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Panorama of Events
Formosa
A Joyous
Christmas
By Formosa News Group (Originally in Chinese)
[Hsihu] On December 23, Golden Year 9 (2012), approximately 5,200 Association members and VIPs from Formosa, along with temporary-stay residents from around the world, gathered at the Hsihu Center for the Golden Christmas Celebration. Many Centers worked together and set up booths by the Nectar River, the Red Pavilion, the fountain and the entrance to the Rainbow Garden, providing local delicacies, such as millet mochis and Swedish chocolate rolls from Hualian, crystal dumplings and Hakka dumplings from Miaoli, and green bean cakes and vegan meat balls from Changhua. The variety of vegan dishes was so large that one could hardly count them all! Each booth overflowed with guests tasting the delicious food, and the atmosphere at the Center was warm and joyful. A group of sister initiates dressed up as Mrs. Santa Claus to hand out blessed food, adding more cheer to the occasion. Brother and sister initiates of various nationalities sang, danced, played instruments, and performed a comedy routine for the guests, bringing the celebration to a blissful climax. The S.M. Celestial Company also presented a vegan-fur fashion show, which ended the beautiful event on a perfect note.
Ongoing Efforts to Promote the Vegan Diet and World Peace 
Compiled by Formosa News Group (Originally in Chinese)
[Formosa] Promoting the vegan diet and creating a peaceful planet have become long-term projects for Association members in Formosa. Working toward the same ideal, they are striving to bring the “Be Vegan, Make Peace” message to all corners of the island.
Sharing Master’s Good News and the Vegan Message Formosan initiates have sent over 1,300,000 copies of Master’s letter on the continuation of Earth’s existence to the media and leaders in various fields, printed more than 40,000 “Be Vegan, Make Peace” vehicle stickers in various languages, and shared the stickers with Centers around the world. In addition, they have produced over 2,000 flags bearing the vegan message in multiple languages, printed 1,210 copies each of the flyers “Vegetarianism: Quotes from Noteworthy People” and “List of the Advantages of a Vegan Diet,” sent the flyers to stores for display, and printed 15,000 copies of a vegan cookbook in English and 10,000 in Spanish. Of these, 4,000 copies of the English version were distributed at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Vegan Campaign by Centers The Taipei Center is frequently involved in the local “Lecture Series on Green Health” and provides cruelty-free meals for attendees. They also supported a cycling parade on Earth Day 2012 and served 800 vegan lunch boxes to the participants. Moreover, to encourage people to adopt the compassionate diet, the Center’s kitchen provides daily lunch boxes with plant-based meals to the post office, the local guild, a number of accounting professionals, and the administrative offices of various buildings, companies, and schools. The Jiayi Center arranged healthy, organic-diet seminars and provided free vegan meals to support the “Loving Family Thanksgiving” activities organized by the local county government. In celebration of Earth Day 2012, Tainan Center initiates also served 1,000 hamburgers with no animal ingredients to support the event “A Fan a Day, Reduce a Kilo of Carbon,” sponsored by the Tainan city government, and offered vegan lunch boxes to participants in a cycling parade on Earth Day. The Pingtung Center frequently participates in the “Save the Environment, Eco Enzymes Learning Camp.” Besides serving complimentary plant-based meals, they also gave a copy of the book, The Inspiring Diet Code 2012 to the Pingtung City Office staff, who committed themselves to following a vegan diet for three weeks. The book discusses the secret code hidden within our daily diet, revealing why being vegan improves physical health and sustains planetary continuity. It also provides medical and nutritional information based on scientific research and includes 115 practical, delicious recipes. The Hualian, Tainan, and Penghu Centers have been visiting inmates in local prisons on a regular basis to share the “Be Veg, Go Green, Love the Planet” ideal. In response, the Penghu Prison has implemented a low-carbon diet twice a week.
Using the Media to Promote the Benefits of the Vegan Diet
The Penghu Daily News frequently prints the “Be Vegan, Make Peace” slogan on its front page to share the message with the public. In addition, the Taipei Center from time to time publishes articles with titles such as “What You Don’t Know about Milk,” “Break an ‘Egg,’ Check inside!” “The Myth about Eating Fish,” “Open Calcium,” “Explore the Truth,” and “List of the Advantages of a Vegan Diet” in the newspaper Upaper, which has a daily circulation of 240,000.
The Government and NGOs Join Forces to Promote Veganism To implement the “Save Energy and Reduce Carbon Emissions” policy issued by Formosa’s Executive Yuan, the Agriculture and Food Agency has put the Veg Monday campaign into practice, and will order only vegetarian lunch boxes for their staff on Mondays. The island’s Ministry of National Defense is also requiring that military personnel follow its “Eat More Vegetables, Less Meat” policy and consume vegetarian food at least one day a week or one meal a day to reduce carbon emissions. Based on the campaign “Love the Earth, Be Kind to Life, and Reclaim Health,” a group of medical experts worked with prominent members of other fields to establish the Veg Union (http://vegunion.org). Using their own areas of expertise, the group’s members offer valuable, truthful information on health from various viewpoints, so as to guide society to a new, healthy, harmonious, vegan world. The Veg Union website includes sections such as Global Watch, Healthy Vegan Medical School, Environmental Protection Frontier, Love, Vegan Lifestyle, and Fashion. The site’s information is being widely circulated on the internet. In the section, “Celebrities Talk,” renowned individuals from a variety of fields receive much positive feedback for their efforts to help people understand that the vegan diet can save the planet and create a healthy life.
In addition, the Veg Union produces a video
program entitled “New Adventurism,” which is broadcast
on New Talk, an internet platform established by several progressive
media channels. The show features information on the health benefits
of the vegan diet and how the compassionate lifestyle contributes
to a sustainable environment. “New Adventurism” also promotes
the New Age (organic vegan) diet concept and presents lively interviews
with famous vegans. New Talk has a high viewing rate and has received
enthusiastic responses from its audience.
From November 8 to 11, Golden Year 9 (2012), the Meat-Free
Monday Collaboration Platform conducted a series of seminars on the
peaceful diet during the Sixth Golden Bodhi Kitchen Contest and Organic
Health Exhibition held at Taipei Expo Park. The seminars featured
experts in medicine, nutrition, ecology, animal protection, organic
farming, and brain development, and attracted a large crowd. Due to
the caring appeal of the Platform, light, vegan meals have become
a favorite of working people. Many food-production companies have
also discovered that the market for vegan foods has an endless potential
for growth. The Loving Hut International family of restaurants was
invited to take part in the Exhibition, where they set up booths providing
a variety of vegan delicacies for guests to try free-of-charge. The
visitors were invited to start eating vegan using “chopsticks”
(the Chinese word for chopsticks sounds like ‘quickly’)
to save the Earth.
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