Greetings special viewers and welcome to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. As the start of a new decade quickly approaches and the opportunity for a brighter future beckons, our program today marks this auspicious time of year with an inspiring and remarkable story about humanity, caring, and the capacity to change. The story is based on the real life experiences of Mr. John Robbins of the USA.

John Robbins is a true vegan hero who turned down inheriting his family’s enormously profitable ice cream company Baskin-Robbins because he did not wish to promote factory farming or the consumption of animal products.

After graduating from the renowned University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Robbins attended Antioch College where he earned a Master’s Degree. Thereafter, he became one of the pioneering authors to discuss the link between our diet and animal welfare, environment and human health.

His popular books include: Diet for a New America; The Awakened Heart: Meditations on Finding Harmony in a Changing World; The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World; and Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples.

Mr. Robbins also founded EarthSave International, a US-based non-profit organization that is dedicated to informing the public about the benefits of healthy and life-sustaining vegan food choices.

For his significant work for the animals and planet, Mr. Robbins has been recognized with numerous awards. He was also the esteemed recipient of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s Shining World Leadership Award. In his best-selling book, “The Food Revolution,” he gives a touching account of his time spent with a pig farmer and his family in a chapter entitled “The Pig Farmer.”

Mr. Robbins met the farmer while doing undercover investigative research about the cruelties of meat production in Iowa, USA. Unexpectedly, he was invited to stay for dinner with the family. In this final installment of our three part series, we bring you a reading of the conclusion of “The Pig Farmer.”

Yesterday in Part 2 of our program we learned that the farmer opened himself up to Mr. Robbins and confessed he was suffering tremendously because he recognized it was wrong to abuse and kill pigs. In fact as a young boy he had a pet pig whom he loved dearly. The farmer felt trapped as he knew of no other profession and needed to earn money to care for his family. We now continue with the story.

His rigidity was not a result of a lack of feeling, as I had thought it was, but quite the opposite: it was a sign of how sensitive he was underneath. For if he had not been so sensitive, he would not have been that hurt, and he would not have needed to put up so massive a wall. The tension in his body that was so apparent to me upon first meeting him, the body armor that he carried, bespoke how hurt he had been, and how much capacity for feeling he carried still, beneath it all.

I had judged him, and done so, to be honest, mercilessly. But for the rest of the evening I sat with him, humbled, and grateful for whatever it was in him that had been strong enough to force this long-buried and deeply painful memory to the surface. And glad, too, that I had not stayed stuck in my judgments of him, for if I had, I would not have provided an environment in which his remembering could have occurred.

We talked that night, for hours, about many things. I was, after all that had happened, concerned for him. The gap between his feelings and his lifestyle seemed so tragically vast. What could he do? This was all he knew. He did not have a high school diploma. He was only partially literate. Who would hire him if he tried to do something else? Who would invest in him and train him, at his age?

When finally, I left that evening, these questions were very much on my mind, and I had no answers to them. Somewhat flippantly, I tried to joke about it. “Maybe,” I said, “you’ll grow broccoli or something.” He stared at me, clearly not comprehending what I might be talking about. It occurred to me, briefly, that he might possibly not know what broccoli was.

We parted that night as friends, and though we rarely see each other now, we have remained friends as the years have passed. I carry him in my heart and think of him, in fact, as a hero. Because, as you will soon see, impressed as I was by the courage it had taken for him to allow such painful memories to come to the surface, I had not yet seen the extent of his bravery.

When I wrote Diet for a New America, I quoted him and summarized what he had told me, but I was quite brief and did not mention his name. I thought that, living as he did among other pig farmers in Iowa, it would not be to his benefit to be associated with me. When the book came out, I sent him a copy, saying I hoped he was comfortable with how I wrote of the evening we had shared, and directing him to the pages on which my discussion of our time together was to be found.

After these messages, we will have more from “The Pig Farmer,” a chapter from John Robbins’s best-selling book, “The Food Revolution.” Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. We now continue with our reading of a chapter from John Robbins’s best-selling book, “The Food Revolution.” entitled The Pig Farmer.

