So many Jains in so many places have started to recognize the violence inherent in dairy and are incorporating this information into their practices for Paryushan, our most important community observance. A new group on Clubhouse called the Jain Vegan Initiative has brought new energy to the cause. There is a daily paryushan support group. Also, members compiled a Jain vegan cookbook in record speed, which may be updated.
And pinkispalate.com has some advice for paryushan and a dosa recipe for those who are not fasting.
Caution: If you are fasting, the resources above may tempt you to eat!
Today a special English pratrikraman for kids included a recognition that consuming dairy and other animal products constitute himsa, and they also included a vow related to decreasing their carbon footprint.
The Applied Jainism group has a climate initiative oriented app that includes using only vegan and eco friendly cosmetics, not wearing silk and not wearing leather. My suggested next step– add eating only vegan food!
More images from the Jain vegan initiative are available, if you keep reading. Thumbnails are first and then a slide show with larger images follows.
Prof Chris Miller invited Mahersh and drJina to give a guest lecture for his “The Earth is Calling You” summer session for Jain young people. The recording is posted here.
I was moved to hear the voices of so many Jains talking about their vegan journey and experiences, both diverse and familiar. Recordings are available on this shared google drive folder. Next week is part 2!
Prof Miller called my attention to this not-so-recent, but still very relevant video recording of a Digambar ascetic discussing the himsa in milk. This was posted by Fauna Police, (a group conducting animal rescue and raising awareness about animal abuse) after showing watching videos and pictures of dairies, live transport and slaughter of cattle in India to Aryika Shree Chaitanyamati Mataji (Chelna didi). Now we see ascetics of both genders in many Jain sects calling for us to renounce dairy products.
English translation (courtesy of Fauna Police): You people say that milk that we are consuming is very beneficial to our body but how is it appropriate that a calf is separated from cow immediately as soon as (s)he is born? With the help of different kinds of injections, milk is extracted from the cows. Such milk cannot be considered drinkable. A child must not be snatched away from the mother as this is also violence. I have seen this with my own eyes how the mother cow suffers when that happens. She also suffers when milk is forcefully extracted from her body and even some blood leaks at that time. Thus, such milk amounts to meat consumption. We have several options for food for our survival so we should not consume such things that give pain to somebody. Milk is not vegetarian but it is non-vegetarian and this is why we have renounced it as well. Acharya also did the same. Earlier, people used to feed milk to the calves but today they are separated from the mother immediately after their birth. Moreover, the milk is extracted violently using injections. Within a few years, after milking the cow to the extreme, she is sent away to the slaughterhouse. The calves also die a painful death. Such milk cannot be vegetarian. We are humans and should have compassion. I urge you to watch some videos of such activities in the media and decide for yourselves. Recently I watched a small truck loaded with a large number of cattle that was stopped by an organization and rescued the cattle. We should support such organizations with all our time and money. It was very painful to watch how animals are loaded and unloaded in such trucks. We should all stop such cruelty and this is what the dharma of nonviolence teaches us.
Our most recent webinar was titled “ Moving away from animal experimentation How the pandemic has shown us what scientific research is important for human health” with Dr. Alka Chandna (alkac@peta.org), Shalin Gala (shaling@peta.org) and Dr. Aysha Akhtar (aysha@contemporarysciences.org),and held on April 17, 2021.
Write a letter to the editor when you see uncritical praise for animal testing
Add your professional expertise by sharing your contact information with CCS (Aysha) or PETA (Alka or Shalin), so you can be added to our experts’ database. There are always opportunities to sign onto letters or to provide expert insights into specific experiments–and with your contact information, CCS/PETA can contact you when we are in need of your expertise.
The Ahimsak Eco Vegan Committee hosted our 2nd webinar on Feb. 27.
