I began working on our global environmental crises in Dec 2005 after watching former Vice President Al Gore's global warming presentation on TV. By Nov 2006, I had a suspicion that if we restore forests on the land used for grazing farmed animals, that might completely reverse climate change. However, there were no peer-reviewed scientific papers reaching that conclusion and I was deeply puzzled by the scientific literature that indicated that my dairy consumption as a lacto-vegetarian was only a little bit worse than going vegan.

In Dec 2008, I was visiting the village of Karech in Rajasthan, India, where people had built a stone fence in 2002 to protect 250 acres of common land from cows and goats grazing on that land. To the left of the fence, I could see barren land with old dairy cows walking around eating anything that was growing on the ground and to the right, I could see a lush green forest. I immediately realized that the scientific literature was minimizing the impact of dairy production, while assigning the majority of the ecological burden of cattle rearing on beef production. In that village where people treated the cows as sacred and did not kill them even after their milk production had declined, the ecological devastation caused by dairy production was being fully revealed.

I went Vegan on the spot.

Within a week after I went Vegan, I felt a huge sense of guilt lift off my shoulders. I had been subconsciously carrying that guilt since the age of seven when I had first understood that I was consuming the milk intended for the baby calf and not me. Within a month after I went Vegan, I lost all my arthritic pains, sinus inflammation, acid reflux and hemorrhoids, and I felt like a sixteen year old again.

Though it began through an environmental portal, my Vegan journey encompassed the ethical and health aspects within a month or so. Today, I am committed to fulfill a pinky promise I made to my granddaughter, Kimaya, that the world will be largely Vegan before she turns 16 on Nov 19, 2026.