Several weeks later, I received a letter from him. “Dear Mr. Robbins,” it began. “Thank you for the book. When I saw it, I got a migraine headache.” Now as an author, you do want to have an impact on your readers. This, however, was not what I had had in mind. He went on, though, to explain that the headaches had gotten so bad that, as he put it, “the wife” had suggested to him he should perhaps read the book. She thought there might be some kind of connection between the headaches and the book.

He told me that this hadn’t made much sense to him, but he had done it because “the wife” was often right about these things. “You write good,” he told me, and I can tell you that his three words of his meant more to me than when the New York Times praised the book profusely. He then went on to say that reading the book was very hard for him, because the light it shone on what he was doing made it clear to him that it was wrong to continue.

The headaches, meanwhile, had been getting worse, until, he told me, that very morning, when he had finished the book, having stayed up all night reading, he went into the bathroom, and looked into the mirror. “I decided, right then,” he said, “that I would sell my herd and get out of this business. I don’t know what I will do, though. Maybe I will, like you said, grow broccoli.”

As it happened, he did sell his operation in Iowa and move back to Missouri, where he bought a small farm. And there he is today, running something of a model farm. He grows vegetables organically - including, I am sure, broccoli – that he sells at a local farmer’s market. He’s got pigs, all right, but only about 10, and he doesn’t cage them, nor does he kill them. Instead, he’s got a contract with local schools; they bring kids out in buses on field trips to his farm, for his “Pet-a-pig” program.

He shows them how intelligent pigs are and how friendly they can be if you treat them right, which he now does. He’s arranged it so the kids, each one of them, gets a chance to give a pig a belly rub. He’s become nearly a vegetarian himself, has lost most of his excess weight, and his health has improved substantially. And, thank goodness, he’s actually doing better financially than he was before.

Do you see why I carry this man with me in my heart? Do you see why he is such a hero to me? He dared to leap, to risk everything, to leave what was killing his spirit even though he didn’t know what was next. He left behind a way of life that he knew was wrong, and he found one that he knows is right. When I look at many of the things happening in our world, I sometimes fear we won’t make it.

But when I remember this man and the power of his spirit, and when I remember that there are many others whose hearts beat to the same quickening pulse, I think we will. I can get tricked into thinking there aren’t enough of us to turn the tide, but then I remember how wrong I was about the pig farmer when I first met him, and I realize that there are heroes afoot everywhere. Only I can’t recognize them because I think they are supposed to look or act a certain way. How blinded I can be by my own beliefs.

The man is one of my heroes because he reminds me that we can depart from the cages we build for ourselves and for each other, and become something much better. He is one of my heroes because he reminds me of what I hope someday to become. When I first met him, I would not have thought it possible that I would ever say the things I am saying here. But this only goes to show how amazing life can be, and how you never really know what to expect.

The pig farmer has become, for me, a reminder never to underestimate the power of the human heart. I consider myself privileged to have spent that day with him, and grateful that I was allowed to be a catalyst for the unfolding of his spirit. I know my presence served him in some way, but I also know, and know full well, that I received far more than I gave.

To me, this is grace – to have the veils lifted from our eyes so that we can recognize and serve the goodness in each other. Others may wish for great riches or for ecstatic journeys to mystical planes, but to me, this is the magic of human life.

We deeply thank John Robbins for writing “The Food Revolution” and for sharing the story of the pig farmer with all of us. Mr. Robbins’s books and the initiatives of his organization EarthSave International have brought true blessings upon our world as they have convinced many people to follow the loving and healthy vegan diet thus helping to save countless lives of our animals friends.

We wish him the very best in his continued benevolent mission to uplift our world by spreading the message of veganism. Our sincere appreciation also goes to the pig farmer who courageously made the noble switch to organic vegetable farming and regained his freedom of conscience and compassionate nature. May his dignified and heroic action serve as a shining example for all.

For more information on John Robbins, please visit Books by John Robbins are available at the same website.

Our appreciation wonderful viewers for joining us on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Next is Enlightening Entertainment, following Noteworthy News. May our planet soon be one where only fruits and vegetables are raised on farms, all animals lives are respected and cherished, and we hold hands in peace.