Photo: vegetarianfestival.jp.

There are loads of meat-this/meat-that festivals, but in honor of World Vegetarian Day, Slashfood would like to highlight international veggie gatherings.

Day Without Meat, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 3-4: To raise awareness for the benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet, the Brazilian Vegetarian Society in partnership with Greenpeace, Instituto Nina Rosa and others will provide information on vegetarianism, screen films, hold workshops and offer food and wine tastings.

Greenpeace is targeting European McDonald's as a catalyst for the destruction of the rain forest half a world away.  According to a report entitled "Eating up the Amazon," the eco-watchdog organization says that the soybeans that European fast food restaurants use to feed their chickens are grown in illegally deforested areas of the rain forest.

In Brazil, soybean farming has become so profitable that ranchers are selling off their now-valuable pasture land to farmers. The reason that this is illegal, says the group, is that there are regulations in Brazil that require landowners to keep 80 percent of their land forested. Once the ranchers have sold their cleared pasture land, they simply clear new land. Selling of chunks of their property means that they are keeping themselves under the 80 percent margin set by the government, but it does mean that the rain forest is getting smaller. There is also talk of ranchers and farmers using near-slave labor to harvest and tend the crops and an insinuation that the fast food companies might be simply turning away from the problem, if not outright promoting it.

Greenpeace has issued a warning regarding chocolate Easter eggs. According to the environmental group, some confectioners use genetically engineered ingredients and/or dairy from animals raised on genetically engineered feedstock. The group is rightfully  concerned about potential health risks.

One of the makers it has called to task is Cadbury. Among the Easter egg makers it considers friendly are Darrell Lea and Ferrero Rocher. While I'm skeptical of any so-called Frankenfoods, I'm rather conflicted now that I've seen the Cadbury Easter Egg Delight. It's the Russian nesting doll of candy  – an outer egg encases an inner one, which is in turn filled with individual chocolates. I think I'll take my chances!

[image:Cadbury]

Japan, Norway and Iceland continue whaling in defiance of world opinion and the international whaling moratorium. But pressure from campaigners has forced five big food companies to halt their support of Japans whaling industry.

The five firms, led by the Japanese seafood giant Nissui and its wholly-owned US frozen foods subsidiary Gortons, (one of America's largest frozen seafood companies) said they would halt their financial involvement in Kyodo Senpaku. This company is operates seven of the eight whaling ships based in Japan. This action culminates months of campaigning action by environmental 'cyber-activists' and Greenpeace, who sent thousands of e-mails to the firms demanding they end their support for the industry. The other food companies include the New Zealand food processing firm Sealord and Canada's Bluewater Seafoods.

 

China has officially given all 43 varieties of Heinz baby food products the clear from GM influence.

Greenpeace had claimed that Heinz baby cereal products designed, I think, specifically for the Chinese market, contained genetically modified ingredients. Heinz denied the claim but the Ministry of Agriculture in China decided to put the products through a series of tests to find out.

The official Xinhua News Agency has reported that the products and their raw ingredients were not made from genetically modified crops. Such foods are not yet approved for consumption in China as they continue researching the effect of modifications on agriculture in general.