VeggieGlobal's Introduction
for meat-eaters turning veggie
Welcome to a new life!
Already a Veggie? ... click here

Easing you into a healthy and happy meat-free world

These opening introductions may suggest a typically, flowery "Isn't life wonderful when your a lentil-bound ageing hippie dancing bare-bottomed around a tree!"...

Let's wipe the slate clean and move into the 21st century ...

VeggieGlobal aims not to fall into any of the stereotypical lentil pots of vegetarianism. Although there's nothing wrong with hippies with nut-roast hangovers, let's just say that the "veggie" in VeggieGlobal indicates peace and harmony, and the "global" means that everyone, everywhere can join in! ... Here, you can even shake off those visions of pale, fainting rakes in dreary cardigans!

VeggieGlobal is passionate about its mission and doesn't hide the fact that it would ideally love to see the whole world turn veggie! ... But at the same time it cuts through outdated boundaries and always aims to give you resources, friendly inspiration and fun without the pomposity or the usual stereotypical fallout.

With zillions of pages oozing original, inspiring editorials, campaigns and good-cause programmes, VeggieGlobal is creating total transparency between current veggies and meaty people who are beginning to realize that an ethically based lifestyle is becoming a prerequisite in how to survive the environmental turmoil which our entire planet is now facing.
You may also notice that this isn't exactly a hacked-together website with nothing but a few borrowed veggie facts and recipes, a couple of novel website tricks, and then adverts ... and more adverts! Instead, with years of dedicated research and intuitive foresight, VeggieGlobal lays down a labyrinth of paths to help you achieve a natural sense of realization; how outward compassion and inner-healing are so closely entwined.
However, to reach this realization, meat-eaters do have to jump a few hurdles to eventually feel comfortable about an animal-free diet, and even then a diet which doesn't destroy rain forests and habitats. So, if you are a "meatie" thinking of becoming veggie, there is a slight telling-of bit in one or two areas, but it's all part of the natural flow and there's no self-righteous malice intended!
Don't forget, VeggieGlobal, along with its sister site Looking-Glass is a web "retreat", so whether you are veggie or just thinking about it, this is a place to drift into your veggie reverie!
On your travels here, VeggieGlobal hopes that you'll discover the possibility of a meat and fish free diet as being the most effective ad most satisfying decision you've ever made!

Read more below ... or subscribe free.

And now ... an Important Statement

VeggieGlobal is the only vegetarian based organization which states the following as its mission statement:
"VeggieGlobal accepts and respects individuals and associated indigenous cultures their choice - and often necessity - to eat meat - that is, if he or she is prepared to kill the animal themselves."
In other words, that means those in more remote regions of the planet who aren't having this evening's dinner killed and prepared by slaughterhouses, butchers, meat-packers and supermarket shelf-fillers. For example, some indigenous cultures like Inuits or Eskimos (a race of people who live around the north polar regions) have no choice but to eat the animals and fish that inhabit their icy environments where vegetation doesn't even grow. Such cultures, along with indigenous peoples in other remote parts the world, have historically harmonized with nature, which usually retains the natural balance of the food chain and its associated ecology. These peoples have evolved to respect the environment (knowingly or not) and therefore the animal population around them, only to kill and eat what they personally require, as part of the circle of day to day life for themselves and the fragile environment around them.
It's often only the interference of the developed world - and the destructive technology it brings - that destroys the natural balance of those almost-forgotten cultures and the delicate balance they have achieved between animal and human.
Carnivorous species - as part of a food chain - who hunt for survival is a natural occurrence within the natural world. On the other hand, a controlling species, which harvest other species and manipulates an entire ecosystem, and to such an extreme that it has serious detrimental consequences, is a parasitic behavior of globally damaging proportions. All the more pointless because humans who have easy access to plant foods don't actually have to eat meat to survive. On the contrary, FM-free (Fish and Meat Free) humans are on average healthier than meat-eaters.

OK ... so what do I do now?

