alliances between the two sectors. I discovered that social sector could use many marketing strategies that corporates use all the time to be effective and widen their scope. That’s when I started working for Oxfam in New Zealand and implementing my corporate sector experience.

EWTT: When and how did the idea of SoCh come about?

MV: It was a persistent thought for a long time. People in general are aware of issues in the society around them or in the world. I feel ‘doing good’ is a human ‘need’ like any other ‘need’ to entertain, to travel, to wear new clothes. But the reason we see fewer people satisfying this need is because the avenues provided are either not easily available or engaging or not popularised in the ways other good and services are done.

Soch, in Hindi means thought

A ‘thought’ can be a powerful tool to bring about positive change in the world.  At SoCh in Action we provide avenues for such thoughts to translate into meaningful actions. ( SoCh in Action website)

SoCh is about providing interesting and engaging way to making positive social change and doing good. We have begun with children’s program because they are the most responsive audience. But we won’t stop there.

EWTT:  Could you describe the first SoCh exposition last year?

MV: It was fabulous! Seeing the passion in the eyes of the children was pure bliss. We had 26 school projects by children 9-14 years of age from various schools. From helping the elderly, climate refugee petitions, anti-littering to providing fresh water for Haiti ; small or big, simple or complex, the problems and their solutions were chosen by children themselves.

There were 10 workshop/activities that gave children the opportunity to have an experiential and truly ‘hands-on’ experience. This was a fun way to sensitise children and grown ups to various social and environmental issues. Amongst the activities were walking without shoes, making non-toxic cleaning solutions, green science, using trash to make fun stuff, a live story telling session and so on. It attracted lots of children, parents and teachers and they all had a good time.

Video link here

EWTT:  Why have you chosen food as a theme this year?

MV: Food shapes everyone’s lives in some way or the other.  But we seldom stop to think about it beyond its procurement and stop to see how it affects our health. Children are rarely taught about how issues related to food affect us, our community, people growing the food and the environment.

Easy access to food in urban day living gives our children limited know-how about food, how it is provided by nature, where is one’s food coming from, what’s in it, what’s wholesome, what’s natural,  how can the wasted food can be utilised, if food is scarce or abundant, various food related health issues and many more.  There are so many environmental, social and cultural issues connected to food that we thought it would be good to make it our theme this year. Children will not only find these topics interesting but they will inspire them to think more deeply and meaningfully about what they put into their mouths.

EWTT:  Tell us about the competition for this year’s theme.

MV: We wanted kids to think, “What if food could talk…what it would tell them about its journey?” So we have a small video that kids can watch where a chicken nugget is talking to our friend Leero. Kids can then imagine what their food tells them and send in their story, comments, or cartoons by 10th November 2011 to us at Contact[at]sochinaction.com . We will select 10 interesting entries at the event.

Video link here

There will be a lot of fun activities: a mini grocery store, for kids to play with worms, learn about food wastage, food additives and smart food.

EWTT:  How many schools do you expect to take part this year?

MV: Last year we had 14 schools, this year we have 30 schools so far taking part. You will be able to see more than 50 children’s project on various topic such as saying ‘no’ to shark fin soup, dealing with PSLE pressure, glaucoma and myopia awareness, vandalism in school, bringing, cheer to the elderly and food trays for the visually impaired, dealing with teen depression and so on. These are some of the issues that children have chosen to address.

We have received support from various organisations, so there is a growing recognition of the programs in Singapore and we are grateful to all our partners for that.

EWTT: What are your plans for SoCH’s future?

MV: We will continue to do our annual programs, Design for Change School Challenge and Be the Change Exposition and make it reach more children. Other programs that we are mulling over may take a few months to launch, on the lines of bringing the corporate and social sector closer.

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Please check the SoCh in action website and join the Facebook Page ‘SoCh in Action‘.  The event “Be the Change Exposition” is also on Facebook.

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Today sees an important report being released by Greenpeace Australia against GM wheat trials in the country. These trials are clearly, as the report alleges, a result of government-industry nexus, rather than for the interests of consumers or farmers.  Featured here are the various GM campaigns in Australia and the people behind them as well as a video interview with two leading GM activists.

