Building Communities through Veganism with Nitin Mehta MBE, Part 1 of 2

Nitin Mehta MBE was born in Kisumu, Kenya, in a Jain family of Indian ancestry that deeply respected and practiced ahimsa or non-violence way of life. Mr. Mehta is well-known for organizing high profile events that speak for India’s spiritual heritage, as well as vegetarianism and veganism. For his outstanding community service, the Mayor of London awarded him for “making a significant contribution to London” and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)

We were honoured to be granted an interview with Mr. Nitin Mehta MBE, where he tells us about the connection between ahimsa and the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. He also explains the reason for setting up the Vegetarian Society. Knowing that Mr. Mehta is well-renowned for organizing very successful campaigns through the multiple vegetarian societies that he has founded, we asked him about the latest campaign that he has been working on. “The latest campaign is, as I said, we are going to launch a Vegetarian Christmas campaign, to ask people to go vegetarian over Christmas because about twenty million turkeys are killed in the UK for Christmas and turkeys are very nice animals, who at one time could fly but now they are kept in close conditions - in factory farms, and in very cruel conditions. They are artificially inseminated. It's not very nice at all to celebrate a religious festival with so much cruelty. So, we are trying to say: ‘We can celebrate Christmas with compassion.’ So, that's our big campaign.”

On Christmas Eve 2020, Supreme Master Ching Hai reminded the world about the compassion of Jesus and mourned the sacrificed turkeys over the holidays. “We don’t have to kill the turkeys to celebrate Christ’s birthday. He (Jesus) never ate any animal product. He was vegetarian. He was from the Essene lineage and they have been vegetarian all the time. So, if we celebrate Christ’s birthday, Christmas, we should remember all this. His teaching is important. If we say we are a follower of Jesus, then we should remember the Lord’s core teaching. That is compassion, love for all beings.”