If you have already decided, without hesitation to become veggie then go straight to the free subscription form ... then on to the "New Veggies Information Path".
If you are still unsure, then you are invited to read on.
Beside the huge health benefits to be gained when becoming vegetarian, you may also need to reaffirm the moral / ethical reasons as to why vegetarianism is such a great way to feel at peace with the natural world around you.

A Wise Choice

If this is your first taster in all things vegetarian then we hope you'll find a comfortable path through this site which, although doesn't preach vegetarianism, treats the practice of a meat free diet as the norm rather than the exception. However, VeggieGlobal is mainly designed for those who wish to live a meat free life mainly for compassionate and ethical reasons and not just for personal health improvement. You may find a lot of useful dietary and nutritional information here and, let's face it, anyone becoming veggie for whatever reason means the lives and welfare of a few more animals have been saved - and a few more acres of livestock grazing land can be returned to nature or environmentally balanced fruit and veg based agricultural use. But as we say, this is a place for those who don't eat any creatures with a pulse and a pair of eyes. And, because VeggieGlobal.com is part of the Looking-Glass web retreat, it therefore covers many issues linked to animal, environmental and humanitarian issues as part of its overall philosophy towards extended consciousness - and the sense of natural compassion such a journey brings. So please read on and consider embracing the ethical considerations raised here in this introduction and throughout this site.

Stuff to Think About

The VeggieGlobal quote further up this page suggests that vegetarianism, animal welfare, humanitarianism and conservation is not simply about whimsical displays of concern during one human's life cycle ... It's not about chasing an alternative, self comfort lifestyle whilst the commercial world around you continues to bulldoze its way across the planet for a quick buck ... Vegetarianism, animal welfare, humanitarianism and conservation are signatures of the earth's natural harmonic ... And these signatures can emanate from you, by rooting yourself into the planet - feeling, listening, living and truly responding - synchronized to the pulse of your homeworld.

For those who have already climbed to this next plane of human evolution, a natural affinity with such issues of compassion is part of a normal existence ... and its integration in your social life is completely transparent. You have earned the role of a "Global Compassionate" when almost everything you do - even without having to think too hard about it - creates a positive and healing effect to this planet.

Putting things in perspective

It's very easy for a veggie website to sound a little sanctimonious, but at VeggieGlobal you'll find that enlightening considerations are directed at both meat-eaters and veggies alike. Because being veggie or a vegan certainly doesn't make one perfect! So we are not being self-righteousness here ... just simply stating facts and common-sense to aid realignment towards a compassionate lifestyle.
But just to cut through the moral maze of meat-eating, there is a "telling off bit" in this introduction! So here we go! ...

There is a point to this telling off bit. Even though you may be making steps to become veggie, it's helpful to understand the ethics that are leading you towards this decision as clearly as possible. Think of these introduction pages as a cleansing process to help you stay vegetarian once you have begun.
As a (past) meat eater, you need to face some very straightforward questions and ... (we apologize in advance) ... some which could make you feel uncomfortable.
Please remember, this is almost the only time throughout the entire site, where we will lay out such strong ethics about modern day meat-eating for you to chew on, so to speak.
After this, you can take it or leave it, but if you are going to succeed in your quest for personal change then facing cold facts and coming out the other side ethically enlightened can only be felt as a wonderfully positive thing.

You may also feel that some of the following questions are pretty obvious - but nonetheless poignant if you are personally going to understand and purge yourself of your role in past years as an indirect animal killer, and hence reinitialize yourself.
Yes, harsh that may sound, but consider this comparison:
A mobster pays his henchmen to do the dirty deeds ... murder for example. He never has to directly get his hands dirty. Well, neither does a meat eater need to kill an animal him or herself. It's an undeniable fact of a consumerists society. The meat-eating consumer is paying someone else to do the job of killing a living creature. The meat-eater is so used to this arrangement that his or her conscience shows no guilt ... no remorse.
Eating an animal that's conveniently killed and prepared for your consumption is an easy cop out - removing you from the scene of the murder ... You don't feel responsible.
The mobster is evil and with no guilty conscience. Of course, you as a meat-eater are not "evil", but what you have done all these years is simply lost a sense of guilt through never having to come face to face with the once-living creature ... a piece of meat you are cutting up on your dinner plate ... this is because you as a meat-eater have become anaesthetized to the reality of the crime you are indirectly committing.
But first you must also ask yourself, "is killing an animal a crime?" Or in other words, a human meat-eater justifies him or herself by presuming that killing each other is murder but killing another species is not ... It's all to easy to shift the rulings of ones conscience for the sake of moral convenience.
Does this mean that if we were visited by a non-human species from outerspace, we would think it's OK to eat them just because they are not "human"?! Or what if they were carnivores themselves and considered the human race an inferior species and a potential food source... Wouldn't you be horrified? What gives us, or even little green men from Mars the right to quantify or choose what species of this universe deserve to be murdered and eaten and which don't?

