We have to know that we have no choice but to change, we have no choice – either that or the planet. Either we change, or we will all go. There’s no choice anymore. If we don’t stop the livestock raising and (animal-people) meat-eating practice, we will not be able to save the planet, including them and their (animal-people) meat business. So, I think we have to choose between our lives and a career. We have to survive first. We have to think of the planet people as a whole, not just some businesses. It is truly that urgent. […]
Now, if we are the children of God, the disciples of the Buddhas, then like Father, like son; like Master, like disciples; we must do the same. We must represent a God that is merciful, compassionate, loving, kind, protective to the weak, the innocent, and the harmless. Not only are the animal-people harmless, they are very, very useful to us. They are blessings to the planet. They give the planet more love than we could emit. That’s why our planet is still holding balance. Without the loving animal(-people), our planet would probably have been gone long ago. The way we treat it, the way we treat ourselves, each other, other beings, and the environment, our planet would have been gone, gone, gone, gone.
But God is merciful. He sends more and more animal(-people), different species, to come here to help, to balance the negative atmosphere of our planet, to make it more loving, more bearable so that it still hangs in balance. But now, it’s too much. It’s too much for the animal(-people) to even help us with their loving kind atmosphere. So please, we now have to stand up and help ourselves. It’s high time that we should behave in a way that not likens us to the animal(-people) that we call “wild beasts,” like lions and tigers, for example.
Now, the entire cruel system could be abolished for animal(-people), just as we did 150 years ago, if we convince ourselves and others who are not informed yet. Because human beings are born noble, loving and kind, we have just been misled, we have just been misinformed, we have just been too busy to think. So if we inform them, inform ourselves, of the cruel reality, very cruel reality, and be a shining example of compassion – be a vegan – then I’m sure we can make this tragic and needless practice, disappear for good, abolished forever. And all beings will live in peace, harmony, happy, fearless of one another. Thank you so much, Madam. (Thank You. Thank You, Master. Thank You for Your benevolent answer. Thank you, Mrs. Rosina Arquati.)
(And now, we have our next honorable guest, Ms. Paggy Poon. She is a system analyst and is a vegetarian.) Welcome, Ms. Paggy.
(Thank You very much, Supreme Master Ching Hai and the assembly, for giving me the opportunity to ask a question. My question is: “Be Vegan to Save the Planet” is the only solution that already demands immediate attention. Nonetheless, we also need to give consideration to the vested interest holders in the businesses related to livestock farming and food industry such as transportation, wholesalers, retailers, restaurants, and consuming places. The impact and change would affect them tremendously. Even if governments are willing to give up economic considerations, for some people employed in those trades, it’s hard for them to change and transform their specialties, investments, and habits, etc. that they’re used to as their livelihood in a short time. May I ask Supreme Master, what should be done so they can start anew and be willing to change? Thank You.)
Thank you very much. Thank you for your question, and thanks for your consideration for others. That is true that we have to take into consideration those people who are in the businesses that you have mentioned – how they would change their lives. But it’s not difficult.
First of all, we have to know that we have no choice but to change, we have no choice – either that or the planet. Either we change, or we will all go. There’s no choice anymore. If we don’t stop the livestock raising and (animal-people) meat-eating practice, we will not be able to save the planet, including them and their (animal-people) meat business. So, I think we have to choose between our lives and a career. We have to survive first. We have to think of the planet people as a whole, not just some businesses. It is truly that urgent.
Given this critical necessity, these people who are economically tied to the (animal-people) meat industry would be willing to change if they were properly informed and know how important it is to change their lifestyle and their career. They have many strong motivations. For example, the first is to save the planet from a climate catastrophe, save all lives in this world. If we don’t stop it, we will continue on a course toward total disaster and mass extinction, affecting everyone, whether you are in the business of (animal-people) meat, transportation for it, or other related job of the (animal-people) meat industry, or not.
Second, the industry that we are talking about is a bad, bad, bad business, it’s not lucrative at all for the whole planet, for everybody. See? It’s a most inefficient business. In Chinese we would say “a losing business” – it means, it’s a loss of capital. Now, the (animal-people) meat industry is not a very lucrative business, with very high production costs for electricity, water, and grains that have to be wasted to produce the same amount of so-called “food,” which is replaceable. We have better food than (animal-people) meat.
