Today’s Vegetarian Elite will be presented in Swedish and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, and Spanish.

Sweden is known as an open-minded, peaceful country that has been home to many great people like animal lover Astrid Lindgren, the famed author of “Pippi Longstocking.” Politics are also exercised in a fair and progressive manner, and former Member of the European Parliament and vegetarian, Jens Holm, is an esteemed example thereof. It was northern Sweden where he grew up and became immersed in the beauty of nature. This affection and appreciation for life and the Creation would serve as a base for his devoted campaigns as a politician.

If we don’t solve the problem with global warming and the emissions, we won’t have a planet to live on. So it is a matter of survival.

As a socially involved and righteous youngster, he became more and more concerned with the fairness of this world. This set him to study sociology in 1996. His previous work experiences include investigative journalism for the Swedish Animal Rights Society, and working as a Press Officer for the Social Welfare Department. In the early 90s he also became a member of the Swedish Left Party.

Mr. Holm did not idle with his time. By the time he reached 30, Mr. Holm had already written two books, entitled: “For Our Rights and Dignity – Young People on Daily Life in Colombia and Sweden” and “Food, Environment, Justice – The Effects of Meat Consumption on the Environment and the Global Food Supply.” He also directed a documentary film: “Monkeys for Sale,” that details the cruel reality of importing monkeys for animal experiments.

It is not surprising that by age of 33 Mr. Holm was chosen by the Swedish people to join the European Union in the Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left party. The left party is known to bring innovative concepts to life. Before his stint in politics, Mr. Holm had made a commitment when he was 23 to stop eating meat as a rational way to solve world starvation and for the environment. With further work in the European Union, he found out more about horrific fate of animals in the meat industry and elsewhere.

Mr. Holm would proudly tell you that his biggest achievement in the European Parliament was to put the meat-climate issue on the agenda. This was the first time it had been done. In addition to environment degradation, it also addresses livestock raising on world hunger, water scarcity, and much more.

To produce 1 kilogram of beef, you need 15,000 liters of fresh water, just take that as one example. And fresh water, that’s a scarcity in the world. So, if we would reduce the meat production then we could have a lot of surplus fresh water which could be used for other purposes.

And also, livestock production is a big emitter of greenhouse gases. About 18% of the world’s total emissions of greenhouse gases come from the livestock production. So by reducing or ending completely meat consumption, you’re not only solving the problem with food scarcity, you’re also giving a very good and strong solution to climate change, and of course also to animal rights.

On the 4th of March 2009, Mr. Jens Holm organized a meeting in the European Parliament to officially launch his new website

The website serves as a distribution point for the report “The livestock industry and climate – EU makes bad worse,” co-authored by Mr. Holm and Toivo Jokkala, a writer and PhD candidate in criminology. This report reveals the hard-to-stomach truth about the livestock industry and climate change, as well as its other social injustices. Volunteers from several countries made it possible to read this report in nine different languages.

Present at the official launch gathering to give his full support was Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, the Vice President of the European Union. In fact, Mr. McMillan-Scott himself had just introduced his own Green Card for vegetarianism, currently quite popular in the United Kingdom.

They both believe the role of the European Union is crucial in building a sustainable and bright future of the planet.

The key recommendation is that the European Union should reduce our emissions with up to 40% to 2020, compared to the levels of 1990. And that the emissions of greenhouse gases should be reduced with, about 80% at least to 2050. We are ambitious and we are going to solve this problem. Only by doing so, we can be credible and we can convince other countries like India and China and Brazil that they also have to deal with this problem.

During the Copenhagen climate discussions in December of 2009, Mr. Holm revealed more of his ambitious goals. He urged the European Union to take away all the subsidies for meat production. These incentives will then be filtered towards healthier choices, like advocating a plant-based diet. It is unacceptable and impractical that billions of European euros are used for purposes completely in contrary with the sustainability and balance of our planet.

The money that you gain from this meat tax, that money you can use to subsidize vegetarian food. Today, there are European subsidies going directly to advertisement campaigns for meat consumption. It should be the other way around! You should have awareness campaigns for vegetarian consumption because that is the solution. And who knows, one day in the future perhaps we live in a world where people are not eating the animals. And I would be the happiest person on Earth.

Mr. Holm also takes a clear stand on the large scale production of bio-fuels which are becoming more popular in demand nowadays. He proposes that bio-fuels could be used alongside fossil fuels for the time being, but better solutions must be found as our transportation should not be in competition with our food supply.

If we drive cars well then we would need to find different types of cars, electric cars for instance. And cars that are powered by hydrogen could also be a solution. But the large scale production of bio-fuels could put security into danger and it’s also quite dependent on pesticides and chemicals and that cannot be acceptable.

