Vyacheslav Olegovich, now the issue of feeding insects, crickets and worms is widely raised in the media. What is your attitude to such a radical system of mode nutrition?

Reason tells us that it is necessary to eat both tasty and healthy. In this regard, the idea of using bugs and worms in food causes not just doubts, but a real vomiting urge. Is it necessary to resort to such extreme measures when not all the products so generously supplied to us by Mother nature are still properly used for their intended purpose? I would recommend that you first study the experience of an alteative system of Vedic nutrition with its delicious and delicious dishes, which by the way is approved by many representatives of the scientific approach.

I know you're a vegetarian. Where then to get proteins? After all, it is for proteins that insects are offered to us.

Healthy vegetarian food is not only delicious, but also contributes to the spiritual development of a person, which would be very useful in our current tense situation… Cooking vegetarian dishes is not difficult at all, but the result exceeds all our expectations. But no matter what goal we set for ourselves: to achieve spiritual perfection or just to develop a habit of clean and healthy food — if we start consistently moving in this direction, we will be happier ourselves and stop causing unnecessary suffering to other living beings in the world around us. And the world now so wants peace from us… Meat is not just food, it is a trick food, food that is consumed by a minority at the expense of the majority. The "meat mentality" itself has a subtle idea of exploitation. As for the essential proteins: if they really were only in these insects, then how did we live all these millennia without eating these insects with their essential proteins?

If we take the economic benefits, what will be the benefits of vegetarianism?

Yes, in order to get meat, they take fine grain that can be used to feed people and simply feed it to cattle. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than 90% of all grain produced by America goes to fattening livestock and poultry: cows, pigs, sheep and chickens, which eventually end up on the dining table of an ignorant consumer.

Using grain to produce meat in these difficult times is an insane waste. Statistics published by the US Department of Agriculture indicate that in order to get one kilogram of meat, you need to feed cattle as much as 16 kilograms of grain. One person who happily eats meat, but does not think about what price it is being produced now, makes 50 people starve. The grain spent on one of your steaks would be enough to fill the plates of these fifty people with delicious and nutritious porridge.

What can you say about world hunger? Where does it get its roots from?

In underdeveloped countries, one person on average consumes about 200 kg of grain per year, and most of it goes to food. And the average European or American consumes 1000 kg of grain per year, of which 90% goes to mindless fattening of livestock. Thus, a resident of Europe or America who eats meat, on average, consumes five times more food than a resident of India, Colombia or Nigeria. And then we hear calls to start eating grasshoppers and earthworms…

All this ill–conceived food production system hidden from the people speaks only about one thing: the problem of hunger in the world was created artificially, and the transition to insect nutrition is a consequence of this unreasonable approach, unwillingness to retu to more practical methods of caring for the nutrition of the population. According to nutritionists, if you reduce meat production by only 10%, it will easily release enough grain to feed 60 million people.

Regarding ecology and world hunger. I understand that these topics are related to each other. The ecology is deteriorating, the climate is changing, hunger is on its heels ... what do you say?

Meat production brings a lot of problems to the environment. Sewage discharge and waste discharge from meat processing plants and cattle fattening farms are much more destructive than all other environmental pollution factors. The sources of clean water in the world are being depleted, but it is meat production that consumes water especially wastefully. Sewage from cattle farms pollute the environment ten times more than urban sewage, and three times more than industrial wastewater. Just think: it takes only 60 liters of water to grow one kilogram of wheat, and it takes from 1,250 to 3,000 liters to produce one kilogram of meat. That's the reason for the problems with water on our planet… So what does worms have to do with it? Can you start living intelligently?

It is said that world stars have joined in eating high-protein worms. And the stars are setting trends now. The scriptures say that whatever a great man does, everyone else follows his example. How to deal with it?

Leo Tolstoy wrote that, thoughtlessly killing animals for food, "a person suppresses the highest spiritual feelings in himself — compassion and pity for other living beings like him — and, stepping over himself, hardens his heart." He also waed: "How can we hope that peace and prosperity will reign on earth if our bodies are living graves in which dead animals are buried?" Losing respect for the life of animals, people cease to appreciate human life. And we can already see what this can lead to. The transition to eating bugs is just a flower... Even 2,600 years ago Pythagoras said: "Those who kill animals in order to eat their flesh can destroy their own kind without hesitation." If we start eating lower food, then our behavior becomes lower, we simply stop feeling the pain of other people…

Leonardo da Vinci wrote: "Truly, man is the king of beasts, for he is far superior to them in his cruelty. We live at the cost of others' lives. Our bodies are walking cemeteries!… The time will come when people will look at the animal killer the same way they look at the human killer now."

And Mahatma Gandhi was convinced that the greatness of the country and its moral state can be judged by how animals are treated in it. By the way, the word "vegetarian", introduced in 1542, comes from the Latin vegetus, which means "strong, healthy, fresh, vigorous", that is, indicates a spiritually and physically developed personality. The idea of vegetarianism is that first you need to get rid of the tendency to violence in your own heart and this will naturally lead to the formation of a peaceful society. Isn't this the dream of our time?

Do you really think vegetarianism can help humanity?

Vegetarianism will not save humanity, but it is a very important step towards a peaceful and happy society, and those who embark on this reasonable path will be on a par with such thinkers as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Clement of Alexandria, Plutarch, Leonardo da Vinci, Akbar, Sir Isaac Newton, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Leo Tolstoy, George Beard Shaw, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein and many other great personalities of our planet… So the choice is yours. Will you eat fluffy spiders with Angelina Jolie or will you follow the example of great personalities who have eaed respect from a number of generations of people.

Polina Kolomenskaya talked. Inteational Club Balance Ruzov.ru