Australia is one of the leading food exporters in the world, which is all the more reason for the rest of us outside the country to pay close attention to the developments there, especially regarding the regulation or non-regulation of GM crops.

Particularly disturbing are the recent GM wheat trials which have been approved by CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s national science agency responsible to the Australian government.

Claire Parfitt, Greenpeace Australia

Claire Parfitt, Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner for Greenpeace Australia filled me in on the details on my recent trip to Sydney.

According to Parfitt, “GM wheat trials have been planted in 5 locations across Australia.  We expect another 4 trials to be planted in the next few weeks.  The development of GM wheat is accelerating in Australia and is extending around the world.  Just this week, the UK government received an application for the trial of GM wheat”

She also added in response to my query about the exposure Singapore has to Australian wheat, it “imports around 350,000 tonnes of wheat in 2010 of which the USA supplied roughly 60,000 tonnes and Australia roughly 100,000 tonnes.  It is also highly likely that Australian wheat is processed in Indonesia and then sent on to Singapore as processed foodstuffs.”

No doubt it is also highly likely that  GM wheat, if commercialised,could find its way into some Asian countries either directly through imports, or by their opening up borders to GM wheat trials.

Greenpeace Australia has in fact released today an important report entitled “Australia’s Wheat Scandal: The Biotech Takeover of Our Daily Food” which alleges that Australia’s national science body CSIRO is in partnership with biotech companies to commercialise GM wheat.   The full-fledged report can be downloaded here.

The Greenpeace report highlights large gaps in the risk analysis on GM wheat including • Lack of specification over which foreign gene has been inserted into the wheat plants • Lack of genetic mapping to determine the number of foreign genes inserted or how stable the resulting GMO is • Lack of testing for toxic and allergic effects of GM wheat and • Failure to provide a credible plan to prevent GM wheat from contaminating in the field.

The key points in the report Australia’s Wheat Scandal: The Biotech Takeover of Our Daily Food which can be downloaded here are:

*Australia is among the world’s top five wheat exporters. GM wheat has been rejected by all of the other major wheat growing nations.

*There is a long history of the evidence of GM contamination in Australia. Details of 29 reported incidents of contamination and 169 breaches of security licenses issued by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) are recorded.

*This year’s GM wheat trials were proposed and approved while two directors of Nufarm were serving on the board of the CSIRO. Nufarm is the exclusive distributor of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready products in Australia.

* Clearly, the Australian Government is well aware of the risks of releasing GM wheat into the environment. OGTR itself says “Gene technology has the potential to cause unintended effects due to the process used to insert new genetic material or by producing a gene product that affects multiple traits”  and that “ there may be unintended effects due to random insertion of the introduced genetic material…”

*The CSIRO announced that GM wheat from this year’s field trials in the ACT (Australia Common Territories) will be used for human feeding trials. This will be the first time in the world that GM wheat will be tested on humans. However,there is currently no publicly available information on the parameters of these animal-feeding studies and the OGTR does not require testing for potential toxic or allergic effects. The limited public information that is available indicates that CSIRO’s tests on rats and pigs will run for just 28 days before GM wheat is tested on humans. The first two phases of human tests will go for just one day.

*To determine if GM crops are safe to eat, Australia’s food regulator relies on the data provided by corporations invested in GM development. The lack of independent testing is cause for concern, and those independent studies that do exist have produced alarming results. Independent analysis of biotech ratfeeding data, retrieved through a court order, found signs of toxicity in the GMfed rat groups were signifi cantly higher than non-GM fed groups, with greatest impact on the kidney and liver.

Fran Murrell, MADGE Australia

Two leading organisations in addition to Greenpeace Australia which are determined GM Free campaigners are MADGE Australia and Gene Ethics.  I met up with Fran Murrell, one of the co-founders of the voluntary group MADGE (Mothers Are Demystifying Genetic Engineering) who, quite fortunately, was in Sydney that week from Melbourne to deliver a few talks. In the video below, she dwells on the need for better food labelling in Australia, and the campaign by Greenpeace to remove S-26 Soy, a Pfizer manufactured infant formula milk with GM content. Australian mothers had last year protested to remove S-26 soy from supermarket shelves.

