Vegetarian Villages

(Tasmanian News Group, “The Supreme Master Ching Hai News”, no. 179)

 

Imagine living in a community of only vegetarians and vegans, where all the shops and businesses are all based on noble living, and never having to ask for the ingredients of food again. Well, such places already exist in the world – and recently the trend has been an increase in the number and size of these communities.

 

In countries such as India, some entire provinces are predominately vegetarian, and many small villages and local tribes are fully vegetarian. Also in many developed countries, there are communes where perhaps several vegetarian families may group together, but these are in general small agricultural communities. So where to find modern living, with noble ideals? How about Europe and USA!

 

Fifty years ago a group of vegetarians founded Amirim in the Upper Galilee, Israel. Around 180 families live there, some of them third and fourth generation who’ve established their own small businesses. Amirim has 150 guest houses for couples and families, restaurants, spas, jeep tours, galleries, holistic doctors and healers, artists, herb gardens, observation points and hiking trails; and most of the people make their living from tourism.

 

Another form of green village living known as co-housing (a sustainable living community) has spread quickly worldwide, with many being fully vegetarian. There are now hundreds of co-housing communities, expanding from Denmark into the U.S., Canada, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and other places as well. In a co-housing community, you know who lives six houses down because you eat common meals with them, decide how to allocate homeowners dues, and gratefully accept a ride from them when your car is in the shop. You listen to what they have to say, even if you don’t agree with them at first and you sense that you, too are being heard. Co-housing inhabitants generally aspire to “improve the world, one neighborhood at a time.”

 

These communities mark the start of something greater, slowly expanding until other family members, friends and eventually government see the benefits. Then our world can change into a physical manifestation of heaven appropriate for the golden age!