The 1st Middle East Vegetarian (MEVEG) Congress, Part 1 of a Multi-part Series, Dec. 6, 2010

In December 2010, The first ever Middle East Vegetarian Congress was held at the Dubai International Exhibition Center, with the public invited to engage in an interactive exploration of the plant-based lifestyle. In addition, Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan) was specially invited to speak via live video-link on “Being a Vegan – An Environmentally Sustainable Food Choice,” followed by a question and answer session with attendees, and the launch of the Arabic edition of the international bestselling book, “The Birds in My Life,” which was already sold out pre-launch.

We now invite you to join us for Part 1, of the conference titled, “The 1st Middle East Vegetarian (MEVEG) Congress,” held in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on December 6, 2010, with an introduction of the esteemed speakers for the first day.

“I realized that I needed to do something radical in my life. And the only thing that I could actually make a change in was my diet, because I was taking all the medication, everything and nothing was having an impact. And that's how I got into exploring diets. And my program on television was also called ‘Food Cures.’ How we can at least reduce the symptoms of our ailments, if we can't actually eradicate them from our life.”

“I happen to be born vegetarian, and I’ve never had anything else other than that. But then I realized the vegan or the vegetarian food, that is served, nobody can ever say no to. Something is there for everybody. It is kind of a common denominator or a common subset. And what you see today is bringing together that kind of people.”

“So, it is so vital, if nothing else matters. That little thing called health, without which, never can we smile, never can we do anything, never can we have jobs or try to fulfill our dreams. That's the health. If not for anything else, you need to try different types of foods that we are ingesting into our system. It is absolutely important to pay attention to it today, just for ourselves and for the future.”