As a vegan who enjoys eating out, I spend a lot of my spare time tasting the newest offerings at London’s finest veggie friendly establishments.  While I love experimenting with new dishes at restaurants, I quite often get the sense that vegetarians and other ethical diners feel they are getting a little bit ripped off when eating out.  As an economist, I spend a lot of time thinking about markets and how prices are determined.  Inspired by Tyler Cowen’s recent book ‘An Economist Gets Lunch’, I thought I’d put my economic analysis skills to good use and attempt to better understand why, vegetarians get ripped off when eating out, or at least feel like they might be getting ripped off.

My personal experience tells me that vegetarian options at restaurants generally tend to be a little bit cheaper than the non-vegetarian dishes, but the difference in price is often smaller than one might expect given the difference in cost of the respective ingredients. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to trawl through 1000s of menus to look at how restaurants price their foods to confirm whether there is a strong evidence base.  But I thought I’d highlight the fact that at Pizza Hut, the price of a large vegetarian supreme (which has mushrooms, mixed peppers, onions and tomatoes as toppings) is the same price as a large supreme pizza (which has all the ingredients of the veggie supreme plus pepperoni and beef).  The price of additional toppings on a large pizza is fixed, regardless of whether you are adding onions and sweetcorn (which I imagine are very cheap) or chicken and beef (which I’m sure a lot more expensive and more filling).  At Pizza Express, the Giardinera, which I’ve found to be the most popular pizza among veggies that I know, is the most expensive option of all the classic  pizzas.  

My analysis of the supply, demand and pricing of vegetarian food at restaurants suggests that vegetarians probably do end up paying a more, and not just because the price of vegetarian dishes at restaurants doesn't always reflect the cost of ingredients.

Why prices of vegetarian dishes in a-la carte menus may be higher than what would be expected given the cost of ingredients

1) Restaurants can get away with charging higher prices for vegetarian dishes because demand is inelastic

From the demand side, I think the demand for vegetarian food is relatively inelastic.  That is to say, that vegetarian customers are less likely to be price sensitive than the average customer, and so a restaurant might be able to get away with charging them more.   

Why might this be so?   

One reason is that vegetarians are more fussy about what they eat, in the sense that they won’t eat meat.  By setting price differentials high enough, a restaurant could probably incentivise many omnivores to order a vegetarian dish.  But even if the price of a vegetarian dish was triple that of a non-vegetarian dish, you couldn’t persuade most vegetarians to order meat (that said, they might leave a restaurant in outrage if you charge them triple).   

A second reason is that vegetarians generally have less power to discrminate.  When a group of friends get together to go out and eat, the chances are that there will be only one or two vegetarians in the group.  If the decision about where to eat is based what the majority want, the chances are that it will be picked because it caters well for omnivores, not because it caters well for vegetarians.  Vegetarians often cause enough trouble to their friends at get togethers with their special dietary requirements, and if they kick up a fuss about the poor choice at a restaurant or the price, it is likely that they will delay everyone elses meal and just cause themselves embarrassment.  So even if they feel like they are getting ripped off, vegetarians quite often may be prepared to take the hit.

2) Chefs may perceive vegetaran dishes to be more costly than they actually are

With exception to a special few, I imagine that most chefs at restaurants specialise in meat dishes, not vegetarian ones.  And if remarks by celebrity chefs are anything to go by, many of them may even dislike vegetarians and the need to create imaginative vegetarian dishes.  If this is the case, chefs may wrongly perceive vegetarian dishes to be more costly than they actually are (because they see them as hassle), and end up charging more for them as a result. 

3) Labour costs also need to be factored in account

I’ve heard that the main cost to the restaurant isn’t actually the cost of the ingredients, but the labour cost of preparing the food and serving the food.  I also think it is reasonable to assume that the cost of preparation would be similar for both vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes.  Suppose the labour cost of producing meal is £4, the cost of ingredients for a veggie dish is £2 and the ingredients for a meat dish £3.   Knowing that the ingredients in the meat dish are 50% more expensive, a vegetarian may feel ripped off if the final difference in price is only 15%.  But once labour costs and overheads are taken into account the cost of making the meat dish is only 17% more than the veggie dish (£7 vs £6).

