‘Vegan, Naturally’ – VEGAN VOICES writer Shankar Narayan

Next in our series on the writers of “VEGAN VOICES –  Essays by Inspiring Changemakers”, is Shankar Narayan.  

Shankar is the founder of Satvik Vegan Society (SVS), the oldest Indian vegan organization with ‘vegan’ in its name.  SVS conducts the annual Satvik Vegan Festival (SVF) and International Vegan Festival, (IVF, ranked among the most popular vegan events in the world).  Shankar was an international councilor and regional coordinator (India and Southwest Asia) for the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) from 2006 to 2016.  He currently lives in Sthitaprajna Vegan Forest, a forest regeneration project that he founded in 2009.  Shankar is a member of the Vegan Task Force, which was constituted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the Government of India. 

 

 

Extract from his essay in VEGAN VOICES:

“Stealing is taking another person’s property without permission or legal right and not intending to return it. Stealing is not acceptable in our society and is punishable by various statues. When we exploit and kill animals, we are stealing their lives, though most statues do not recognize this as a crime. Ideally, an advanced civilization like ours should criminalize such acts.  The growing exploitation of animals in our current industrial food systems also results in environmental damage and drastic depletion of our resources. The inefficiency and harm of using animals as a food source will affect future generational abilities to live sustainably. We cannot continue to take the lives of our fellow animals, or take from Earth’s natural resources as if they were inexhaustible.”

 

Review of Vegan Voices by Bruce Friedrich, Co-founder & Executive Director, The Good Food Institute:

“There are as many reasons to be vegan as there are vegans, as this lovely anthology makes clear. So many of my heroes in one place—what a treat. Read it and be inspired.”

 

Vegan Voices: Essays by Inspiring Changemakers
Available at Lantern Publishing & Media
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59056-650-3
eBook ISBN: 978-1-59056-651-0