Interview with Supreme Master Ching Hai by East Coast Radio FM (In English) | |||||||
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Louise (f ): Hallo, and you are all very welcome to Saturday
night with Louise Kings and The Sandman, East Coast FM, political, spiritual,
cultural and world events show. I am your host, Louise
Kings. Louise Kings(f): We are very honored to talk to Supreme Master Ching Hai, which we do have online live. Hallo, good evening. Supreme Master Ching Hai : Good evening, Louise and the Sandman. Hi.
www.vims.edu/deadzone Louise
(f): Fantastic. Actually, it's a very interesting way of looking at it,
that the sea is like our forest, our underwater forest. I've never really looked
at it that way. But if we talk about like the coral reefs, Alex Rogers, from the
Zoological Society of London writing in the Journal Science said that an
astonishing 33% of the world's reef building corals face extinction, mainly
because of overfishing and coastal development and pollution, with another 50%
hanging in the balance. And also a report from the World Resources Louise (f):
Excellent! We will post that up on our own website for listeners to
check out. That kind of leads on to the next question, Supreme Master, that many
people are concerned they won’t be able to meet their nutritional needs on a
plant-based vegan or vegetarian diet. How could we be assured that a vegetarian
or vegan diet is sound? Supreme Master Ching Hai : The psychological pressure on the people who go on diet to take weight off is tremendous. I understand that. They cannot do it; it’s against their nature. So, the vegetarian diet, you can just eat and then you just take your weight off naturally. And they say that it’s even better than gastric bypass surgery, and also improves health and helps prolong youthful look and vigor. So you can refer to the books like, “The Ornish Diet,” “Eat to Live,” and “Eat for Health” for more details. And we will provide you, of course, some more websites for your listeners. www.heartattackproof.com www.webmd.com/diet/ornish-diet-what-it-is www.drfuhrman.com www.nealbarnard.org www.treeoflife.nu www.drgreger.org Louise (f): Wonderful, thank you. Supreme Master Television has broadcast a few scientists who have stated that if we reduce our methane emissions by eliminating meat and dairy, that it would bring us much faster cooling of the planet than by reducing CO2 emissions. Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. Right. Louise (f): You aired an interview with Professor Kirk Smith at the University of California at Berkeley in the US, who said, “Reducing methane would buy us critical time in the fight against climate change.” He also said that livestock were the greatest human-caused source of methane, and suggested governments tax meat to reduce consumption. Supreme Master, can you please help us to understand how reducing human-caused methane will cool the planet faster than reducing CO2? Supreme Master Ching Hai : Scientifically speaking, methane ends its effect much faster than CO2. And its warming potential is greater than CO2. So, if the methane is gone out, then we cool the planet quicker. And the methane dissipates out of the atmosphere in 9 to 15 years, but the CO2 lingers for an estimated range of 40 to 200 years. So, because methane goes out faster and heats up the climate more, so if it goes out, then the Earth cools more and quicker compared to CO2 effect. So some the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists say that eliminating livestock farming would be the fastest way to bring down methane and cool the planet, First, thus buying critical time in the fight against global warming, as they said. So, in the interview with the Supreme Master TV, Dr. Kirk Smith stated that the CO2 emissions could still be heating the planet a thousand years after they are emitted. Can you imagine? So, if we want to see the cooling of our planet in the next one or two decades, it’s more effective to reduce methane first. And because the greatest source of methane on the planet is from livestock, so to be a vegan is the fastest way to reduce methane, thus bring cooling to the planet, successfully and fast. Louise (f): We’re also going to talk, Supreme Master, about how cancer can be caused by meat. Leading researcher Dr. Ajit Varki, M.D., at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, again, in the United States, has shown that the consumption of meat and milk products could contribute to the increased risk of cancerous tumours. Having said this, there are many that feel unclear regarding how much animal protein or calcium from milk they need for a proper balanced diet. So these foods, most people think of as being necessary to keep us healthy, are actually foods that are making us ill! Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes ma’am. Sadly, meat and milk are supposed to be good for us, but they’re not. Their consumption is responsible for so many fatalities. Here are some examples: like heart disease, over 17 million lives lost globally each year; cause of cardiovascular disease, at least US$1 trillion US dollars each year. And cancer, one million new colon cancer patients each year at least, and more than 600,000 colon cancer related deaths each year. It costs the United States US$6.5 billion each year. Millions are newly diagnosed with other meat-related cancers every year. And diabetes, 246 million people affected worldwide each year, with an estimated US$174 billion in treatment annually. Harvard University found that young women who eat meat regularly increase the risk of breast cancer; the more red meat consumption, the greater the risk. We will give you a website for more information so you can read to your listeners. Louise (f): That’s wonderful, thank you very much. Just to mention also, Supreme Master, that about six months ago, I had a health check. And in the last three months, I’ve been totally vegetarian, and actually had a health check today. I didn’t have it planned, but it’s just the way it worked out. And let’s