4) Some vegetarian ingredients may actually be quite expensive

Although vegetarian dishes based on grains and lentils are likely to be very cheap.  Any dishes which are based around fresh vegetables may actually be quite expensive.  Peppers for example, cost about 80p a piece in supermarkets (though I acknowledge restaurants probably get them cheaper than this).  While these seems cheap, it actually works out to about £8 a kg. And on a calorie for calorie basis, peppers and some other fresh vegetables actually work out slightly more expensive than premium steak which costs £20 a kg and quite a bit more expensive than economy frozen chicken. So if a restaurant uses lots of fresh Mediterranean vegetables and wild mushrooms (as opposed to carrots and onions) in some of its vegetarian dishes, the cost of ingredients may actually be higher than the average vegetarian may think.

In addition, while meat can be frozen, many vegetables are highly perishable and deteriorate in taste/qualtity in the freezing process - so vegetables may introduce costly supply chain management issues for a restaurant.

Why vegetarians often feel like they are paying more, even if vegetarian dishes in a-la-carte menus are cheaper than non vegetarian dishes.

1) Veggies lose out when splitting the bill with non-vegetarians

Vegetarian dishes tend to be a little bit cheaper than non-vegetarian dishes, and while non vegetarians are often keen to try the vegetarian dishes, the vegetarians can't do the same back. If a group of friends decide to split the bill equally, vegetarians will often end up paying more than what they should given the price of the dishes that they ordered.

2) Veggies lose out on fixed price set menus

Many restaurants require large groups to have fixed price set menu, where the price is the same regardless of how expensive the dishes are to make or whether they are vegetarian or not.  

3) Vegetarians often miss out on "daily specials"

Many restaurants do a "dish of the day" or a "daily special" which is made in large quantities and offered at a discount to a-la-carte price.  These rarely tend to be vegetarian dishes, so vegetarians quite often miss out on special offers.

4)  Vegetarians with special requirements lose out when modifying dishes

Vegetarians with specific requirements (such as those who don't eat eggs or don't eat dairy products) often end up losing out when asking restaurants to modify dishes.  Restaurants are often more than happy to remove ingredients (such as cheese), but very rarely replace the removed ingredients or offer a discount.

..,but maybe vegetarians don't always get ripped off.... cultural differences may offer an explanation...

Everything said and done, I tend to find I feel like I’m not getting ripped off when eating at asian food restaurants.  Many of these restaurants have a basic price for a dish (a green thai curry for example) and tend to charge a different price on depending on what type of meat the customer wants, if any.  Tofu, as a meat substitute, is typically the cheapest option, and beef is typically the most expensive, with chicken falling somewhere in between.  Given that many of these dishes are identical apart from the meat used, I find that the difference in price often quite strongly correlates with the difference in costs of the ingredients.  If anything, vegetarians might actually get a slightly better deal in these restaurants.  Tofu is actually quite expensive to buy in supermarkets and health food shops (the price per kg is often comparable to meat), but works out quite cheap at Asian restaurants.

I suspect that this difference might be explained by how the markets for vegetarian foods in restaurants evolved in the East and the West.  In the East, I imagine that incomes were were low for most people, and the ability to eat meat was a premium luxury that people could only afford once in a while, not every day.  For that reason, most dishes would have been designed with a low-cost vegetable base, and those who could afford to pay for meat would be able to get meat added in at a premium.  In the West, where restaurant food is likely to have evolved over a longer period during which people had higher incomes, I suspect it would have been the opposite. Most dishes found in Western restaurants would have been designed around the meat, with the need to introduce special vegetarian and vegan options only a relatively recent phenomenon. 

If you have any other thoughts on the pricing of vegetarian/vegan food at restaurants, or disagree with my analysis, I'd be grateful to know what you have to say.  Please e-mail me at sagar[at]jainvegans.org.

Sagar Kirit Shah, an economist from London, reflects on his experiences with eating eggs and argues why vegetarians who do not wish to kill animals should not eat eggs.

