Egg argument cracks India's Vegetarian Congress

[Ensapa]

So....how many types of vegetarians there are around? It seems that India is having a crisis establishing the standards for them due to the various traditions and their different standards of vegetarianism...which vegetarian are you?

Egg argument cracks India's Vegetarian Congress
India’s Vegetarian Congress and the International Vegetarian Union are in a heated debate about whether eggs are Vegetarian. Four hundred million vegetarians live in India, due to large Hindu, Buddhist and Jain populations.

The Indian Vegetarian Congress has separated in a row over whether eggs are meat or veg.

While cracks in vegetarian unity might be arcane in the West, it is a vital issue for India's 400 million vegetarians – the world's largest veggie population.
Because millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains follow the diets of their founders and Gods, all Indian restaurants must have separate veg and non-veg menus.
Eggs are restricted to 'non-veg' menus along with chicken and mutton tikkas, and companies selling 'eggless' cakes thrive.
But a row between India's Vegetarian Congress (IVC) and the London-based International Vegetarian Union (IVU) came to a boil this summer after IVC leaders rebelled over an IVU ruling that eggs are 'veg' and those who eat eggs can be vegetarians.
On Monday the IVC's leaders announced they had withdrawn from the International Vegetarian Union and created their own World Veg Council to halt the acceptance of eggs as vegetarian foods and promote "real vegetarianism".
One IVC leader said he had been "shocked" when Indian IVU supporters within his group announced eggs are veg and that the new World Veg Council will quickly launch 3000 centers in India and 500 around the world to promote "real vegetarianism."
Vijay Kumar Bafna, the new group's vice president said India had inspired the rise of vegetarianism throughout the world – from Lords Buddha and Krishna to Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi - especially in Britain and the United States. But now there was a danger of western followers corrupting the purity of vegetarianism.
"Anything which comes from a womb is non-veg, anything which comes out of the process of birth is non-veg. The IVU said they consider eggs veg but gave no significant reasons we couldn't understand it so we withdrew," he said.
Many followers in the West are ovo-lacto vegetarians who drink milk and eat eggs, while in India the vast majority drink milk from revered cows but do not eat eggs.
There have been attempts to market eggs from chickens fed on grain rather than fishmeal as vegetarian but they have yet to catch on.
The IVU did not respond to inquiries, but according to its website it defines vegetarianism as a "diet of foods derived from plants, with or without eggs, dairy products, and/or honey."


Read more: http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/547a49850afe13c36ee7edf11d83f9e0/egg-row-cracks-indias-vegetarian-congress#ixzz290VZKWsA

[Big Uncle]

Hmmm... I think this list is pretty comprehensive already. What do you guys think?

Total Vegetarians eat only plant food. They do not eat any animal foods, including fish, eggs, dairy products, and honey.
Vegans not only omit all animal products from their diets, but they also eliminate them from the rest of their life. Vegans use nothing from animals, such as leather, wool, and silk.
Lacto-Vegetarians will include dairy products into their diet of plant food.
Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarians eat both eggs and dairy products.
Pesco-Vegetarians include fish into their diets.
Pollo-Vegetarians eat poultry, such as chicken, turkey, and duck.

[icy]

Which and what vegetarians we are are not important.  What we are, our motivation, our sincerity and compassion is most important in our make-up.  If we are vegetarian but we do not practise compassion or ethics to our fellow human kind, we are in vain becoming vegetarian.

For some they want to be a vegan/vegetarian but their geographical location and weather conditions prevent them from being one.  For example, Tibet is a cold and barren country on the roof top of the world, they cannot survive being vegetarians but it produces many saints and enlightened beings. 

Vegetarianism is to cultivate our compassion and not merely a spiritual status.  If a vegetarian requires egg in their diet merely for health and instant nutrient, then it shall be.  Why crack our heads over it?

[Jessie Fong]

If a vegetarian needs to stay away from eggs, he has the option not to order eggs to accompany his food.  It is a matter of personal preference of diet.

