Grass Root People ◆ Veganism ◆ Paradigm Gap

It wasn't until the other night that I realized : in vegan movement there are still more work to be done -- at grass root level communities.
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Long journey from the day. I was coming back to my staying area quite late, about nearing 10pm on that night.

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There were still 20 minutes walking distance. Just wanted some quick plant-based food to fill my stomach while on my way back home. But eating place and food stalls were going to close for the day.

A batch of curry puffs at a stall caught my eyes. The stall owner was going to pack things up and go home. Without second thought I walked over and asked this young Malay stall onwer if those curry puffs were still available for sale.

He showed me some meat curry puffs, meatless potato puff and a few pieces of fried bananas.

RM 0.40 per piece and RM 2 for 6 pieces.

So I asked for the RM 2 option, with potato puffs only. He picked carefully from the remaining batch, making sure every piece was the meatless potato puff.

I was surprised that he actually put in 2 more pieces for me, at the same price. I gave a big thanks to him and continued my way home.

“Today is a blessed day. Thank you to the stall owner for his generous heart. ”  

I tugged in my food bite by bite. Oh WOW!! These meatless potato puffs were so yummy!! The potato cubes and sauce were not the usual hot spicy ones that crank the throat. And they were simply among the best. The spices finely tuned together with the potatoes. One might forget about meat-based meals after trying these meatless potato puffs!

I thought his business might even grow double or triple folds-- if he specialized to sell meatless puffs and other plant-based street foods. His family recipe of potatoes is one of a kind.

“Thank you these great nice food!”

I reserved half batch of the potato puffs for next days use. Ah, they're fridge-friendly and should be a nice fit for some home-made noodles.

“Today is a blessed day. Thank you to the stall owner for his generous heart. ”

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The 24-hour KK Mart store was a few steps away.

“Oh yes... some grocery stuff...”

I walked around in the store. A Bangladesh worker carried a dozen of eggs passing by me. EGGS -- the end results of sacrificing thousands of male chicks to dustbins, while still remain a general household food.

I would usually choose to ignore whenever I see the scenes of meats and eggs.  But in that few seconds this just crossed my mind.

Even though without realizing the critical long-term impact to their own and their family and their future generations.

The worker, he was just performing his duty. He probably is, or is not, a vegan.
His duty came from his boss. His boss is selling this because of customers' demand.
And the Malay food stall owner was just struggling to make a life.

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Business exists on the basis on Demand and Supply. Customers have the choice to decide the demand part.

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The world is moving fast and forward, and getting closer back to the real compassion, the building block of humanity, the basis for a human being with mind, body and soul.

More and more western people, from top to bottom, and bottom to top, are starting to embrace plant-based, vegan dietary habits, with the increasing awareness of the significance of vegan to the entire mankind, down to personal and family long term health.

Country leaders. State mayors. Government agencies. Hospitals. Schools. Colleges and Universities. Fast food chains. Big food giants of the meat industry starting accommodate for or even change lanes to plant-based food production. Ex-meat industry corporate figures turn vegan advocates.

Sports and Entertainment lines. So much more...

Bhutan people are majority not rich. But Bhutan people mostly don't kill or eat meat.

Local vegetarianism and veganism have already been gaining ground since last century. But when will be the turn of such mass change for our Boleh Land Malaysia ?

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Still lots of missing pieces I had overlooked. Still more work to be done. May be I could make a poster with a big  plant-based food pyramid, coupled with some brief sharp points on the significance of long-term health, and make copies from the photostating shop.

May be I could then distribute it out to the owner of each food stall and shop.

There's still paradigm gap between grass root communities and those who have the opportunities to access useful  information.

There are still more efforts to be done.