The question of whether eggs are suitable for vegetarians is one which most vegetarians living in the UK will have encountered at one point in their lives.  And from the perspective of a young person of an Indian cultural heritage, it is a very confusing one.  In India, the norm is that eggs are not vegetarian - if you see the words “pure veg” on an Indian product or at an Indian restaurant, you can generally be sure that there will be no eggs.  But in the UK, the official definition of a vegetarian, as set out by the Vegetarian Society, permits the consumption of eggs.  As a result, products containing eggs are normally labelled as vegetarian in supermarkets and restaurants in the UK, to the dismay of many Indian vegetarians.

Even though I’ve been a proud “vegetarian” for as long as I can remember, I’ve been confused about what I think about eggs for most of my life, and have switched between shamelessly enjoying them and trying to avoid them.  I think many young people from the Jain community in the West have faced a similar internal conflict.  Having carefully considered the issue, I now believe that those of us who are vegetarian because we think it is wrong to kill animals for food should not eat eggs, regardless of whether the eggs are free range and/or organic.  In this article, I share my experiences of eating eggs and explain why I adopt the position that I do.

As a young child, I loved the taste of eggs, and would eat them several times a week. My dad constantly reminds me of how my favourite meal as a child was scrambled eggs and toast. Then, at the age of eight, I read a Jain textbook by Vinod Kapashi and Ajit Shah which said Jains shouldn’t eat eggs.  I immediately decided to stop eating eggs. My mum and ba were very supportive about the decision and decided to stop bringing eggs into the house.   

A couple of years later at secondary school, I started to feel unhappy that I was missing out on birthday cakes and had a fairly restricted choice of foods when out and about (most sandwiches, for example, contained mayonnaise so I couldn’t eat them).  My desire for cakes and brownies got the better of me, and I slowly started to eat eggs when I couldn’t see them - when they were hidden away in food.  This proved to be a slippery slope.  As I got older, I gradually started to eat dishes containing eggs more often, and occasionally started eating dishes that were predominantly egg based (quiches, omelets). Then, when traveling in South America in a year out between school and university, I started to eat eggs almost every day, initially because they were a filling and easy-to-order option when “pure vegetarian” options were hard to find.  Soon I started to order them because I liked the taste, and would choose to eat them even when “pure vegetarian” dishes were readily available.

Initially, I felt uncomfortable eating them, but this soon wore off.  I tried to forget about the guilt when eating eggs, just like I did when purchasing/wearing leather.  And because I liked the taste of eggs and enjoyed eating them so much, I also tried to justify eating eggs from a moral perspective.  Eggs were generally unfertilised, so by eating them I would not be preventing a living being from being born.  And even though there was “jiv” in the egg of some form or the other, I argued to myself that the pain/suffering inflicted on eggs would be low, primarily because its nervous system would not be developed.

On our travels in South America, my vegetarian friends and I were occasionally offered the option of eating eggs from animals other than chicken - fish eggs, ostrich eggs, quail eggs, duck eggs and so on.  Whenever this happened, our immediate reaction was one of acute discomfort.  We asked ourselves whether fish eggs could ever be suitable for vegetarians.  I started thinking about how a mother ostrich would feel if a human came along and stole its eggs. 

I soon realised that my position with eggs was inconsistent.  I was somehow able to morally justify eating eggs from chickens, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat the eggs of other animals, and would even get upset by the idea of humans stealing them.  Prior to this moment, I would often highlight the hyprocrisy of "animal lovers" who would get angry whenever they hear about cruelty to dogs or the killing of wildlife in Africa, but happily eat the flesh of an abused chicken, pig or cow.  I soon realised that I wasn’t too different from them.

After visiting some farms, I also realised that many traditional breeds of chicken are actually very protective over their eggs.  I had previously known that geese would try and attack humans who attempted to go near their eggs, but didn’t realise that chickens did the same.  On a volunteering visit to Freightliners City Farm in London, I got a bit too close to a silkie chicken that was covering some eggs when trying to refill its water supply. Two of the other chickens in the enclosure kicked and slapped me with their wings in order to protect their broody companion and the eggs it was keeping warm.  I was even more amazed when I found out that the eggs the silkie hen was keeping warm weren’t even her own or those of a fellow silkie. The hen was looking after the eggs of a brahma (another breed of chicken) in another enclosure that had fallen ill. 

After a little investigation, I found out that we humans had selectively bred chickens to produce a lot of eggs and not attack us when we take their eggs from them.  But just because a bird doesn't attack us or show anger when we take their eggs from them, it doesn’t make the act of stealing the eggs any less bad.

