Veg-Fest Colorado

     Yesterday we attended Veg-Fest Colorado, a vegetarian festival put on by the Vegetarian Society of Colorado.  It was interesting and very well attended.  There were booths, free food samples, music performances, cooking demos, Tai Chi and Kung Fu demos, and many remarkable speakers.  We learned a lot. 
    We only listened to 3 of the speakers as 3 hours was about as long as we could sit, but really wish we could have heard more.  The speaker most of you may have heard of was Howard Lyman...the "Mad Cowboy".  He is a former rancher turned vegan, the man unsuccessfully sued along with Oprah Winfrey by the Texas Cattlemen's Association.  Also speaking was Dr. Michael Greger, an internationally recognized general practice physician specializing in clinical nutrition. "He reads every nutrition study published in every journal every year so you won't have to."
     A few key points we took away from our day include that 100 million animals are raised and slaughtered in violence in this country every year.  80% of the crops raised in this country are fed to animals---easily enough food to feed all the starving people in the world.   We are living beyond the sustainability of our planet, and need to look to history to remind ourselves what happened to the Anasazi in the American Southwest or the residents of Easter Island to see what our future may hold.
     For over 30 years there has been a medically-proven method to heal and reverse heart disease, yet many thousands of people continue to die of this disease annually without knowing there was a cure available to them in the form of diet.
     Dead cows are no longer fed to cows, or dead sheep to sheep, but they continue to be fed to other animal species and to each other. Did you ever wonder where the 3-4 million euthanized dogs and cats in this country go?  Animal food.  This isn't done in other countries, only in the USA.  Mad cow disease is only one of 100 spongiform disorders in animals, and no one is checking for them in this country, although the tests are available.  Every animal is checked in Europe and Japan!  There may be a relationship between all of these spongiform diseases and the rapid rise in Alzheimer's Disease in the USA.
     The most common cause of adult-onset epilepsy is now due to pork tapeworms which settle in the brains of humans. 
     Calcium is a mineral....it comes from the earth, as do all minerals.  Where do cows get calcium for their milk?  Traditionally, from eating grass which grows in the earth.  But cows today don't get to eat grass...they live in feedlots and are fed corn and soy and dead animals, so they must be given calcium supplements to have calcium for their milk.  Why are humans choosing to take calcium supplements in the form of cow's milk?  If you don't get your calcium directly from eating greens (in which form it is absorbed much more efficiently than from cow's milk) then why not at least take a calcium supplement directly instead of relying on the calcium supplements fed to cows.
     There is one hopeful fact for our future.  Aramark did a national survey and found that 1 of 4 college students desires access to vegan foods.  1 in 4.
     We must all determine our own values, and live lives of compassion.