I agree with Icy that certain geographical location and weather conditions play a part in our diet - imagine being in Tibet on top of the world, and you are required to be on a strict vegetarian diet -- how are we going to survive just on greens?

[WisdomBeing]

I completely understand about the egg argument. As a vegetarian, I personally do eat eggs – though I do usually get free-range eggs for ethical reasons. Eating eggs does get me some stick from some of my more orthodox vegan friends and it IS something I contemplate but I think it is a personal decision which I hope my friends will respect. As most of them would know, I’m not exactly susceptible to peer pressure!

I agree with what Icy said – that we should look at our behavior more than what we eat. Are we so compassionate in our daily attitudes, or are we simply paying lip service?

[dondrup]

Being full vegetarian does not completely free us from creating harm to others.  The vegetables that we had eaten could have gone through a process where many insects or animals were inadvertently injured or killed!  Like what most of us here have said, what matters is the motivation of becoming vegetarian than the category of vegetarian that we belong to.  We can be the perfect total vegetarian that eats only plants and do not eat any animal foods, including fish, eggs, dairy products, and honey, but if we for example abuse and harm dogs or cats, then it is pointless to become vegetarian.

[Q]

Animal rights activist would fight for people not to take eggs.... after all, farm eggs came from somewhere and we all know what happens in the egg farms. Although one is not directly connected to killing a life as the eggs are not fertilized.. however, consuming eggs that are produced from farms directly contribute to the suffering of the hens in the farms and the mass killing of male chick when they first hatch.

Well... ofcourse, just like cow milk, the same debate will go on forever with multiple opinions all the time. Cant really help it... people have too varied amount or degree of acceptability when it comes to vegetarianism or even meat eating. I know some meat eaters that would limit their meat portion to just enough so that they dont consume excessively.

[Aurore]

From a Buddhist point of view, vegetarianism is highly encouraged because of the no killing and harming others policy. I think the labelling is not that important as to whether what we consume instil pain to another being for our taste buds or well-being. So if we take milk from a cow we bred personally in a farm and grazing the field freely, then we are not harming the cow. Same thing goes with eggs. If the chicken are kept in cages injected with hormones to reproduce in masses, then it is wrong.

These days, industrialisation are the main cause of animal abuse where demand for supplies increases and companies are out to make as much profits as possible.

BTW, I don't consider Pesco-Vegetarians and Pollo-Vegetarians as vegetarians because it involves killing of a life.

[Tenzin K]

Totally agree with Icy on what important Is the motivation of being a vegetarian. If we a just a vegetarian by just being one and don’t really understand the real meaning of it just another blind action which not to say that’s wrong (anyway better than eating meat of course) but it just an empty action. The action of being vegetarian is from a deep contemplation and realization. The compassion quality comes from the result of awareness that we don’t want to harm others.   

Our practice and action shows whether we are true compassionate. Our diets is part of the whole subject and of course we can keep on dwelling whether egg is part of vegetarian menu or not but we still have to remind ourselves that what is all the argument about and whether we address the core of the objective of this actions.

One who eats meat can have a pure heart just as one who does not eat meat can have an impure heart. In the Buddha's teachings, the important thing is the quality of your heart, not the contents of your diet. Many Buddhists take great care never to eat meat but they are not concerned about being selfish, dishonest, cruel or jealous. They change their diet which is easy to do, while neglecting to change their hearts which is a difficult thing to do. So whether you are a vegetarian or not, remember that the purification of the mind is the most important thing in Buddhism.

[bambi]

Which and what vegetarians we are are not important.  What we are, our motivation, our sincerity and compassion is most important in our make-up.  If we are vegetarian but we do not practise compassion or ethics to our fellow human kind, we are in vain becoming vegetarian.

For some they want to be a vegan/vegetarian but their geographical location and weather conditions prevent them from being one.  For example, Tibet is a cold and barren country on the roof top of the world, they cannot survive being vegetarians but it produces many saints and enlightened beings. 

Vegetarianism is to cultivate our compassion and not merely a spiritual status.  If a vegetarian requires egg in their diet merely for health and instant nutrient, then it shall be.  Why crack our heads over it?