At university I also began to find out more about how animals were treated on farms.  Particularly how chickens are often kept in battery cages no bigger than the size of an A4 piece of paper, and how cows are forcibly milked by machine and not given access to outside pasture.  I felt deeply uncomfortable about this, and started to eat/drink organic, and persuaded others to do the same, thinking it would reduce suffering. 

Then, in the summer of 2007, I did an internship in New York and attended the JAINA convention in Edison New Jersey, an inspirational convention which brought together thousands of Jains from across North America.  At the convention, I discovered that a significant number of Jains in North America followed a vegan diet. In addition to not consuming animal flesh, the vegan Jains did not consume any reproductive animal products such as milk, eggs and other dairy products.  

Impressed by their commitment and perplexed by their decision not to consume animal products at all (I had thought free range/organic milk was acceptable), I immediately questioned the vegans about the dietary path they had chosen.  After interacting with them, I discovered that welfare standards and “stealing” were not the only problems with commercial egg and milk production.  I discovered that cows and chickens were actually routinely killed in the production of milk and eggs.

Initially, I was horrified and argued that they were wrong.  But now I realise not only what they said was true, but that it also makes perfect economic sense.  The truth is that, if these cows and chickens weren’t killed, milk and eggs would be far more expensive than they currently are.

While chickens are very efficient at producing eggs in the first year of their life, the rate at which they produce eggs drops soon after.  Even though they could live for five to seven years if properly looked after, in order to maximise efficiency and reduce costs, egg-laying hens are normally sent to the slaughterhouse after a year, and replaced with a younger, more productive bird.  And while most eggs are not fertilised, in order to ensure a fresh supply of young productive hens, a small proportion are fertilised and hatched.  Half of the chicks born are male,  and are of little value to a farmer.  So they are typically killed when a day old.  This killing takes place regardless of whether the chickens live in battery cages or are “free range”, and whether the eggs or organic or not.*

Even though it is defensible to argue that the taking and eating an unfertilised egg does not result in the direct killing of a living being,  one cannot deny the commercial production process of eggs results in innocent chickens and chicks being killed long before they would naturally leave their bodies.  In the UK there are over 29 million egg laying hens, and over the course a year, apart from a lucky few who get saved from slaughter and adopted by a sanctuary or a nice family, each and everyone of these birds will be killed and replaced in order to supply the British population with cheap eggs.  Over the course of my life, I have probably eaten a couple of hundred eggs.  As a result, I believe that I am personally responsibility for the death of about 10 innocent chickens and chicks.  Even though I think I have always been good natured and well-intentioned, the death and suffering I have caused is something I have to deal with for the rest of my life.

Most vegetarians I know are vegetarians because they believe it is wrong to kill animals for food when it is perfectly possible to live a healthy life without doing so.  And if this is the reason for being vegetarian, given that chickens are killed in egg production process, I find it very difficult to see how eggs can be considered to be suitable for vegetarians, or any adherent of the timeless Jain principle of ahimsa.

*The story for milk and cows is different, but very similar.  Just like humans and all other mammals, in order for a cow to give milk, it needs to be pregnant.  This pregnancy naturally leads to birth of a calf.  While female calves can grow up to become milk giving animals like their mothers, the males are of very little use to a dairy farmer.  They consume a lot of food, but are the wrong type of cow to be reared for beef.  So they are typically killed soon after birth.  And while the female calves are spared immediate slaughter, they too get killed prematurely.  A female cow could naturally live for more than 20 years if given the chance.  But after producing milk for a couple of years, the yield of a lactating cow drops - and it makes economic sense for a dairy farmer to replace her with one of her more productive offspring.  A fully grown cow that does not produce milk is very costly for a farmer to keep, and so the farmer sends the cow to the slaughterhouse.

The latest results of the Jain Vegans survey show that, after finding out about how cows are abused and killed in the milk production process, only 13% of Jains believe that it is acceptable to consume milk.

Over the past year,  a UK based grassroots campaign group called Jain Vegans has been surveying members of the Jain community who visit their information stall at festivals and events.  The survey, which only has four questions, asks Jains whether they are aware that cows are forcibly impregnated and routinely killed in the milk production process, and whether, knowing that cows are killed, they believe it is acceptable for Jains to consume milk.