For example, Madam, if the government didn’t give any subsidies for the (animal-people) meat industry in any case, then a hamburger that some people eat, produced by clearing forests in India – in India alone – would cost US$200! Not just 99 cents like the way you would buy it in some shop, for example. You see, it would cost US$200 – the real cost of a hamburger. Now in the US, even before the swine flu impacted the pig(-people) raising business, the pig(-people) raising industry has been losing billions of dollars… losing billions of dollars – in the pig(-people) industry.
Why? Because they cannot afford the grains to feed their livestock due to the high food prices. And the food prices are getting higher and higher nowadays. So, how do they survive? Your tax money goes to the government, the government subsidizes them – that’s how they survive. So, it’s a losing business. It’s a “losing” business in [Chinese] – meaning losing capital business, meaning it’s not a good business. Everywhere, from the US to China, the governments have to subsidize animal(-people) farmers by paying them at least tens of billions of US dollars every year! Tens of billions of US dollar subsidies every year for (animal-people) meat industry! And where’s the money from? Can you tell me? Where from the money? (Taxpayers!) Taxpayers, yeah, correct! You are so smart. Your money! Your hard-earned money from your daily sweating, tearing to earn that precious substance that we call “money,” to feed yourself, take care of your family, and protect your children and your relatives and friends. This money has been draining into the (animal-people) meat industry in order to keep them alive. And then when you buy some piece of (animal-people) meat, you think, “Wow! So cheap! A hamburger – 99 cents! My God!” Then keep going to the hamburger shop. But that’s your money that you’re eating.
These hamburgers contain all parts of the animal(-people) that you don’t know where they even come from, and contain all kinds of bacteria, all kinds of diseases – breeding causes – that you will find information easily available if you want. If you want information from the medical journals or medical scientists, they will tell you all this. Not only do we pay a lot of tax money into the subsidies for the (animal-people) meat industry, we pay a lot more tax money for the hospitalization, for the burying of our loved ones, for the heartache that we have to bear a whole lifetime for losing one of our dearest, or many of our dearest.
And OK, life and death we can’t avoid, but the suffering in between, the hospitalization, the poking, picking, injecting, breathing machine, oxygen supporter, etc., etc. – all this suffering is unnecessary for our fragile body to bear. If we avoid (animal-people) meat, we will avoid all that – the money for hospital, medicine. And not only that. Before we get the medicine, we make more animal(-people) suffer by experimenting with them by vivisection, by injecting chemicals into their bodies, by making them suffer, torturing no end, just to obtain the medicine that we feel safe for human use. And again, it’s still not safe for human use.
All this suffering, all this tax money, paying again, again, and again – and you’re working day and night to make ends meet, just to survive – and all this money goes into different directions; it doesn’t help you at all. It’s just wasting resources, finance and national strength, and human’s health and happiness. It’s just a waste. It’s just a very, very, very bad business.
So, you see, the (animal-people) meat industry is terrible, terribly harmful to us in every imaginable situation, in any imaginable aspect. Now, if the subsidies are not going in to support them, the farmers of animal(-people)-raising industry could not make ends meet with their business. They would have gone out of business already. So, I suggest the government don’t give any more subsidies to animal(-people) raising industry. Instead, tell them to convert into vegan farmers.
Now, besides all that, for the majority of the workers in the (animal-people) meat business, it’s not a safe working place either. It’s one of the most dangerous jobs with some of the highest rates of injury and exposure to chemicals and diseases like influenza, swine flu, bird flu, etc., etc. And mad cow disease, which is always fatal, always deadly. Mad cow disease, up to now, we can’t even cure it. Anybody contracts mad cow disease, their life is terminated. Now, we have to ask ourselves: Is it all worth it? This is not to talk about the effect on the (animal-people) meat consumers in terms of all the sicknesses – cancers, diabetes, and health problems, heart diseases.
Almost all diseases that you can name come from the (animal-people) meat diet or related. So, given a better choice for livelihood, wouldn’t we choose the one that helps ourselves and others to stay healthy over a profession that makes people and ourselves sick and die young? Would you say yes or no? (Yes!) Thank you. Thank you so much.
I have suggested before that we should talk to the farmers of the animal(-people)-raising industry, write to them, even go to them one by one if you can afford it, to try to show them that there are better alternatives, such as growing organic vegetables. Nowadays, organic food is very much in demand, very in. Many people turn into vegans now. And everybody knows organic vegetables are very healthy. You see, if you eat organic vegetables, you will hardly have to go to the hospital. And all the money we can save for better education for the children, better care for the elderly, and building more beautiful roads, more equipment, inventions, and use them for more sustainable energy for free for everybody.
Photo Caption: Not About What It Was, It’s About What Will Be.
