Vegetarianism

In order to raise awareness of the damage done to the environment by the meat industry and to alert people to the health benefits of a vegetarian diet, ecosig encourages you to go meatless for one day each week during 2001. We ask that you pledge one or more days a week when you will go without meat, and encourage your friends to do so as well!

You may be used to making meat the focal point of your meal, and designing side dishes around it. However, eating meat is not as essential to a healthy diet as many of us were raised to believe. Making the change over once a week should not be too taxing, in fact you will most probably enjoy the experience. People who reduce their meat intake frequently comment that they enjoy food more or feel healthier. Being vegetarian is easy. Going vegetarian is one of those things that is much easier done than said.

If you have never eaten a lot of vegetarian food, try eating with participating friends to help you get through the year. Take turns cooking dinner for one another, try out new recipes together. Stay tuned for exciting recipe ideas! If you are feeling genki, try cooking for your teachers and students at school - they are always curious about your eating habits so teach them some good ones!

[From Environmental Action Guide. Source: Environmental Science (1993) Wadsworth Publishing Co; Diet for a New America (1990) Avon Publishing Co]

Nowadays we must do whatever we can in order to save the environment, and one such thing is to abstain from, or at the very least minimize, our consumption of fish, meat, dairy products and eggs. Believe it or not, there is a direct correlation between the welfare of the environment and what we eat. One of the leading causes of environmental degradation is livestock production and related agro-industries.

The production of livestock requires a tremendous amount of land, as feed for the livestock must be produced. Cycling feed through animals, which in turn are eaten by humans, is extremely wasteful. People can live off a fraction of the amount of agricultural land required to support livestock by growing grains and vegetables on the same land. On one acre of prime land, 30,000 pounds of carrots, 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 50,000 pounds of tomatoes or 60,000 pounds of celery can be produced, whereas a mere 250 pounds of beef can be produced on the same land. Meat-eaters therefore require more land, water, and energy to sustain themselves than vegetarians. In America more than 1/2 of all water is siphoned off for livestock production.

Sixty-four per cent of American cropland is used to produce livestock feed. One-third of the world's annual fish catch is converted to fish meal and fed to livestock. In industrialized countries, almost half of the world's annual grain production (especially corn and soybeans) is fed to livestock. Increased land use for an ever-increasing number of meat-eaters means that more and more forests will be cut down, more and more pesticides will be put into the environment, and more and more energy will be required.

If the amount of food produced in the world today were used to give everyone the typical diet of a person in a developed country with 30% of the calories coming from meat, it would support only 2.5 billion people. That is less than half the present population. By 2025, the world's population is expected to reach at least 8.5 billion. To feed these people, we must produce as much food during the next 30 years as was produced over the last 10,000 years, or since the dawn of agriculture.

In addition to concern for the environment, there are myriad other reasons to stop eating meat. One such reason is health. Contrary to what we have been told time and time again, we do not need to eat animal products. All nutrients required for health and growth can be taken through a varied diet of vegetables and rains. Because meat-eaters consume too much protein, fat and cholesterol, they suffer form much higher rates of various diseases. The US National Academy of Sciences and the American Heart Association advise that the risk of certain types of cancer lung, stomach, colon, breast and esophageal), heart disease and diabetes can be significantly reduced by a daily diet tat limits the intake of protein (particularly meat protein) to 15% of total calories, or about 171 grams a day (about the amount in one hamburger).

Furthermore, women who eat meat and other animal products are 4 times more likely than vegetarian women to suffer from breast cancer. Only animal products have cholesterol, and although some cholesterol is necessary for health, the human body can produce all it needs without consuming any animal products. Animal products are also generally high in fat. Therefore, those who avoid such foods rarely exceed a healthy weight.

Many people have decided to curtail meat consumption due to the modern method of raising livestock in horrific factory farming conditions. The era of animals roaming freely in the fields until slaughter is essentially nothing but a memory. Animals raised in factory farms live out their lives in cages or crowded pens, wallowing in their own feces, often exhibiting symptoms of extreme stress, such as cannibalism.