Jains Vegans has now received completed forms from over 200 respondents (predominantly from the Oshwal Mela and Navnat Mela in 2011, and the Mahavir Foundation Prathistha at Harrow Leisure Centre in 2012).  The results are startling.

After finding out how cows are killed, 80% of respondents believed it was not acceptable for Jains to consume milk.  Only 13% believed it was acceptable for Jains to consume milk, and of those who did, several noted they thought it was necessary to consume milk for reasons of survival or health. 

The survey results also show that a surprisingly high proportion (50%) of respondents are aware that cows are killed in the milk production process, though fewer (43%) were aware that cows are often forcibly impregnated through artificial insemination in order to stimulate milk production.

Unfortunately, the survey only had simple yes/no questions, and so could not reveal how sophisticated respondents’ understanding of the milk production process is (for example, whether they were aware that bull calves are typically killed after birth AND that cows are typically killed by the age of 10, despite being able to live to 20).

Neveretheless, it was positive to see that over 85% of respondents were interested in finding out more about what they could do to help stop the unnecessary killing of cows in milk production. 

The results are very helpful for the work that Jain Vegans does in helping Jains transition towards a peaceful and more compassionate lifestyle.  First, the high number of respondents who believe it is not acceptable for Jains to consume milk, will prove useful when attempting to persuade organisers of major Jain events that the menu should be free of dairy products (some Jain organisations, such as Young Jains UK, now already try and ensure the catering at all their events are vegan).  Second, the information obtained about awareness of the cruelty in milk production, will help Jain Vegans tailor its campaigns to have the best possible impact.  Given some of the respondents believed that milk was necessary for reasons of health or survival, it might be appropriate for Jain Vegans spend more resources disseminating the evidence showing that milk and dairy products are not necessary for vegetarians to live a long and healthy life.

Jain Vegans will continue to administer the survey at events where it hosts an information stand, and will update the results as and when the completed forms become available.  The survey form is available below.  Please e-mail sagar[at]jainvegans.org if you have any thoughts on how to improve the survey form or if you are interested in finding our more about the work that Jain Vegans does.

Click here to download:

Jain_Vegans_Survey_A4_v3.pdf (1016 KB)

My Ba - Maniben Mothichand Galaiya.

My Ba, Maniben Mothichand Galaiya, was born around 1930 (the exact date or year of birth is not known - but we do know that the date of birth on her passport is incorrect!) in Khirasara, near Jamnagar, Gujarat, India.

1) Ba's passport picture. 2) Ba's home in Khirasara (and her brother, Virparmama) 3) Ba at Shakti Nursing Home. 4) Ba at home before she fell down

She lived in Khirasara with her family for 16 years, and then moved to East Africa after getting married to my grandfather, Mothichand Karamshi Galaiya,  My grandparents spent time living in Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi Kenya. My grandparents had a comfortable life in Africa.  The wealth generated by my dada's business activities permitted them to live in a reasonably large dwelling and to employ servants to assist with house-keeping.  

Unfortunately, Dada suffered from severe kidney problems in the 1960s.  He spent the last few years of his life travelling around the world for treatment and passed away in 1971, when Ba was only 40 years old.

In the years leading up to and following my Dada's death, Ba's life changed radically.  Dada's illness was a great strain, both emotionally and financially. She went from being a reasonably well-off, happily married house-wife, to an uneducated widow with responsibility for looking after two children and an elderly father-in-law with limited savings and no secure income.  Given the limited opportunities for women to work in Kenya,  Ba and her family decided to set sail for the UK, where my Dada's brother had been settled for sometime.

Ba went from having never having worked, to doing manual labour in factory in country where she could not speak the local language (she also did stitching in the evening to supplement her income). She went from having servants to do the house work, to doing almost everything herself. Despite the struggles and hardships she faced, she selflessly accommodated my fathers cousins from Kenya who were studying in the UK, and even changed nappies for her father-in-law when he was so frail that he was unable to leave his bed.  I can only imagine how difficult it would have been to adapt to her new life.