just say, my doctor was a little bit baffled at my recovery rate – a lot of mine has to do with internal organs – quite shocked and asked me what was I taking, and it wasn’t what I was taking, as what I took out of my diet that made a huge difference. Supreme Master Ching Hai : Oh, I am proud of you! Louise (f): Thank you. Supreme Master Ching Hai : Congratulations! Louise (f): Thank you! If we talk a little about eating locally versus eating vegan products to reduce emissions, Ireland’s food minister, Trevor Sargent, has called upon hoppers to buy locally grown produce to reduce emissions and support our local communities, while other groups have also pointed out that the meat, including fish, eggs and dairy products are also locally grown produce. Supreme Master, how effective is it to eat a vegan or vegetarian diet relative to locally grown and raised produce and animal products to lower emissions? Supreme Master Ching Hai : According to some reference I have at hand, a study by Carnegie Mellon University, in USA, only 11% of emissions come from transportation. And animal products stand for 58% of the emissions in the American diet. So by being going vegan, even one day a week, the emissions saved would be more than eating locally all year long. Of course, we have some more websites for you to give to your listeners. Because I’m afraid we don’t have enough time so I don’t read all that. Louise (f): We’ll have to have you back on Supreme Master. Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. Louise (f): Do you think though, Supreme Master, that would most of our children have been vegetarians if we hadn’t encouraged them to eat meat? Supreme Master Ching Hai : Of course! Have you seen many kids who keep spitting out their food while you’re feeding them? Or when the mother is feeding them, they keep spitting it out? Definitely if we had not encouraged them to have meat, then they would have never gone on to that diet. It is all a question of habit. Right from the beginning of the fetus’ life the baby has already tried to help the mother to kick out all the toxic elements from her body, hence the morning sickness, etc. Even when the mother-to-be just happens to smell the odor of fish, according to many mothers, the odor of fish she normally had no reaction before. Before the pregnancy, she would have no problem smelling it or eating it. But when she is pregnant, she begins to vomit, Supreme Master Ching Hai : just to smell the fish. So And you witness the infants tries to spit out meaty stuff that is forced onto them. But then later they became habitually fed and forced to be accustomed to meat diet until adulthood. Because everybody told Mother that “meat is good, fish is good for the child.” So, for the love of the child, she still feeds them the meat diet. It’s a pity because for most of us, we have been forced into this unhealthy, unloving diet this way. All the children have been forced into this. So we have to change all this because we know now it’s no good. Louise (f): I don’t have children, Supreme Master, but I have dogs and I have cats. And I think I spoke to you the last time about some of the dangers in the food, especially in animal products or animal pet food. Do you think that we could say the same for our pets as what you just mentioned for our children, that they don’t automatically need meat to grow or to survive? Supreme Master Ching Hai : Of course, your pets don’t need meat to survive. Because even my pets, they are all vegetarian. So actually, a vegetarian diet is good not just for humans, but for all the animals. Louise (f): I’m going to move on to vegetarianism. Recently, Supreme Master Television interviewed veterinarian and scientist, Andrew Knight. Andrew stated that, “Most of the diseases that our beloved pets, including cats and dogs, get come from the animal-based foods they are being fed. And that a vegan diet is the best diet to keep your pets ealthy.” He also stated that one survey found that 40% of human grade fish had bacterial counts of more than 500 million per grams, which was the definition of spoiled. And another 30% had bacterial counts in excess of 10 million per grams, which is the definition of rotten. This was human grade fish. The fish that goes into the commercial cat and dog food is obviously of a much worse quality. Master Ching Hai, I know you feed your pets a vegan diet that we just mentioned, but you would state that they’re healthy? Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. Definitely! They’re very, very healthy. You can view them on the DVD called “The Dogs and Birds in My Life” to prove it. They’ve been for years now on a vegan diet. This DVD is a spontaneous recording of my pets. My assistants, they did record them spontaneously. Or you can see them in my books, “The Dogs in My Life” and “The Birds in My Life,” they are all vegan. And sometimes during my cooking show on Sunday, you can see them also running around and they are in their old age even, but you see them, they are very strong and healthy like a puppy. You also feed your dogs vegetarian diet, right? You know how it works. Louise (f): I do now, Supreme Master, because I spoke to you before about my first dog who was my best friend. And unfortunately, she got cancer. That’s when I started doing my own research about meat and about the food and the quantity quality of food that I was giving her. I thought I was giving her the best, but it turned out I wasn’t. And the tumors that were growing, they were growing really, really aggressively. So through research, I started to realize it was linked to her foods. So, I drastically changed her diet. I made it completely vegan, but I also treated her with various different herbs and other homegrown stuff and she went on to live a year longer than we were told that she was going to because we were able to sort of reduce the tumors, rather than increase them, with her food. It wasn’t just even reducing the tumor, but her quality of life, she made a dramatic recovery in some ways because she had terrible joint pain prior to this, leg pain, joint pains, and I saw a massive difference in that. So obviously, I don’t want to do the same to my next pet. So they’re all vegan. Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes. It’s good. If your listeners would like more information to put their loving pets on a safe and healthy vegan diet, you can log on onto Andrew Knight’s website, like www.vegepets.info. And you can also download Andrew’s show from Supreme Master Television’s website, SupremeMasterTV.com. And there are many other websites concerning vegetarian diet, vegan diet for pets. We are very safe if we give them vegan diet. Your pets will be healthy, strong and problem-free. Of course, they won’t live forever, no one does, but at least as long as they live, they are pain-free, healthy, vigorous, happy, lively. I can tell you that from my own experience because all my pets are vegan. Louise (f): Wonderful. And we’re going to load up links to those websites to our own because I think that’s incredibly interesting and important. Supreme Master, we move on to environmental refugees. A recent report by the aid agency, Tearfund, estimated there are currently 25 million environmental refugees, which is more than the 22 million officially recognized political and economic refugees. And according to Dr. Janos Bogardi, Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn (Germany), environmental deterioration currently displaces up to 10 million people per year. And there are expected to be 50 million environmental refugees by 2010. However, international conventions do not recognize environmental refugees, as such they do not have the same rights to financial and material support. What can we do to help the environmental refugees? Supreme Master Ching Hai : What can we do? They are
refugees, definitely. Because if we don’t have global warming, then no one would
be a climate refugee, would they? So, no one would like to be a refugee, in
this case. So now, first we can help them to get back on their feet, the one who
has means and power. We must consider the refugees’ status, legally, because
they are refugees by all means. Louise (f): Wonderful. Supreme Master Ching Hai : It’s very
sad. It’s very sad, Madame, very sad! We have to change. We have to change this
lifestyle of our world; we have to change, otherwise we’re not human beings, we
have to have compassion for others Louise (f): Thank you again. Over to you, Sandman. Sandman (m): Yes, Supreme Master, and thank you for that. I just have a couple of questions here and we’re talking about the planet and we’re talking about the future and we’re talking about the serious conditions our world is in on so many levels. It seems that the vegan diet can solve most of the world’s eco and health issues for both humans and our fellow beings, but the Union of Concerned Scientists, some 1,700 of the world’s leading scientists, including the majority of the Nobel Laureates in Science, gave the following warning as far back as 1992. And I know we spoke about this before but I’ll read it out again. These are world- renowned scientists and my question is really, why don’t we listen to these people? This is what they say and this is in 1992: “We, the undersigned, senior members of the world scientific community hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided, and our global home on this planet is not to be irrevocably irretrievably mutilated.” Scientists issued this warning, with hope that their message reaches and affects many, many people. Master Ching Hai, what advice can you give to our listeners and to the world? Supreme Master Ching Hai : Yes, follow the scientists and heed their warning. Why there are so many great thinkers and scientists, even Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Edison and George Bernard Shaw, they are vegetarians because they are smart, yes? And so we have to heed the present scientists’ warning now. And I plead with all the world people, please heed their advice! Choose the life- and Earth-saving vegan diet. Do good deeds and help those in need. Protect animals and the environment. And pray that all will heed the scientists’ wise counsel and turn to benevolent life courses which will in turn offer a benevolent life on Earth. Thank you. Sandman (m): Thank you. Louise (f): Supreme Master, we just really want to say thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your passion. We received the award for Shining World Compassion and we’re both very, very humbled and very, very honored to receive this. So thank you. Sandman (m): Yes. We thank you greatly. Supreme Master Ching Hai : You deserve it. You deserve more than that. I wish you the best in your endeavors and your health. I wish Ireland all the best, prosperity, peace and happiness to your people. Louise (f): And to you. We hope to talk to you again soon, Supreme Master. Supreme Master Ching Hai : So long for now. God bless you. Louise (f): Thank you so much. Sandman (m): God bless. Supreme Master Ching Hai : God bless you. God bless you for your noble work. God bless you. Louise Kings (f): I just want to say a very, very big thank you to Grand Supreme Master Ching Hai for talking to us. And it’s always a fascinating conversation that we have with her, but it’s never long enough. And tonight, even though she was live from another country, we were actually able to see her, which was truly, truly amazing. But one of the things that we didn’t get to say, that I wanted to finish off, which was actually a bit of good news that we wanted to say to Master Ching Hai if she was still listening, is that the Irish Minister for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent, sent a letter to all farmers in Ireland encouraging them to go organic, and informing them of the benefits of going organic. He let the farmers know of the different organic colleges available and of the EU (European Union) and Irish government grants open to farmers. So hopefully that will move on to very, very positive things. |
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