Home Page
About Us
Calendar of Events
Columbia County
Discounts
Membership
Newsletters
Picture Book
Topical Subjects
(d-6)
Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society, Inc.
38 East Market Street, Rhinebeck, New York 12572 USA -
845-876-2626
Vegetarian - Vegan - Animal Rights - Health - Nutrition - Environment
The mission of the Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society, Inc. is to promote the vegetarian ethic in the Mid-Hudson (New York) region, educate the community and aid anyone in the pursuit of a totally vegetarian (vegan) cruelty-free and healthful lifestyle.
Newsletters
Spring 2003 Special Edition: Recipes for Peace
President’s Message
For many people the logical extension of a vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle is being a strong advocate of world peace. Many of our members participated in the massive peace demonstration in NYC on February 15th. Others attended local gatherings and forwarded information and petitions on the Internet.
This is especially relevant to me after spending a week in London at the end of February. A huge demonstration had taken place there also in Mid-February. I was pleased to encounter some smaller demonstrations when I was there. One was in Trafalgar square where traditionally, Londoners demonstrate. It was interesting to see it from the top of a double decker bus. The people I talked to in London don’t support Tony Blair in his readiness for war, just as the people I know at home are not behind George Bush. And I do move outside of our veggie world.
London is a delightful city, steeped in history with almost endless grand buildings, museums, towers, palaces and monuments. One can get around easily on clean buses and subways (the Underground), never waiting more than 3 minutes. I enjoyed it all immensely. But I do realize that the Tower of London, full of armor, armaments and the stories of war-waging monarchs, and the British Museum armed with the artifacts of half a hundred civilizations, are the results of many battles, much suffering and imperialism on a grand scale. In contrast there were flowers blooming all over town, many primroses and some magnolia trees. No snow, a bit of sunshine and some light, misty rain.
I attended a meeting of the London Vegan Society. There are photos of some of them on our website. The members are from many walks of life, but I must mention Ritchie, known professionally as "Rubber Ritchie," who works as a contortionist in Covent Garden. The members were interested to hear about MHVS and asked me to speak for a few minutes before their featured speaker, who presented a program on Permaculture. What is that, you ask? The word is a blend of permanent and agriculture.
The philosophy advocates growing more of our own food in small, diverse and sustainable settings. The true cost of how we eat does not factor in the hidden costs of the loss of biodiversity and consequent environmental degradation. Grow a garden and support your local farmers’ markets. It is the only planet we have.
There are many vegetarian restaurants in London. They are to be found on the Internet and in a delightful little book titled
Vegetarian London. From it I learned that the number of vegetarians in the UK went from 100,000 in 1945 to over 4 million today. Vegetarian restaurants are to be found all over the city from the West End Theater district to one tucked away in a church basement. British food used to have a reputation as being quite dull, but today diversity is everywhere. Eating vegan you can have everything from the "old time" veggie staple of nut loaf to Indian, Moroccan and Turkish delights. I am glad I went and glad to be back home in the Hudson Valley.- Roberta Schiff
President
We look forward to
hearing from you