Ba spent so much of her adult life working and looking after her household that she didn't have free time to spend learning about Jainism or visiting the Derasar that many of her peers did.  But she would spend an hour every morning praying.  This gave her a sense of peace and equanimity.  And I believe it is the time spent praying and reflecting each morning that allowed her to cope with all the ups and downs that life threw at her.

Unfortunately Ba fell down last summer and damaged her spine, ribs and shoulders and lost the ability to bear weight on her legs.  We were unable to provide the care she needed at home, and so she moved into a nearby Nursing home. 

Despite Ba's poor health today, I am still able to learn a great deal from my interactions with her.  Most significantly, visiting her and the other residents at the nursing home reminds me of the impermanence of human life, and how fortunate I am to have a well-functioning mind and body.  And reflecting on her life makes me remember how it is always possible to give selflessly and act with compassion, forgiveness and humility, whatever life throws at you.

I don't think I've managed to teach my Ba very much over the 25 years I've been around - but at the moment I spend my Saturday mornings trying to help her to learn how to walk again.  I'm not sure if she will ever get there, but if she does - it will be a very small step towards repaying the many lessons of life that Ba has taught me.

My post/article on vegetarian shoes has got excellent feedback so far.  It's been published on HereNow4u, Heena Modi's Blog, the Vegan Jains website,  the Oswhal Association Magazine (scanned in copy below), and is likely to get published in the Souvenir Magazine to celebrate the Pratistha of the Kenton Derasar.  A scanned copy of the version that was published in Oshwal Magazine is posted below... 

Click here to download:

Leather_artical_Oshwal_mag_0001.pdf (657 KB)

Tescos have now launched a range of dairy free (soya based) cheeses and cream cheeses, and they are manufactured by Bute Island Foods Ltd, a co-operative based on the Isle of Bute in Scotland who produce a range of vegan cheeses called Scheese. The range includes two varieties of melting hard cheese (medium and mild varieties) and four varieties of soft, spreadable cheeses including a new sweet chilli flavour.

Not only are the cheeses 100% vegan, they are also free of dairy, gluten, wheat and palm oil (they use coconut oil instead). The products launched on 20th February in 180 stores nationwide, and there is a three for two offer until the end of this week.

Pictures of the products on the shelves and the e-mail from Bute Island Foods are published below.

While it is great that Tescos are now stocking vegan cheese products and it is great the dairy alternatives developed by Bute Island will be able to reach a wider range of customers, I hope the move doesn't cannablise the trade of independent health food shops, many of whom are already struggling as a result of the tight market conditions and recent rises in food prices.

In a world dominated by greed and materialism, the Jain community are leaders when it comes to demonstrating how to live a peaceful, low himsa lifestyle.  For thousands of years, Jains have followed a strict vegetarian diet and lived in harmony with nature.  And Jain monks and nuns illustrate how it is possible to live an empowering and fulfilling life without material possessions. 

Jains in the West continue to try to live by traditional principles.  We try to lead modest lifestyles and participate in charitable activities when we can. We steer clear of activities and professions that involve violence or exploitation of other humans and animals.  Despite being confronted with a variety of temptations, large numbers of us have continued to follow a strict vegetarian diet.  

While I’m tremendously proud of the example set by members of our community, I’ve always found it very difficult to understand why Jains, Hindus and other vegetarians seem to find it acceptable to wear leather.   As a young child, I often used to ask my mum why it was wrong to kill cows to eat them, yet acceptable to kill them for clothing.   My mum would explain to me that leather was taken from cows that were already dead.  I accepted her response, but always found the prospect of buying leather shoes deeply uncomfortable.  I remember wishing that it would be possible to obtain shoes made from synthetic materials so I wouldn’t need to wear the skin of a dead animal on my feet.  But I never found any.  And I never came across anyone who seemed to care.  After a while, I gave up, and just tried not to think about it…

As I got older and learned to how to use the internet, I started to do research on where leather comes from.  I discovered that my mum was both right and wrong.  From a historical perspective, my mum was right.  But she was completely wrong about the leather products that I grew up wearing and about the leather products that can be found in shops in the West today.