Murrell also touched upon the loopholes in GM labelling in Australia. Though there is a requirement for mandatory labelling, several highly refined ingredients such as sugars, oils, starches, soy-based ingredients like soy lecithin, as well as dairy products from cows that have been fed on GM animal feed escape the labelling process.

Vivienne Reiner, Gene Ethics

Gene Ethics is Australia’s leading non-profit organisation promoting a GM Free Australia for the last 24 years. Vivienne Reiner, Media Officer at Gene Ethics highlighted the Steve Marsh case where an organic farmer in Western Australia had lost his organic farm’s certification due to contamination from his neighbour’s GM Canola, and is now using his own funds to bring a lawsuit against his neighbour. Steve Marsh needs financial help to carry this through, and donations are welcome through the Steve Marsh Benefit Fund.

The outcome of the Steve Marsh lawsuit could become an important legal precedent for Australia and the rest of the world. Seed companies like Monsanto can sue farmers whose crops have become contaminated by GM crops, under the pretext of infringing patent rules, despite it not being their fault.  This was portrayed effectively in the movie, Food Inc.

Here is the video interview with Fran Murrell of MADGE Australia and Vivienne Reiner of Gene Ethics.

Video link here

Badly required is a “Farmer’s Protection Fund” as suggested by Greenpeace’s Claire Parfitt whom I mentioned earlier.  It puts the financial liability on seed companies rather than on the individual farmer who finds his field contaminated by GM crops. Here’s an extract from Greenpeace’s write-up on the subject which explains this clearly:

“Australia currently offers no legal protection for farmers whose land is contaminated with genetically modified (GM) seed patented by multinational companies. The result is that a farmer whose crop is contaminated with GM seed that they did not plant, receives no financial compensation for the costs of contamination. The costs of contamination are significant, ranging from the loss of non-GM premiums of $50 per tonne for conventional canola and $500-$800 per tonne for organic wheat to the costs of attempting to remove GM seed and plants over a number of years. Farmers can also be forced to pay royalties to patent owners for use of their seed, even though they did not choose to plant GM seed.

Greenpeace has developed draft legislation to protect Australian farmers by placing liability for GM contamination clearly with the GM companies that hold the patents to GM seed.

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By establishing a Farmer Protection Fund, to be overseen by Farmer Protection Administration Boards in each state and territory, governments can ensure that traditional farmers don’t bear all of the costs associated with GM. This approach also avoids the need for individual litigation that pits farmer against farmer.

The funding for a Farmer Protection Fund would be provided through a GM industry bond, paid by the biotech industry per acreage of GM seed sown and held by government as a deposit against potential damages caused to Australian farmlands. Similar industry funds operate in a number of sectors in Australia, the mining industry for example, to ensure that the Australian government balances Australian’s interests with the benefits of investment by multinational companies.”

It is to everyone’s benefit that we observe closely what happens with the GM campaigns in Australia as we’re all interlinked in a globalised trading regime. We can also support the various campaigns by the organisations mentioned above, by signing petitions and spreading the word around, and equally important as Fran Murrell says in the video, questioning what is in our food and how it is made.

The future of food, believe it or not, is literally in our hands, because it is alert and vocal citizens of the world like you and me who can and need to create a powerful and collective force against the relentless onslaught of global agribusiness that is driven purely by profit and profit alone. We as consumers need to stand up for the health and safety of our families, our farmers and future generations.

