News from our Member Societies

For the first time in its history, the Belgian vegetarian movement has its own office, and right away it is permanently staffed. EVA (Ethical Vegetarian Alternative), Belgium’s largest vegetarian society with 1700 members (now almost three years old), was able to rent a wonderful office space of 250 m2 in the heart of Ghent, in the immediate neighbourhood of the university. We have invested a lot of work and have repainted the whole thing, and the result is definitely worth checking out.

EVA has no paid staff and is completely volunteer-run. The office will be the place for all volunteers to assist in the work, but we will also develop a resource centre with a library, which is open for consultation for whoever wants to study vegetarian- related issues.

The annual general meeting of the EVU will take place here on September 5-7, so that may be a good opportunity to check it out. Our new address: St.-Pietersnieuwstraat 130, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

For the second time we have marked Meatout Day in Croatia, a day when consumers, ecologists, and animal rights activists alert the public about the dangers of eating meat. There are many reasons for vegetarianism: from the basic ones, that is, the killing of animals and cruelty to animals, to endangering of human health, water consumption and pollution, as well as the pollution of earth, air, deforestation of rain distribution of food around the world, and all that just to buy an expensive, but rather monotonous, diet based on animal carcasses. On this day we have tried to remind the Croatian public of the existence of ethical, ecological and healthy foods and diets and therefore organised various tastings and distributed small packages of soya and soya recipes.

Actions were organised in ten towns where we have our branches, with all of them being excellently monitored by the media and well accepted by passers-by. It was our first simultaneous action by almost all branches of ‘Animal Friends Croatia’. Encouraged by this success, we have decided to launch new campaigns soon. (More about it under Campaigns on http://www.prijateljizivotinja.hr.)

In 1998, the organisation "Vegetarier Altenhilfe e.V.“ bought an idyllic property near Oberrot (Schwabisch-Hall) which is situated in a hilly forest region, between the Murrhardter and the Mainhardter woods. The residence, which lies next to a forest area, has been divided into six self-contained apartments of different sizes which can be rented under the condition of a vegetarian life style without alcohol and without tobacco. The long-term objective of the society is to bring younger and older people together for the benefit of both

The surrounding area is a centre for alternative farming and so an potatoes and fruit is on offer. In the little village of Oberrot all necessary shops, doctors and amenities are available and the residents of Hof Heilenbergen support one another when shopping or in all other situations where assistance is needed.

The beautiful and serene surroundings and the philosophy behind the project of Hof Heilenbergen offer ideal conditions for encounters between vegetarians of all age groups. Community facilities are available, including a room for seminars and activities. In particular the subject “Health and Wellness” is one of the most important priorities, including Yoga and meditation. Further points of interest for lectures and exchanges include vegetarianism, biological farming, herbs, philosophy, astronomy, health, music, literature etc, Of course, the serving of vegetarian culinary feasts is not forgotten either.

Visitors are welcome! A stay in Hof Heilenbergen is particularly rewarding in July because of the rich flowering in the thriving house-run “nature-garden”

Vegetarier-Altenhilfe
Update from 2009: This organisation does not exist enymore.


SWITZERLAND:

10 years of the Swiss Union for Vegetarianism (SVV):

On 8 August 1993, the SVV was created by a group of vegetarians with the aim of making the advantages of the vegetarian way of life better known and to explain in detail the different negative effects of meat-oriented nutrition. Successful work has been done since then using different approaches:

The activities of the SVV started with the setting up of a secretariat, which became ever more wellknown because of its distribution of solid and comprehensive information touching on all aspects of the vegetarian way of life. Today the “Vegi-Büro” has become a central point of reference for vegetarians and for people interested in particular questions regarding vegetarian or vegan nutrition.

In order to cope with the growing number of inquiries in the most efficient manner, documents were created covering the most important aspects. Today more than 40 fact sheets and a compilation of documents answer the most frequently asked questions.

A general demand for regular updates was first of all satisfied in cooperation with another organisation but the scope of information and exchange grew to such an extent that a periodical was the best solution and so the quarterly magazine “Vegi- Info” (in German and French) was created.

With the aim of further facilitating the access to vegetarian information, a mail order system for books was introduced. The most important books concerning the vegetarian way of life are presented in the magazines and can be ordered directly from the Vegi-Büro.