While many Jains in India actually abstained from wearing leather, my mum was correct that many others found it acceptable to wear leather from cows that were already dead.  Historically, Jain households would have had their own cows, treated them as members of the family and looked after them until death.   While I’m not sure if I could ever feel comfortable wearing the skin of a being I consider to have been a member of my family, I see how using such leather could be viewed as acceptable for adherents of Jain principles.  But just because wearing leather may have been acceptable then, it doesn’t mean it should be considered acceptable today. 

It is an unfortunate reality that none of the leather that we buy in shops today will come from cows that have died from natural causes.  Almost all of the cows will have lived a life full of suffering and exploitation.  And while we may try to fool ourselves into thinking that the cows are killed purely for the meat industry and that leather is a harmless by-product – this argument falls to pieces if you subject it to some simple economic analysis.

A farmer does not rear cows to just produce meat.  A farmer rears cows to make money.  And every source of revenue is important.  The International Council of Tanners estimates that the skins may be worth up to 15% of the value of the entire animal.  By purchasing leather, members of the Jain community are effectively subsidising the meat industry.  We are handing money to farmers who rear cows to kill them, and we are incentivising them to kill more.  If everyone stopped buying leather, farmers would generate less money per cow, and this would reduce their incentives to rear and kill cows. 

The killing of cows is not the only problem with leather.  There are also environmental issues to consider too; processing leather is a polluting and resource intensive activity.   Most leather is chrome tanned, which can result in chromium being pumped into the water table.  Up to 8000 litres of water may be required to process the leather needed to produce just one pair of shoes.

But if members of the Jain community don’t wear leather, what will we wear? Fortunately, abstaining from wearing leather doesn’t mean that we will have to walk barefoot or go around wearing plastic flip-flops.  In the UK and US, we are fortunate to have a number of companies which specialise in making shoes suitable for vegetarians and vegans.   These include:

Bourgeois Boheme (www.bboheme.com)  - BoBo make fashionable shoes and accessories (belts, gloves, wallets, handbags, etc) from high-quality alternatives to leather and have a retail show room in Notting Hill, London. 

Vegetarian Shoes (www.vegetarianshoes.co.uk) - A vegetarian shoe shop in Brighton with over twenty years’ experience in making leather free shoes.

Free Rangers (www.freerangers.co.uk) - Handmade breathable shoes made to order.

Moo Shoes (www.mooshoes.com) - A vegan-owned vegetarian shoe shop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.

Despite Vegetarian Shoes operating in the UK since 1990, I only became aware of the existence of specialist vegetarian shoe shops in 2007 when I stumbled across Moo Shoes in New York.   After discovering the range of high-quality alternatives to leather at Moo Shoes, I decided to stop purchasing leather.  And I’m not alone.  Members of the Jain community in the UK and US are slowly making the switch from leather to non-leather alternatives.

I believe that all of the businesses listed above are run in ways which are consistent with the timeless Jain principle of Ahimsa – and that we, the Jain community, should openly embrace what they are doing.   We should, for example, proactively invite them to have stalls when we next organise a mela which has space for marketholders. The more of us that actively support these businesses, the easier it will be for everyone else to get hold of high-quality low himsa alternatives to leather, and the easier it will be for us all to live a life that is consistent with Jain values and principles.

I recently visited the Bourgeois Boheme showroom in Notting Hill to buy a pair of shoes and spoke to the team that work there to see if they might be interested in interacting with the Jain community in any way.  They were very eager to interact with the Jain community.   In fact, as a gesture of goodwill, they kindly offered to give a 10% discount code to all members of the Jain community for the whole of 2012 (e-mail me at sagar[at]jainvegans.org to get the discount code).  This is great news.  It is great news for the Jain community, it is great news for Bourgeois Boheme, and its great news for all the cows that suffer as a result of the leather industry.

*****

I’m a member of a Jain Vegans, a grass-roots group dedicated to help members of the Jain community shift towards a lifestyle which minimises harm to animals.  Later this year, we intend to organise a group visit to one of the vegetarian shoe shops (hopefully with a special discount on the day) followed by a social lunch at a nearby vegetarian restaurant.  If you are interested in joining us, or would be keen to hear more about what we do, please email me at sagar[at]jainvegans.org.

Paryushana, the Jain festival of penance and forgiveness is due to begin at the end of August.