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About the interviewer:

Bhavani Prakash is the Founder of Eco WALK the Talk.com and advocates a GM-free world. She can be contacted at bhavani[at] ecowalkthetalk.com .  Join EWTT on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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Further Links you may be interested in:

1. EWTT: Dr Vandana Shiva: Traditional Knowledge, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development

2. EWTT: Dr Mira Shiva: Health Effects of GM Food

3. EWTT: Lim Li Ching : GMO Free

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Passer Domesticus (House Sparrow)

Who would have thought that the humble and ubiquitous house sparrow (Passer domesticus), normally taken for granted in urban surroundings is actually now an endangered species?   According to Veterinary World , in most of Europe and countries like India, sparrow populations are rapidly declining – with bird counts showing a drop in London alone by 71% between 1994 and 2002.  (In Singapore however, the local species of sparrow – the Eurasian Tree Sparrow has shown an increase from 1996-2005 according to Nature Society Singapore)

Concerned about the apathy towards this disturbing trend especially in India, ornithologist Mohammed Dilawar has emerged as a champion of the sparrows. He was featured as one of the Time Heroes of the Environment in 2008 and has set up Nature Forever Society, which raises awareness about the issue, and also distributes nest boxes to encourage the public to bring sparrows into their homes and neighbourhood.

Nature Forever Society (NFS)  launched World Sparrow Day in 2010 on 20th of March, along with Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and Avon Wildlife Trust (UK), and other national and international organisations.  Mohammed Dilawar spoke to us about his passion for the sparrows and how we can get involved to help protect them.

BP: How did you get interested in the conservation of sparrows?

MD: I’ve always been crazy about birds and animals from a very young age. After television in India opened up to foreign channels in the 1990s, I used to watch Discovery Channel which gave me a lot of exposure to documentaries based on research projects. This inspired me to study zoology and environmental sciences.

At Nasik where I used to teach at college, I was going through some literature in 2005 when I happened to come across something that caught my attention – that house sparrows were declining in the UK.  It occurred to me that we are often engrossed in what happens to bigger, more glamorous species such as the tiger, whereas common species are often ignored.

Except for one report by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research documenting a drastic drop in sparrow populations in southern India, I found that there was no research on house sparrows and that really got me motivated to  support their cause.

BP: Why are the house sparrows  disappearing?

MD: There is no single reason for their disappearance – in fact a newspaper in the UK offered a cash prize to anyone who could solve the mystery of why sparrow numbers have declined. The award is still to be claimed.

There are various possible reasons. One main reason is that modern buildings are made like matchboxes with little or no nesting holes for sparrows. The rampant use of pesticides means less insect food for sparrow young.  The microwave pollution from cell phone towers all over the country could be another factor as it disturbs their navigational skills. Even the rangoli that women used to put outside their homes is no longer made from rice flour which the sparrows eat, but from chemicals. There used to be abundant food grains for sparrows from small shops and godowns which were not well protected before. But now we have airconditioned shops with little spillage of grains.  Homes would have hedges as borders with bushes of local plants like henna that sparrows could use to make nests. Now most homes have concrete walls and barbed fences with exotic plants.

[For further reading on decline of sparrow populations, read the Veterinary Society report]

BP: Why do we need to protect sparrows?

MD: We’re connected by 10,000 years of companionship – in fact more than with cats and dogs. The sparrows are an important bio-indicator of the health of the urban environment , like how the canary is to the mines. The disappearance of sparrows is a serious reminder that something is seriously wrong in our urban habitat.  They are ambassadors for urban biodiversity as everyone knows the sparrows. They are also an umbrella species – in protecting them, we’ll be saving other flora and fauna too.

BP: How do you engage people with Nature Forever Society ?

MD: I think there is apathy towards conservation of common flora and fauna. That’s why it’s so important to engage the common man in conservation. After all, house sparrows are dependent upon human habitation. It is important for them to become stakeholders in conservation. Rather than seeing pictures and presentations, it is only when people get emotionally attached that they are likely to champion their cause.

For this we came up with the “Adopt a Nest Box’ idea. When people actually see sparrows make a nest and have chicks, they develop a bonding with the birds, even considering the sparrow chicks as their own babies. Then it becomes easy for them to become sparrow supporters.

We have distributed thousands of nest boxes throughout India. It earns us a small revenue to keep our work going. Our sparrow mentors have spread throughout the world. We welcome people from all walks of life to become sparrow supporters.