Throughout the world, an increasing number of people have elected not to eat meat due to the above concerns. (Japan also has a long history of vegetarianism as respect for all living things is one of the major tenets of both Buddhism and Confucianism.) Take a moment to reflect on the sate of the environment, your health, and the happiness of our fellow Earthly inhabitants. Then ask yourself: "Aren't I willing to make a change in my diet?"

Between 676 and 737 Japan was under a vegetarian ordinance declared by Emperor Temmu, a devout Buddhist. However even though Buddhism, known for its strict vegetarian dietary principles, had become the official state religion, Emperor Shomu (724-749) allowed the consumption of fish and shellfish in 737. Japan was essentially a nation of vegetarians supporting the "pesco" prefix every now and again on special occasions. In the Meiji Era (1868-1912) the dietary delights of the Western world arrived, and Japan started to slide down the slippery slope of carnivorousness and landed in vegetarian purgatory, slightly closer to hell than heaven.

An integral part of experiencing a foreign culture is enjoying the nourishment provided by the hosts of the culture. However, it seems that this is the excruciating part of the vegetarian's experience in Japan due to language, differing cultural conceptions of vegetarianism, and the fish flaky nature of even the most seemingly innocuous food like miso soup, generally made with a fish stock base. But, as I said, this is a purgatory and not a hell: saving graces can be found with a little communication and explanation.

Shojin Ryori: Vegetarians will be delighted to find that one of the most traditional and exquisite Japanese cuisines is shojin ryori (a vegetarian meal, also known as temple cuisine). The word shojin means devotion (but also non-meat eating) since it is used to describe the meals of devout Buddhist monks. The cuisine was established by Dogen, the 13th century monk also credited with founding the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. However, a shojin ryori meal tends to be difficult to find and finance. Temple towns like Kamakura and Kyoto offer a relatively wide selection and price range. Remember though that in these temples, shojin ryori is part of the meditation and remains a religious rite.

The Sushi Bar: For vegetarians, the sushi restaurant may seem like a torture session, but there are numerous selections for a painless palate - Inari-zushi: rice wrapped in sweet tofu skin; Kappa-maki - cucumber roll; Kampo-maki - dried gourd shaving roll; Natto-maki - fermented bean roll; Oshinko-maki - yellow pickled daikon roll.

The Tempura Restaurant: Tempura is fish or vegetables battered or fried in sesame or vegetable oil. Tentsuyu, the generic name for the dipping sauce, contains fish flakes. An option to the dipping sauce is lemon extract sauce. Vegans should be aware that sometimes the batter contains eggs.

The Izakaya: The izakaya, or Japanese-style pub, offers various vegetarian victuals form the familiar fried potatoes to tomato salad and traditional Japanese pub snacks. A word for the wise: Always ask them to hold the fish flakes ("katsu nashi de onegaishimasu!") on the salads and agedashi-dofu (dried tofu).

A selection: Daikon sarada - raddish salad; Edamame - boiled soy beans; Osembei - rice crackers; Tofu sarada - Tofu salad; Umeboshi onigiri - riceball with pickled plum; Yaki onigiri - fried riceball; Yu-dofu - boiled tofu, seaweed stock soup.

The Japanese Vegetarian Society (JPVS) at www.jpvs.org provides information on vegetarians in Japan and JPVS events, such as lectures and cooking classes. This site is a great springboard to other information and recipe and restaurant pages of interest to vegetarians. (in English and Japanese). The Tokyo Food Page at www.bento.com provides a comprehensive section in English and Japanese on vegetarian restaurants in Tokyo. The Low Fat Vegetarian Archive at www.fatfree.com is a great resource in English for recipes that will put to use locally bought goods with their selection of healthy Japanese recipes.

The Japan Vegetarian Society (JPVS) is a non-profit organization which considers various issues such as health, animal rights, global environmental problems and famines in developing countries, from the viewpoint of vegetarianism.