If you missed it or want to view it again, here are the recordings of the health aspects and environmental benefits of veganism., divided into Dr. Reshma Shah’s talk, Sudhanshu Jain’s talk and DrJina’s discussion o Dr. Reshma takes us on a practical and scientific tour of the latest nutrition science which is covered in depth in her book Nourish. City Councilman Jain discusses how we can make an impact on climate change. Dr. Jina takes questions and presents the Jain Declaration on the Climate Crisis. Our moderators Dr. Nirali and Saurabh also add to our discussion.
Svetambar sadhu Padmasagar Maharaj talks to the community about the blood and pus consumed in drinking milk and encourages his followers to give up milk, too. He reminds them that mung beans and other legumes are very nutritious and a staple of the Jain diet.
This post was written to answer a question that was raised in the JAINA webinar on 12/27/2020 and sent by email to the JAINA education committee on the acceptability of the COVID19 vaccines in use from a Jain vegetarian and vegan perspective. Views are mine as lead of the Ahimsak Eco-Vegan Committee, as a physician who has worked in vaccine development and drug safety, and who has also been vegan since 1990. I have also included resources from other vegans as helpful views to consider.Updated slightly Nov 5/2021.
Animal ingredients and testing in vaccines
Both mRNA vaccines, the Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna vaccines, contain fetal bovine serum (FBS) to culture cell lines used in production of the vaccines and use animal testing, as required by regulatory agencies, for early stages (preclinical) of vaccines development. Some of the vaccine candidates use shark derived squalene as an adjuvant (to increase the immune response to a vaccine). The blood of horseshoe crabs is used to test for contamination. Animal testing was conducted, though side by side with human experimentation of the early COVID-19 vaccines. No doubt there is animal suffering in these steps of vaccine development and production. Ideally, we would have alternatives. A supplier of FBS acknowledges that alternatives should be developed but so far are not adequate.
It is clear and direct. “Refusing to take a vaccine on ethical grounds will not help animals who have already been used in tests but could lead to a decline in our health — and our ability to speak up for animals in the future. What is needed is a change in the law so that animals are no longer required to suffer in regulatory tests.”
Choosing the least harmful option in an world that exploits animals endlessly
Our foremost ethical principle is ahimsa. There is not an absolute prohibition against taking medication and vaccines that have been developed or tested on animals or that continue to be produced using animal byproducts. However, where we can find alternatives, we choose the least harmful. If a woman needs to take estrogen for menopausal symptoms, it would be better to take yam based estradiol rather than pregnant mare urine derived conjugated estrogens. It would be preferable to take vegan Vitamin D3 and DHA rather than that derived from animal sources. Some vegans are able to find compounding pharmacists to make the active ingredients of a medicine available without encapsulating it in gelatin.
In the case of COVID19, the benefits of vaccination are an order of magnitude greater than most since the disease has ignited a global pandemic. In addition to the human suffering that is foremost in our minds, animals, such as mink have been killed because of their potential risk to re-infect humans. In the US, vaccines have received FDA approval and there are an increasing number of institutions and workplaces that are mandating them. They mRNA vaccines are 95% efficacious, have local and non serious side effects in the time frame studied so far, and, along with continued social distancing and wearing of masks, represent society’s best hope to end a pandemic by decreasing transmission of SARSCoV2. Healthcare workers, elderly in nursing homes and others who have no choice but to interact with large numbers of people in their jobs face greater risk in the continuation and worsening of this pandemic than the risk of a rare adverse event that may surface in the coming months. These groups have been appropriately prioritized to get the vaccine in the first wave in the US. In the dynamic situation of the virus mutating and increasing numbers of vaccines becoming available, there may be continuing opportunities to evaluate the most beneficial and least harmful option. In the short term, we may have to take in products of society that exploits animals– in so many ways that byproducts of slaughter are cheap and use in science pales in comparison to the amount eaten– for our survival.
This post elaborates on the point that taking a COVID 19 vaccine may be morally excusable though not justifiable.
Below are links to two webinars that present views pertinent to vegan Jains.