Meanwhile, back on Earth ...

... there is also a crazy social unbalance relating to which animals can be eaten and which can't.
In one country it may be OK for meat-eaters to to eat swans, monkeys or dogs, while another country's society would throw-up at the thought. The morals and ethics of cultural choice is irrelevant. You either choose to eat another living creature or you abstain from the act completely and become FM-Free (fish and meat free). As a meat-eater, why should putting a name to your family pet make he or she any less prone to ending up on your dinner plate than a lamb torn away from its mother and killed for your Sunday dinner?
Meat can only be identified in most consumers minds as a shrink-wrapped item from the chill cabinet at the supermarket - not as a once living, breathing, sentient creature. You have unwittingly become completely brainwashed through years of not knowing, or never considering the past life of the flesh next to the two veg on your plate.
It is astonishing how many people can't even associate meat with a living creature; It seems that the simplest minds to even the so-called greatest minds of this planet can't comprehend that all animals are living beings in one form or another. And within each species, including us, dwells a sense of awareness by which the difference between kindness and suffering can be felt. So many people will just shrug their shoulders and try and pretend this "reality" i.e. the living, sentient animal killed and turned to food on a plate, simply doesn't exist ... we are somehow exempt from responsibility ... that meat wasn't in fact ever a living creature ... it's from the supermarket ... that's where it was made ... in the chill cabinet next to the breakfast cereal section.
Mmm ...!

And so, your past decisions or habitual demands to purchase parts of dead animals, conveniently "pre-killed" and shrink wrapped, sets off a backwards chain of arguments and political discordance which points at meat, fish and farming industries. Historically the chain is linked, but in modern society it begins with the consumers demand and aesthetic expectations.

This next bit is a self evaluating test to help you fully establish your future as vegetarian ...a most basic, simplistic but challenging question nonetheless:

You are a meat eater.

You walk into your richly stocked supermarket and come face to face with live lambs, calves, ducks and other sentient creatures looking frightened and confused. They are tethered where the pre-packed meat counter once stood.

All pre-slaughtered meat products are no longer available.

There is a price tag attached to each of these live animals ... and there is also a large knife.

Would you kill the animal yourself to eat the meat?...

Before we continue this discussion, we have no quarrel with those few individuals who take personal responsibility in a one to one relationship with their own animal food source ... to eat what they kill themselves. That philosophy originates from earth-rooted cultures far removed from the modern world of the frozen meat section and the unethical pre-packed convenience of the supermarket.

But for the huge majority of meat-eating consumers, this is where "turn a blind eye" hypocrisy begins, then moves off into many paths of ignorance.
For example, the public's general condemnation of blood sports is a fine sentiment but they still eat the products from some of these activities via the supermarket shelf.
The hypocrisy gets more inane. Those who bet on the Grand National but "won't watch it because the horses get hurt".
Even the children ... "I'll eat bacon but I won't eat Babe" (the piglet made famous in the films) All hypocritical - and all part of a society, which seems to conveniently anaesthetize a guilty conscience whenever it suits.
This is mainly demonstrated by a predominantly western society, which can look into the innocent eyes of a cow grazing by the roadside, or on an injured deer on a wildlife hospital TV program and shed an emotional tear. But they will never have to face picking up that knife and slitting its throat ... they just wait for it to arrive in a bun with fries.

