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   CLUB SANDWICH 75

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AND IN THE GREEN CORNER

The public uproar that has exploded in Britain concerning the inhumane export of live animals has found a unified direction courtesy of a new charity - Viva! - set up to promote vegetarianism and be an essential voice for the voiceless animals. The founder and director of Viva! is Juliet Cellatley and she explains here why her organisation is so sorely needed

'Viva! intends to keep going until even Hannibal the Cannibal is veggie."

            Even great events have to start somewhere. Since 1994 people have taken to the streets all across Britain. Their passion has struck a chord in the hearts of millions of people and animal welfare is big news for the first time.
            The reason for the demonstrations, of course, is the transportation of living animals to Europe - sheep to be fattened for a few days in France or Spain and then killed; week-old calves to be placed in solitary crates, killed after five months and sold as veal.
            The protesters are ordinary people: middle-aged, middle-class women who have never done anything naughty in their lives; girls with Doc Martens and rings through their noses; old-age pensioners; and lads with dogs on pieces of string. They are united in their outrage at the things that are being done to living, feeling, breathing, creatures.
            After years of being told that they shouldn't care, they are shouting at the top of their voices that they do care. They are taking on the might of the government and the animal dealers and making the whole country face the truth of where their food comes from. It is the start of a voyage of discovery.
            Something else happened in 1994, on 26 October. Viva! was born and will be part of this magical mystery tour. As a vegetarian and vegan charity, it has goals -to get out on the streets and campaign loudly to save animals; to go into the schools and help to change the next generation.
            Let us hope the journey will be a quick one because meat eating is, literally, devouring the Earth. Vegetarian and veganism are not some old hippie concepts but philosophies that have been around for hundreds, even thousands of years. We now know why.
            Livestock farming is at the heart of almost every environmental catastrophe, from acid rain to global warming, spreading deserts to burning forests. And two-thirds of the world's oceans tremble on the brink of ecological collapse because of commercial fishing.
            To produce a one-pound beef steak a cow needs to eat 10 pounds of vegetable protein. So what do we do? Feed half the world's wheat and corn to animals while people go hungry. Not satisfied with that, we force poorer countries to grow fodder for our animals while their own children starve to death.
            When people are so badly treated, what chance is there for animals? Not a lot, which is why the life of most farm animals is short, painful and brutal.
            So what do meat-eaters get out of all this? Well, more cancer, more heart disease, more of lots of other diseases and a shorter life. How's that for starters?
            Viva! is determined to tackle the ignorance that allows all these things to happen. Its hard-hitting campaigns will make adults sit up and take notice. It will force the debate onto TV, into daily and local newspapers and on radio stations all over the country.
            By making its own videos and training a hundred school speakers, Viva! intends to talk directly to teenagers in virtually every secondary school in the country.
            Viva's first campaign, called Convert-a-Parent, gave young vegetarians all the information they could ever need to get complaining parents off their backs - or even to convert them into veggies. It got over 100 radio interviews, newspaper coverage in every region in the country and several TV features. It also turned a lot of parents veggie.
            Most reports were positive but one newspaper really went to town. "Worse Than The Hitler Youth", it screamed, which just shows how the truth can frighten some people. Too bad, really, because there's much more to come.
            The Crate (Campaign to Release Animals Transported to Europe) hit the headlines with its marches and demonstrations for young people in the three towns most involved in live exports - Brightlingsea, Coventry and Shoreham. Viva! is now making this campaign national, organising marches and demos in cities all over Britain so that young people everywhere have a chance to show how they feel about the trade.
            Being planned is a major campaign aimed at adults. Through secret filming, and slaughterers who are prepared to talk, Viva! will expose the barbarity of Britain's slaughter houses. The phrase "humane slaughter" will be exposed for what it is. And all this is just the start. Viva! intends to keep going until even Hannibal the Cannibal is veggie.
            Too many people kid themselves that they know all the answers, and yet, compared to other animals, our time here has been just a twinkle of light. But already humans have begun to tear and break the individual strands that make up the web of life. We do it by pretending that we're not animals, by ignoring - as though they simply do not apply to us - the rules by which all of the planet Earth's animals should live. And the most basic rule is - live as part of your environment, don't stomp all over it with hob-nail boots.
            If we are to continue in this world then we have to reassess our role in things and our attitude to the planet and the living creatures that share it with us. Vegetarianism and veganism are no longer fringe activities carried out by slightly strange geriatrics with odd complexions. Caring is one of the few individual acts that anyone can perform, that you can perform, which will have an immediate impact upon many of the world's problems.
            It immediately distances you from the insanity which we are told is normal. It is the first step in ending the daily cruelties handed out to farm animals. It is the first step in allowing the planet to heal itself. And it is much more than all of these. What Viva! and the live export protesters are doing is exciting. We are shouting out loud that we believe in a different way of doing things, a better way! And our goal is a different kind of world - a better world.

            For more information about Viva! and its campaigns write to PO Box 212, Crewe, Cheshire CW1 4SD, England. Telephone 01270 522500 or, from overseas, +1270 522500.


FROM RUSSIA WITH... A REQUEST

Club Sandwich subscriber Julie Sabelfeld, from Novosibirsk in Siberia, writes with details of a problem: she wants to go vegetarian but Russia's economy and climate are against her. Can you suggest a solution to her dilemma?

            If you can suggest any solutions to Julie's problem (perhaps, but not necessarily restricted to, recipes for economical veggie meals that can be frozen for many months, to last the hard winter long) please write to her c/o Club Sandwich and we'll happily pass on your letters. The address, as usual, is Club Sandwich, PO Box 110, Westchff, Essex, SSO 8NW, England. Please be sure to mark your envelope "Julie" in the top-left corner.

Club Sandwich 75