Webinars with additional points for vegans and Jains
In the webinar below, from about 54 minutes to 1hour 10min several vegan doctors discuss animal testing in the vaccine with an extended ethical discussion grounded by the small numbers of animals tested as compared to the large number of lives saved. They didn’t even discuss the mink killed as an example of animals harmed by continuation of the pandemic. As a side note, I was surprised to hear their discussion of organic produce that follows, detailing the greater harm to animals because of the by-products used, compared to conventional produce. I am not sure that the harms to workers of pesticide application and to climate and soils has been adequately considered but it is an interesting discussion.
Another excellent webinar was in the UK discussing the COVID19 disease, various vaccines available and their health system’s approach. There are some differences between the UK, US and other countries in disease spread, health system functioning and vaccine roll out, and since information has changed so quickly, some aspects may not apply as time goes on, but it is instructive. They correctly note around 1:23 that the vaccine was tested on animals. They also note that the ingredients of mRNA vaccines are vegan, a point which is strictly true, but as referenced in the articles I linked above, the process involves culturing in cell lines and the media contain some animal byproducts. Still as I discuss above, I believe it makes sense to take the vaccine because of the greater benefits for us compared to harms to animals and risks to us as humans.
Towards a better way
We as Jains have not been at the forefront of developing alternatives to animal products in drug and vaccine development and to move the regulatory agencies and companies away from testing on animals. But we should be. We can support the improvement in methods of systematic observation and interpretation of data which we call science, without condoning the view of animals as soul-less machines that are to be used as humans wish. Organs on a chip and other alternatives to animal testing have been discussed in recent UC Irvine webinars. The NY Times article on squalene mentions a CA based company and working on a synthetic alternative to shark derived squalene. Organizations such as Center for Contemporary Sciences , Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine and PETA are working on supporting innovations in human based research and reforming the US regulatory system and could use our support. Europe may be ahead in accepting alternatives to animals in research. If any reader is aware of the situation in India or other countries please comment.
Choosing a vegan diet, avoiding non-vegan clothing and entertainment and educating others to do the same helps us, as a human global community, move in the right direction. The more we move away from wet markets, encroachment on wild animals’ lands and slaughterhouses, the better our chances to prevent such outbreaks in the future. We can also support veganic agriculture to avoid environmental and worker harm from pesticides and animal harm from their byproducts being used in forming.
And if we as Jains consider ourselves to lead the world in our practice of ahimsa, we need to step out of our traditional comfort zone of home and temple as the locus of Jain practice. We need to apply our extraordinary professional and entrepreneurial success into development of ahimsak alternatives in all fields, including science.
A traditional Gujarati dish called patra is made with colabasia leaves in India, which are lovely large green leaves. Here’s an example of a traditional recipe which has nice step by step pictures.
I’ve adapted the recipe to use collard greens that are rich in bioavailable calcium and other important nutrients and easily available in North America and omit frying with oil. I like my patra hot and freshly steamed, no oil necessary.
My instructions:
Wash the collards after cutting the thick stems
Then make a Chickpea flour paste:
1 cup chana flour 2 tsp salt ½ tsp cayenne pepper (marchu) ¼ tsp dried turmeric (hardar) ¼ tsp garam masala 1 tsp cumin and coriander powder (dhanu jeeru) pinch baking soda
Add water to form a paste and apply on the collard leaves. It should be a little thicker than pictured below.
Stack the leaves on top of one another, with the largest leaves farther back.
Roll them up and steam them for a long time. I steam them in the Instant pot, about 15 minutes manual pressure cooking. You could use other steamers too.
Below is how they look after i steamed and cut them. You’ll see some prettier versions on the more professional recipe sites, but they taste just as good if they’re not as tightly wrapped.
You can adjust the seasonings per your taste. Sprinkle on some sesame seeds or coconut flakes if you like.
Vegan Jains 