For more information on how to join JPVS, please send an E-mail to their office. Please include your address and phone number, if available, in your mail. E-mail to: info@jpvs.org. OFFICE: Japan Vegetarian Society (JPVS), Department of Environmental Science, Osaka Shin-Ai College, 2-7-30 Furuichi, Joto-ku, Osaka 536-8585, Japan. Tel:+81-6-6939-7391 Fax:+81-6-6931-0373 E-mail:office@jpvs.org

The International Vegetarian Union offers a comprehensive site with recipes, information on famous vegetarians, advice, all sorts of really useful and interesting stuff, including a link to the Japanese Vegetarian Society page.. http://www.ivu.org/

See also: Guide to being (and remaining) a vegetarian in Japan, Karen Brown and Joel Krentz's (ex JET and original BEE cyclist) vegetarian handbook. Available from usual AJET places as well as Tengu for around \1000.

If you want to travel, you might want to obtain a copy of the very excellent 'Vegan Passport'. It has 38 translations covering 90% of the world's population. Contact The Vegan Society, Donald Watson House, 7 Battle Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN37 7AA, UK (Tel: 44 1424 427393) Or else try the vegetarian phrases in different languages from the International Vegetarian Union: http://www.ivu.org/phrases/

A Guide to Food Buying in Japan by Carolyn Krouse, comes highly recommended. The "Nutrition" chapter in the Japan Health Handbook, by Meredith Enman Maruyama, Louise Pican Shimizu and Nancy Smith Tsurumaki (Kodansha International Ltd, NY, 1998) provides a good analysis of many Japanese foods and retailers of health foods. This book also is an excellent source of info on other health concerns from alternative healing to insurance matters.

I'm a vegetarian. Do you have anything without meat in it? Watashi wa niku to sakana to hoka no seibutsu o zenzen tabemasen. Doubutsu sei ga zenzezn haitte inai tabemono wa arimasu ka?

Summary: Part One of this lesson uses an apple to demonstrate our dependence on the earth's fragile biosphere (region of the earth's crust and atmosphere occupied by living matter). Students will appreciate how little productive land there is in the world. Part Two is a worksheet to help students understand what a vegetarian eats and some simple arguments supporting vegetarianism. Remind students that Japan has a long history of vegetarianism, and that respect for all living things is one of the major beliefs of both Buddhism and Confucianism. Make sure students understand the connection between saving the environment and choosing to go veggie.

Source: "Planet Earth pages"compiled by Jim Petrie in Green Teacher Magazine, pg. 34. Issue #46 Feb.-March 1996, Toronto, Canada.

There are two main reasons why people who care about the environment become vegetarian. The first reason is the heavy burden that livestock production puts on the land. It takes 8 kg of grain to make 1 kg of meat. Much more vegetables and grains can be grown on the land required to support livestock. For example, on one acre of prime land, 30,000 pounds of carrots, 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 50,000 pounds of tomatoes or 60,000 pounds of celery can be produced, but only 250 pounds of beef can be produced on the same land. Furthermore, if everyone in the world ate the diet of someone living in an industrialized country, there wouldn't be enough food for even half of the world's population. The second reason is the inhumane treatment of livestock. The animals' living quarters are often dark and cramped, and they are killed in painful ways.

Hold up pictures of various Japanese food and ask students if a vegetarian would be able to eat it. Have students design a menu for a vegetarian.

Print out the examples below (you may have to adapt them to correct card size) and get participating students to sign and carry with them (stick in a diary or wallet). Alternatively ask students to decorate or design their own. They could write reasons why it is good to eat less meat on them. They can give these to their friends and family. For the nihongo-challenged, you may wish to ask a Japanese friend to write phrases in Japanese on a card. This card can then be used to help explain food preferences at restaurants.

respect living things

eat less meat

I promise not to eat meat,

chicken or fish

every Friday during 2001.

Signed

______________________

Meatless Monday

I want to help the Earth by eating less meat

and other animal products.

Signed __________________________________

Date: ________________

Save the earth

Respect living things

Eat less meat

Thank you for your help,

___________________