Back in 2001 a major outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease began in the UK and spread across Europe. Along with BSE and Bird Flu, these diseases are man-created through intense chemical based farming methods, unnatural feeding methods and by crowding animals into enclosed areas.
Although Foot and Mouth has been around for centuries, human methods of trying to defeat it have been and still are ignorantly displaced. If the disease was allowed to spread naturally, more than 50% of animals may survive and therefore build up a natural immunity through future generations. Instead, short sighted farmers and governments will destroy 100's of thousands of perfectly healthy animals for the sake of a few hundred confirmed cases. The result is that the disease continues to be a constant threat to farm animals from one generation to another.
Short term recoverability and financial gain is all farmers are interested in.
It's all too easy for a vegetarians to sound self-righteous over man-made disasters such as these, but the fact is that there is simply no more time to play diplomatic bat and ball with insensitive, short sighted people who continue to plough their way through life with such a self-serving outlook. Meat farmers and meat consumers are equally to blame for the disastrous consequences we are witnessing regarding the spread of bird flu and other livestock diseases - the decimation of land used for industrial strength grazing, which is in turn causing widespread damage to the global environment. Ruling humans over animals and the environment is now taking its toll... and if you suffer the inconvenience of not being able to have your roast beef or chicken ... is that such a loss when you realize how much good your efforts to become vegetarian will do for this entire planet?

The less meat you eat, the less animals will be farmed therefore less animal suffering. The less fish you eat, the more chance that the dangerously depleted oceans have a chance of recovery.
It's a start ... be strong ... make the change and give yourself a smile, because you should feel happy knowing that such a step will save lives ... and make the world a little bit more greener and healthier.

We hope you have considered these questions and evaluations, and that they have been a help to you in understanding the ethics behind a natural path towards a healthier life in mind, body and clearer conscience.
If so, then we are most glad to extend our welcome to you as a first step vegetarian.

From here on you will learn to understand that being true vegetarian should become a transparent philosophy and neither a time consuming issue or inconvenience in your everyday life. In the 21st century your life can only be less of a hassle, healthier, smarter and morally clear-headed ...
... as a happy veggie!

Don't forget ... we're not going to preach vegetarianism to you ... There is discussion here for you to take part in if you want to ... Read the philosophies that fuel this site if you want to. But you don't have to read it if it's all too much of a hassle.

In fact here's a link to take you straight to VeggieGlobal's main contents page
And another link so you can subscribe free ... subscribe free

However...

... Don't vegetate, cultivate!

From the very early days of this web site's origins - as far back as 1995 - veggieglobal.com pioneered a common-sense agenda about what society can easily do to make really positive changes to the plane. Even then we were expressing the importance of organic, locally grown and locally manufactured products. We were explaining the importance of abstaining from fish and why it should become the first stage of turning veggie, simply to help save the world's depleted oceans and rivers. We have also reported on fundamental aspects of the environment and animal welfare which had never been raised before.
We provide free-to-link-in-with and free-to-access animal / environmental services and campaigns, which can help save numerous lives and protect our planet, such as LaFAN or The NOVA Key or Ban The Bang!
We want to continue to cultivate the concrete and tarmac of the worlds cities and towns and spread enough awareness so that those who would otherwise never be the wiser can take the opportunity to plant themselves and tune to the earth's natural harmonic.

There's more to read in Part Two of this introduction if you wish ... Part Two gives you more insight into VeggieGlobal's background and philosophy. Otherwise, if you've read enough and just want get on with exploring please subscribe free here or else, use the menu links on this page. (As a free subscriber we don't flood you with hundreds of emails ... just the odd newsletter and occassional important announcement)

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Intro Part Two

... or to explore use the "Veggies Information Path" here:

 

New Veggies Information Path

* VeggieGlobal Intro

1 Subscribe Free

2 Becoming Veggie

3 Veggie FAQs

4 Nutrition Guide

5 The Turning Year

6 Watch Out For...

7 Further Steps