We’ll be back with you on Vegetarian Elite in just a moment. You are watching Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Vegetarian Elite on Supreme Master Television. In today’s show, we cast a view on the work of Jens Holm, former European Parliament Member. He is a heroic politician who is setting elevated standards for a bright new world. Mr. Holm noticed that the driving force behind the major shifts in the public awareness on the impact of meat production on our planet and health has come from a somewhat unexpected corner.

I wouldn’t say that that awareness firstly and foremost is coming from the governments, it’s rather coming from a grassroots level; grass root organizations, individuals that to take a stand and so on and so forth. But when that awareness is growing, I’m sure that finally that awareness will also hit on the governments and on their political establishment.

And I can see that here in European Parliament. We have actually been debating the meat consumption and how sustainable and unsustainable the meat consumption is. And two years ago when I started here in European Parliament, this was a non-issue. the meat consumption. Today it is an issue.

Mr. Holm has stayed in close contact with several of these grass root organizations throughout the duration of his political career. This has given him the chance to feel and listen as a politician to all their expressions of concern.

On October 1, 2009 a petition called “Food versus Feed” was delivered at the doorstep of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations. This petition was born from a close collaboration between Mr. Holm, the Swiss Union for Vegetarianism, and the European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA). It was an appeal to the United Nations to channel food sources to needy people and not to farm animals.

There are thousands and thousands of people signing such a petition and showing their deepest concern in this issue and asking the United Nations to address the meat consumption as a political problem because it is a political problem. So, petitions, demonstrations, articles and newspapers, these TV shows, there are so many things that can be done on the grass root level.

The recent press coverage of the summit in Copenhagen by Supreme Master Television, once again it demonstrates how much the political arena has been made aware of the pivotal link between meat production and consumption on climate change.

Industrial agriculture is the biggest culprit.

To grow animals and then to be eaten by human beings consumes a lot of resources. It is almost like 10 times or even sometimes more.

Governments of the world should take away all the subsidies that today goes to the meat industry.

I think also we should have a meat tax. So we should put a special price on meat. I understand this can be controversial, and some people today feel that they barely can get enough money to buy the food they need today. But if we impose a meat tax, the money we get from that tax should of course be used to reduce the price of green products, such as fruit and vegetables. So people in the future will be able to eat more fruit and vegetables.

While agriculture has always been conceived as part of the emissions problem, it is a significant part of the solution to climate change.

Although being a Member of the European Parliament was by far the most exciting work Mr. Holm has done in his life, he did not run for re-election in June of 2009. Some other exciting happenings had asked his attention: he has become a new father and wanted to stay close to his family in Sweden. This little one surely has been blessed with a loving, considerate, and visionary of a father.

My hope for the children of the future is that they can live in a world which is in accordance to nature. And that means a world where we have solved the poverty problem. And that we live in a world which is also in accordance with the animals so that we don’t breed animals, that we don’t transport animals, that of course we don’t kill the animals. That animals can live, more or less free. And that we live together and not against nature. And that is my goal. I hope that we, step by step, can come closer to it.

Thank you, beautiful viewers, it was a pleasure to have you join us today on Vegetarian Elite featuring former Member of the European Parliament, Jens Holm. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Between Master and Disciples. May joy and kindness travel with you always.

My name is Jens Holm.
Be Veg,
Go Green,
and Save the Planet!

Find out more about Jens Holm, heroic politician, at: JensHolm.se/category/english
To see the report co-issued by Jens Holm and Toivo Jokkala on the livestock industry’s effects on the environment, please visit: MeatClimate.org

Today is a great day. Supreme Master Ching Hai is being honored for the good she has done for the whole world.

On the 16th Anniversary of The Supreme Master Ching Hai Day, we respectfully commemorate Supreme Master Ching Hai’s extraordinary on-going accomplishments to assist all beings.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, congratulations for all the works you are doing.

You’re reaching out to millions of people.

She sends tremendous love all around the globe. All these shows, all this sharing…

Let’s strive to follow her splendid example.

The work that Supreme Master is doing, nobody has done until now.

It’s an absolutely vital job and she is the only one doing it on her level on the planet today.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, I know you have done a lot for the Earth. I am truly grateful to you.

I am happy and honored to wish a very happy and powerful anniversary to Supreme Master Ching Hai.

Happy Supreme Master Ching Hai Day.

Please join us on Monday, February 22 on Supreme Master Television’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms.

Our efforts together will surely bring a safe and saved world for both humans and our beloved animal co-inhabitants.