BP: Tell us about World Sparrow Day on March 20^th, 2011

MD: Even though I believe every day should be a sparrow day, it’s good to declare a day because it brings together various people all over the world on a common platform to talk about the issue and concentrate on the cause. This year Nature Forever Society teamed up with Burhani Foundation to distribute 52,000 bird feeders on March 6, in the run up to World Sparrow Day.

Our annual World Sparrow Day event will reinstate the significance not only of the sparrow, but all the common birds and biodiversity which are often overlooked and abused by virtue of being too commonplace. In 2011, we got feedback from all over the world and decided to celebrate the day not only for the house sparrow – but the 26 species of sparrows found across the globe.

By participating in World Sparrow Day we hope to create awareness, and also to persuade policy makers to take action for the conservation of the various species of sparrows.

How you can help World Sparrow Day and Nature Forever Society:

1. Share the World Sparrow Day link on social media – tweet the event, share on facebook
2. Arrange a picnic, community gathering, walk, birdwatching, or trek in support of sparrows. Use your imagination to organise an event and register it on the World Sparrow Day website
3. Participate in the online BiodiverCity Photo competition for World Sparrow Day
4. Get a nest box/bird feeder for the sparrows ( If you’re in India you can order one from Nature Forever Society
5. Volunteer your efforts for NFS  if you can promote nest boxes in your area or community, any technical help for maintaining website, making videos etc.
6. Make a financial contribution to NFS or get organisational sponsorship for their efforts. (NFS is not funded by any government or non-governmental organization and they rely on public support and generosity for conservation activities). You can donate by sending us a payable at par cheque or a DD in the name of “Nature Forever Society”. You can also deposit or make an E-Transfer directly into their account.  The bank details are:  Bank of Maharashtra (Savings) A/C – 60035270083 IFSC code required for RTGS and NEFT transfer is MAHB0001435. NFS is registered with Income Tax Department under section 12A.  (Registration no – PRO/12AA/2010-2010/8/36) )For further info, connect with Nature Forever Society by email  info@natureforever.org and on Facebook

BP: What is your hope for the future?

MD: What gives me hope is the sparrows. I feel happy and blessed whenever I see them. I get new energy and inspiration being with them.  Even when there are roadblocks, there are always ways to go around them. Solutions are far more superior to problems.

The sparrows have also put me in touch with so many wonderful human beings throughout the world. There is so much positivity out there. It gives me hope that we can empower people to save sparrows. We have to, otherwise we’ll have a big hole in the web of life and if it collapses, we will be cursing ourselves.  Instead, it makes sense for more and more of us to connect to do the best we can.

About the interviewer:

Bhavani Prakash is the Founder of Eco WALK the Talk .com and is a sustainability writer, speaker and trainer. She is passionate about the role of individuals and communities in bringing about the much needed change we need to see in the world.  She can be contacted at bhavani[at]ecowalkthetalk.com. Follow Eco WALK the Talk on Facebook,Twitter, Linked IN and YouTube

Further links you may be interested in:

India Together: How Dilawar’s box is bringing back the sparrows

YouTube: The Great Sparrow Mystery

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- JAMES HANSEN

Meat-free days are a campaign to reduce anthropogenic climate change and improve human health and animal welfare by reducing factory farming.

It has been endorsed by the city councils of Ghent, Belgium; Hasselt, Belgium; Mechelen, Belgium; São Paulo, Brazil; Bremen, Germany; and Cape Town, South Africa   (Source: Wikipedia)

The various Green groups in Singapore have got together to support Veggie Thursday – a movement to pledge one meat free day a week. Veggie Thursday is to encourage those on a meat based diet to go completely meat free on Thursdays. It’s great for your health, for the planet and for animals! And it can be fun too, as there are lots of interesting dishes to explore using a variety of nutritious grains, nuts, seeds, beans, vegetables and fruits.

Come and join in by taking a pledge to go meat-free on Thursdays. You can sign the Veggie Thursday pledge here. Feel Good and Do Good!