During this festival, members of the Jain faith traditionally fast and participate in pratikraman. For lay members, fasting often entails avoiding activities that are traditionally thought to cause more himsa than others, such as eating root vegetables.

In today’s complex society, the process of milk production causes far more suffering and killing than first meets the eye. Dairy cows are forcefully impregnated by means of artificial insemination to stimulate milk production. They are immediately separated from their offspring at birth.  Male calves are killed within hours of birth or sold on to be reared for veal or beef (they are of no other value to a dairy farmer), and their sisters are forced to go through the same agony and suffering as their mothers. A dairy cow will normally get killed before the age of 10, even though she could live up to 30 years if given the chance.  This is because her milk yield drops after about 5 lactations, and it is not does not make financial sense for a farmer to keep her alive when he is able to obtain milk from her younger (and more productive) daughters.

It is an unfortunate truth that our consumption of milk and dairy products contributes to the killing and suffering cows. In light of this, it seems natural that Jains (and all adherents of Ahimsa) should acknowledge and consider the suffering caused to cows in the milk production when undertaking pratikramana.

So, in addition to the other activities you undertake this Paryushana, why not also consider giving up dairy products?

If you would like some hints and tips on how to avoid dairy products, please e-mail sagar@jainvegans.org and/or visit the Vegan Society website.

I gave short a presentation on 'Food and the Environment' at the Hindu Experience event at Kingsbury High School on 25 July 2010.  The audience included Ranchor Prime, author of 'Cows and the Earth'. The slides are attached below...

The talk aimed to give the audience an idea of how the environmental impact of an item of food is not clearcut, and the potential carbon footprint can change substantially depending on how something is grown and how it is transported.

Some snippets:

- Typical CO2 emissions of an average shipped orange would be approximately 90g but 1kg for an orange shipped in at the beginning of the season

- 1kg of beef would typically cause 17kg of CO2 emissions (or equivalent in terms of the greenhouse effect). Organic loose tomatoes grown in the UK in July would emit approximately 0.4kg CO2 per kg, but organic 'on the vine' cherry tomatoes grown in January in heated greenhouses could emit as much as 50kg CO2 equivalent per kg. 

- Rich countries waste approximately 25% of edible food that is produced. We could easily reduce are environmental footprint from food by just reducing waste!

Click here to download:

Talk_on_impact_of_food_-_Hindu_Experience.ppt (177 KB)

Just returned from holiday in the New Forest. Ashni and I stayed at ‘The Barn Vegan Guest House’, a charming place run by a lovely couple Richard and Sandra Barnett, less than a five minute walk from Ashurst (New Forest) Station.

The food is 100% vegan, and organic and fair trade where possible. They make their own soya milk, and use the left-over bits of the soya beans to make delicious Okara croquettes. The guest house is powered by solar energy *, and the bed’s are made with luxurious organic unbleached cotton.

Since the Barn only has two rooms, guests get to know Richard and Sandra on a personal basis.  Ashni and I had a wonderful time speaking to them both. The Barn is also home to four lovely rescued dogs and one lovely cat.

We really enjoyed the dinners we had the Barn…

•  Corn Fritters with Alfafa Sprouts
• Vegan Red Onion Quiche with Minted Green Lentils and Toasted Almonds
• Chocolate Pudding with Oat Cream

The ‘Barnstormer’ Cooked Breakfast is also terrific:

• Fry’s Traditional Sausages
• Grilled Tomatoes
• Sauteed Mushrooms
• Okara Croquette (Nutritious Soya Extract with Gram Flour – Gluten Free)
• Scrambled Tofu
• Baked Beans
• Home-Baked Toast with a choice of spreads

The New Forest is a great place to spend a couple of days. We spent one day exploring on Forest on the New Forest Tour Bus (£9).  We visited Brockenhurst, Exbury Gardens and Steam Railway, saw donkeys, horses, sheep, pigs, ponies, ducks, geese, swans, and cows. A really fun break from London! If we comeback, we definitely want to spend more time at Fairweather's Garden Centre

*They have solar panels fitted on the garage which are connected to the energy grid – they produce excess energy during in the summer months (which they sell to the grid), but not enough to meet the Barn’s needs during the winter (so they need to buy energy). Over a yearly cycle however, the Barn produces enough solar energy to meet its needs.