| Creating
a Compassionate and Vegetarian Global Village |
Vegetarianism
Creates a Sensation in Korea
By Busan and Daegu News Groups, Korea (Originally in Korean)
Busan
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From May 18 through May 21, Golden Year 3 (2006), fellow practitioners from Busan joined the International Food Exhibition at the Busan Exhibition and Conference Center. This year’s international grand fair for food culture and restaurant trends attracted over 180 producers from 12 nations. During the exhibition, we handed out the Alternative Living flyers and also introduced a wide variety of vegetarian food products. Many people came to sample the vegetarian “meat,” even waiting in queues to do so!
We also set up a television set in one corner of our booth where we showed a program produced and aired by SBS, one of the three major TV broadcasting stations in Korea. Through this program and our fellow initiates’ explanations of why we should be vegetarian, many people understood the terrible living conditions and gruesome slaughter of our poor animal friends made just to satisfy some people’s appetites, as well as the need of environmental consideration. Also, we made available the “Love Life: 10 Million Signatures Collecting Campaign” (a petition started by initiates to encourage people’s awareness and promote the compassionate vegetarian lifestyle), and a total of 2,100 people signed during this exhibition! Experiencing the wide variety of high quality and delicious vegetarian meat substitutes made from soy, many people said they would never eat meat again. We really felt a deep appreciation on behalf of our sentient animal friends.
The demand for Master’s sample booklets, News magazines and the Alternative Living flyers that we displayed highly exceeded our expectations. Even though we increased our quantities every day, it still was not enough.
During this event, we worked devotedly in order to popularize vegetarianism and to share Master’s teachings. Through this successful International Food Exhibition, Master’s blessing and Her loving message has been carried to many corners of the world!
Daegu
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The Daegu International Food Industry Exhibition 2006 and the Daegu Food Festival 2006 were held simultaneously from June 8 through June 11 at EXCO in Daegu. Our Daegu initiates participating in this big Expo were able to have a large booth in a very convenient location.
Daegu Food Festival 2006’s motto was to discover and surpass traditional cuisine and to present the best. Because of its high standards, only organizations that passed prior screening were eligible to participate in the exhibition. We were worried about being able to meet the requirements since we were applying next to such cooking experts. However, the host showed a big interest in vegetarian cooking and arranged a large booth so that our fellow practitioners could demonstrate and display vegetarian dishes for the citizens in Daegu, where there currently is no vegetarian restaurant.
Indeed, it was an unexpectedly wonderful arrangement. We were the only amateur group at an Expo where all the professional chefs competed with each other. However, with the help of cooks from other Centers, our Daegu initiates were able to display over 30 colorful vegetarian dishes. Decorated with flowers and Longevity Lamps, the peaceful and beautiful atmosphere radiating from our booth attracted many visitors. Besides the vegetarian food sampling, initiates played Master’s DVD, “The Real Heroes,” along with other vegetarian related videos, and we distributed Alternative Living flyers as well as other vegetarian information in order to convey information about vegetarianism in a multi-faceted way.
During the exhibition, our booth was the center of attention. Seeing this, an initiate said, “It seems like vegetarianism has bombarded EXCO.” Most of visitors were very interested in vegetarian cooking and eager to learn about it. They came to take the flyers voluntarily and asked detailed questions about the recipes. One housewife marveled at the taste of the soy “meat” when trying it for the first time. The next day she brought her children and waited for 30 minutes so they could also have a taste.
Not only the general public was interested in our vegetarian cuisine; so were the professional chefs and cooking students from the major colleges and private cooking institutes. They were amazed at how cakes could be made without eggs and that gluten “meat” made from wheat could taste so good. They were very eager to receive our recipes.
The event’s host expressed a big interest as well. The president of EXCO visited our booth and asked seriously if we could provide food for its vegetarian visitor groups from India and Pakistan in the future. In response to their request, we recommended a restaurant outside Daegu.
The visitors, while waiting in a long line to sample our food, very naturally had the opportunity to watch “The Real Heroes.” Needless to say, many were very moved by the message. Children especially felt sorry for the pain that the animals experience, and one child even decided not to eat meat any more.
The Daegu Food Exhibition was a valuable and wonderful opportunity
to raise awareness about vegetarianism among Expo participants as well
as visitors. During the exhibition, 10,000 people received Alternative
Living flyers and 4,000 provided signatures in support of our appeal through
the “Love Life: 10 Million Signatures Collecting Campaign”
petition. This overwhelmingly positive response surprised us, and it shows
clearly that the consciousness of people truly has elevated, thanks to
Master’s blessings. 
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Seoul
Pictures Tell Stories:
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A full-page Alternative Living message was printed in Bulgyo Newspaper, a nationwide Buddhist paper, along with a letter of appeal encouraging Buddhists to be vegetarians. |
For six months, starting in May, the Alternative Living message was put up on 65 city buses. |