Wow! You hit the nail Icy! It is so true in what you have written.

Its the same as us telling people how excellent and truthful Dharma is but we do otherwise. How to preach something when we ourselves are not doing it? So this is the same as what we put in our mouth and what comes out of it. For eg. I call myself a meatless person instead of all the complicated names that people put a label on. Anything you cook with meat, I just push it aside and eat what I can. My families are not vegetarians and for them to purposely cook for us is not fair for them. We become selfish for the sake of what we want to eat. And yes, there are certain parts of the world that eat meat to sustain. In the end, our motivation is the most important!

[brian]

I do not eat eggs for the very reason for the egg does have a life in it and by eating it means that i actually practically killed it. Pretty context here, so i have stopped eating eggs since i realised this simple statement. whether i am practicsing other various good values in my daily life or not is not as important as killing to fulfill my attachment to tastes. personally i love eggs and it was kinda struggle for me initially but after some time, i sort of adapted to it. I don't take eggs and other dairy based products. other than that, i am taking all meatless and non-dairy products such as onions.

[rossoneri]

No matter how we might brand it, it does not matter. As Icy said the motivation is much more important, we might have been a vegetarian since we were born but if we did not practice compassion and always creating problems for others, then what is the point. It is similar to praying, if in a day we spent 2 hours praying and for the rest of day, say 12 hours cheating, lying and not being honest then what's the point of spending 2 hours of praying?

[Tammy]

I think it is really silly to fight over a mere definition of vegetarianism.

People adopt vegetarian diet for various reasons: Heath, religious, compassion, save the earth by conserving its resources, etc.

There are also different level of 'seriousness' people takes vegetarianism, for example, there are people who reads food labels and analyse them to them very detail to make sure there is absolutely NO trace if animal-baseD product is used..

To me, this is very personal, we follow the reason why we are taking vegetarian diet, do have to complicate the situation by analyzing what was used to make that bawl of soup in front of us.

Come on people, there ARE more serious matters in life that warrant such attention.

[Benny]

Sound fanatical to me , to be arguing over eggs causing so much distress amongst vegetarians. Correct me if i am wrong , the eggs that come from the poultry farms are unfertilized , how can it  be alive ? I sincerely hope that they dont start banning ovo , lacto , pesco and pollo vegetarians from going to those pure vegetarian restaurants !

I personally believe that eggs were considered "bearing life" because it has gone through the process of birth way back in the " bronze age" simply because they did not have the scientific know how to prove that the eggs were unfertilized ! Simple , because the kind and compassionate vegans could not be sure , best not to eat them to play safe .

I agree with what Icy said : "For some they want to be a vegan/vegetarian but their geographical location and weather conditions prevent them from being one.  For example, Tibet is a cold and barren country on the roof top of the world, they cannot survive being vegetarians but it produces many saints and enlightened beings."

[Klein]

Which and what vegetarians we are are not important.  What we are, our motivation, our sincerity and compassion is most important in our make-up.  If we are vegetarian but we do not practise compassion or ethics to our fellow human kind, we are in vain becoming vegetarian.

For some they want to be a vegan/vegetarian but their geographical location and weather conditions prevent them from being one.  For example, Tibet is a cold and barren country on the roof top of the world, they cannot survive being vegetarians but it produces many saints and enlightened beings. 

Vegetarianism is to cultivate our compassion and not merely a spiritual status.  If a vegetarian requires egg in their diet merely for health and instant nutrient, then it shall be.  Why crack our heads over it?

I totally agree with Icy. The point of being vegetarian is a practice of gaining compassion. It's a choice that one makes for one's practice. So instead of fighting over the guidelines, why not let the individuals decide on what type of vegetarian they'd like to be.

The key here as stated by Icy is one's motivation. If one's motivation is selfless, then even eating meat wouldn't make a difference for the person's spiritual development. So for beginners like me who's motivation is not as pure, then it would make sense to not "kill" for our food. Killing is not an act of compassion.

Anyway, most commercially farmed eggs are unfertilised. So nothing is "killed".