Click here to see the Endorsing Organisations in Singapore

Less Meat = Less Heat

Here are some facts about meat :

* Livestock contributes to 18% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, 37% of all human caused methane (23 times more potent than C02) and 65% of all human caused N2O (29% more potent than Co2) [based on FAO 2006 report]

*Livestock is the largest human use of land – taking up 30% of the ice-free land surface on Earth, and is the major cause of deforestation. 70% of previously forested land in the Amazon is used for cattle grazing and growing crops for animal feed

* While leaving 800 million people malnourished, 760 million tonnes of grains were fed to livestock in 2007.

* At least 7 kg of grains and 15,500 litres of water are required to produce 1 kg of beef

(Source: Vegetarian Society Singapore brochure)

Further links you may be interested in:

1. EWTT: THE CHINA STUDY by Prof Colin Campbell

2. Tree Hugger founder Graham Hill on Why he’s a Weekday Vegetarian

3.  Paul McCartney sings Meat Free Monday

4. “What a difference a day makes” is the title and main theme of a beautifully produced motion graphics film launched by UK campaign group in, Animal Aid.

5. Cape Town launches Meat Free Day

6: Guardian UK : UN says Eat Less Meat to Curb Global Warming

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Many of things he said certainly challenged some of my long held notions, and I’m sure those of several in the audience, about the linkages between our health and the food we take in.

Prof. T. Colin Campbell is Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University who lead the 20 year study, a US-UK-China partnership through Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. This was one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted, linking diet, disease and health, with surveys done in more than 2,500 counties in China and Taiwan for 6,500 adults, using over 350 variables.

To put things in context, Prof. Campbell spent his childhood growing up in a dairy farm. Much of his early research career, including his PhD thesis lay in proving the importance of animal protein in diet, and to find ways to enhance the quantity and quality of animal proteins in human diet through the consumption of animal foods.

The China Study turned around some of his own notions about the role of animal proteins in diet and their impact on human health.

What does “The China Study” and Prof. Campbell’s several decades of research tell us?

1. There is a high correlation between consumption of even small amounts of animal protein and cancer, heart and other chronic diseases.

2.  The most carcinogenic of the animal proteins is Casein found in milk. Increased consumption of dairy products like milk, butter, cheese etc is linked to higher rates of cancers and other diseases.

Children are made to drink milk as it is supposedly good for their bones. I can relate to this, growing up with two glasses of milk a day, which again I have religiously administered to my own children till my homoeopath advised me against this not too long ago.

Think about this.  Babies are meant to drink their own mother’s milk, not milk from another species. Yet, we are the only species which continues to consume milk from another animal  and even that, right upto adulthood!

How do cows get their calcium then? They don’t drink milk. They eat grass! We humans can get more than adequate calcium by simply eating our greens.
 
3.  Evidence in the study shows that we can actually reverse cancer and other chronic diseases or at least control them, by following a vegan diet. An even more remarkable discovery of the studies is that one can literally turn “on” and “off” cancer development by switching from an animal based protein diet to a plant based protein diet.

4.  An excessive amount of protein is a powerful triggers for cancer and other diseases, like cholesterol, heart disease and auto-immune disorders.

In case of breast cancer, a higher level of estrogen is a result of consuming excess proteins that come from an animal food based diet, in particular milk.

A higher level of acidity results from these excess proteins. To neutralise or alkanise this acidity, the body pulls calcium from the bones, leading to osteoporosis. This goes against what we’ve been conventionally led to believe – that we need to increase our intake of milk or take calcium supplements to prevent osteroporosis. Unwittingly our bias (and that of the entire dairy and advertising industries) towards milk, may actually be leading to higher bone fracture rate -  a fact shown in studies where the countries with the maximum intake of dairy have the highest rates of osteoporosis.

The body needs 8-10% of total calories in the form of protein, which is naturally provided by a whole vegan diet, based on a balanced intake of vegetables, fruits, lentils, nuts and seeds (as opposed to processed foods).  Nature thus,  provides the ideal quantity of protein in a plant based diet. 95% of the American diet at least, consists of over 11-20% protein based on animal foods, putting a large proportion of the population at risk.