Because of the increasing use of the internet at all levels of society, it became clear that this very costeffective medium should be used to reach even more people to lower the threshold towards vegetarianism. Our website was among the first in German and quickly became popular. Today the website already registers approximately 2500 visits a day and this is increasing. In order to develop this further and optimize the information available, much time is invested in enlarging the offer of presently 1500 pages. Besides most of the fact sheets, almost all articles of the „Vegi-Info“ magazine are available on our internet-pages as well as a multitude of lists covering vegetarian restaurants, recipes, names of famous vegetarians and quotations: www.vegetarismus.ch

Today internet-access is almost a basic element of each computer sytem. This was not the case in 1998. So for those with a slow or non-existent internet connection we produced a CD-Rom containing internet-pages of a variety of vegetarian organizations, a lot of related information and the possibility to print all published “Vegi-Info” magazines.

In order to reach even those who do not particularly enjoy reading and have no access to a computer, we translated, in 1999, the video "Devour the Earth". This video had been produced by the English vegetarian organization VSUK and the SVV organised translations into German and French, with a Czech version to follow later. This video clearly demonstrates the global consequences of meat-oriented nutrition, was narrated by Sir Paul McCartney and is very suitable as an introductory- and school video.

Ever since the early days of the SVV, information stands have been organised in different Swiss cities. Through these initiatives, people who had never been confronted with vegetarianism before were reached. Many hundreds of thousands of flyers have been distributed since then, and a large number of interesting discussions held with open-minded passers–by which certainly led more than one to develop a deeper interest in vegetarianism.

In 2001, the Edition “Vegi- Verlag” was founded so that our vegetarian products could be distributed more efficiently, including the just finished book "Wegbereiter des Friedens" (Paving the Way for Peace), a description of the vegetarian religious communities of the Bishnoi and Jains. This year the animal rights book from Helmut F. Kaplan “Die Ethische Weltformel“ (The Ethical World Formula) was published. Furthermore, in 2003 the first German-language book concerning vegetarian dog and cat nutrition was published by echo-Verlag, in cooperation with the SVV. All three books have one aspect in common: They treat subjects which had not attracted much public attention and in that way offer information which otherwise would be difficult to come by.

With the introduction of the very successful vegetarian line "Cornatur" by the cooperative Migros Zurich at the end of of 1996, the European vegetarian label also became better known in Switzerland. Since that time much work has been invested into this promising project. In co-operation with SVV, Migros Zurich created a kit of vegetarian teaching material, which has already found a lot of interest and is distributed free of charge (can be ordered from the SVV or ordered/downloaded from http://www.cornatur.ch/vegetarischeslehrmittel.htm).

By last year some catering trade enterprises had already been granted the V-label and recently the Migros catering trade offered controlled vegetarian food in a further 45 restaurants.

At the moment the V-label is our highest priority because it makes a big difference to the vegetrian way of life in Switzerland. In the past it has been difficult for vegetarians to find suitable restaurants but with the introduction of the V-label, diningout has become more pleasurable for people who refuse meat.

In addition to the label-information on our website, a new portal page has recently been created: http://www.v-label.info

When SVV was created, vegetarianism was not a political issue. However, today the terms “vegetarian” and “vegan” are clearly defined in Swiss food regulations. The SVV has been able to influence this process and to represent the interest of vegetarians. At the moment, the SVV has a seat in the working group “Vegetarians” on the Commission for Nutrition of the Federal Office for Health, a body which discusses official recommendations for nutrition and the question as to whether a vegetarian recommendation is to be included.

Of course, all these projects lead to an increasing work load and to additional office space requirements. So in the interests of more efficient working arrangements the SVV moved into its new office in Neukirch Egnach last year. Today the work just cannot be tackled only by volunteers any longer, so a parttime employee is going to be hired in July. Even though this step leads to considerable expense, it has become necessary in the interests of continued and effective promotion of vegetarianism.

In contrast to the meat lobby which finances its work indirectly by subsidies paid to the meat industry and through the meat trade itself, the SVV must cover all its expenses on its own. This has only been possible because of the many dedicated voluntary helpers who assisted right from the start of the organisation. But money is needed nevertheless. Fortunately the financial support of members and sponsors has enabled the SVV to continue all activities in complete independence. So on behalf of the board of the Swiss Union for Vegetarianism, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who over the years have helped us by donating time and money in the interest of our common aim: to spread the vegetarian idea!