A vegan diet then is the optimum diet for health and to reduce the risk of cancers to the minimum.
 
5. The idea that Genes determine disease and cannot be reversed is fatalistic. This is the premise of the Gene risk assessment tests which has become a big industry. Genes do play a role in disease, but the studies have shown that even gene expression can be changed through plant based foods, by preventing negative tendencies. So genes are not an unchangeable “given.”

6.  We need to relook at medical education where the intense focus is on individual chemicals, individual nutrients or individual diseases. Not a single MD in America is required to study nutrition, though as the study shows, nutrition plays such an important role in promoting health, and actually reversing and curing diseases. The medical system needs to think of the body in a holistic way, rather than treating only a specific symptom.

7. Nutrition is about the integrated effects of thousands of constituents in our food. and the infinitely countless mechanisms that work at the cellular level, and supplemented by exercise, water and sunshine.  As Prof. Campbell says, if you crawled inside a cell, you’d find a “biological symphony” that comes together to create sound health, by giving the body the right resource- in the form of a balanced wholesome vegan diet, rather than consuming a plethora of vitamin supplements.

Prof. Campbell took a few questions after his talk, both on and off stage.

1.  Can we get adequate Omega3 fatty acids with a vegan diet?  According to Prof. Campbell Omega 3 Fatty Acids supplements do not really work for total mortality, heart disease and cancer. We can get them in sufficient does in a diet based on nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables.

2.  Are small quantities of milk in tea and coffee or as chicken stock in soups alright?  Small quantities may be alright, as he said, but it is best to have a balanced vegan diet based on whole plant foods. In case of soup stock, it will continue the craving for animal foods, so it is best to change to plant based stocks.

3.  How about Yoghurt?  told him about the strong cultural bias towards yoghurt and rice in South India, especially.  I have stopped milk but do take in small quantities of yoghurt from organic milk. Though Prof. Campbell said moderate quantities of yoghurt could be an exception (I imagine due to the fermentation process, as he didn’t get to dwell on the point). However, I am convinced enough to explore alternatives such as making yoghurt from rice milk or soy milk, or whatever source gives the acidophiles or good bacteria for the stomach.

We haven’t of course, touched upon the humane and environmental aspects of turning vegan. The extensive cruelty to animals on concentration camp- like factory farms is incredible. The environmental effects are equally mind-boggling, both of which are captured in the movie, FOOD Inc.

One might say, “what do I care?” What we choose to eat now, will certainly have an important effect on our tomorrow.  As Prof Campbell, who is in his healthy 70s on a vegan diet, says in his book, “The enjoyment of life, especially the second half of life, is greatly compromised if we can’t see, if we can’t think, if our kidneys don’t work or if our bones are broken or fragile. I, for one, hope that I am able to fully enjoy not only the time in the present, but also the time in the future, with good health and independence.”

And someone we can certainly learn from is Teresa Hsu who was invited on stage. She is a vegan, aged 112 (yes, you read that right, a hundred and twelve!) showing all her energy and enthusiasm for life. She continues to this day her charity work for the neglected members of society through the “Heart to Heart” organisation. Amazing and inspirational!

Many thanks to the Vegetarian Society, Singapore for organising the informative and inspiring event.

Bhavani Prakash

PS:  Can we have medical research without the use of animals?  I couldn’t help posing the same question I had asked Jane Goodall when she was here in Singapore. The China Study had used rats for experimentation. Prof. Campbell admitted that they were useful, but with advancements in research methods, it would not be really be necessary to use animals any more in the area of nutritional research. I was glad to hear that.

Further links:

Prof. T Colin Campbell  http://www.tcolincampbell.org
Vegetarian Society Singapore  http://www.vss.sg
Vegan resources  http://www.veganhealth.org/
Vegan guide  http://www.tryveg.com/
Guide to vegetarian restaurants and shopping  http://www.vegguide.org/

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