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The way of no flesh

Twenty-five years ago, a high school boy, Rynn Berry, reading about his heroes George Bernard Shaw, Percy B Shelley, Pythagoras, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha and Mahavira, discovered that they were all vegetarian.

Inspired, he decided to cut out all meat and diary products from his diet. In the early 70s, becoming a vegetarian was an oddity, especially since he had to constantly explain himself to everyone.

Today, Rynn Berry, in his 40s, is an author, lecturer, and adviser to several organizations on vegetarianism.

Growing up, Berry ate whatever his father, Rynn Berry, Sr, a patent lawyer, and mother Anne served him. They listened to his views, but agreed to differ.

"I have had no impact on them. I tried to persuade them and failed. They have a completely non-vegetarian diet," says Berry, who lives in Brooklyn, New York.

But his decision has never wavered.

"I still just want to increase compassion for other beings. Eating animals is extinguishing the seeds of compassion," says Berry.

He describes himself as a cultural historian whose message is to spread the virtues and benefits of a vegetarian diet, which he himself swears by. "My living does not entail the destruction of other life forms," he says.

Berry has never missed anything like the well-done hamburger or the grilled chicken breast or a juicy steak. "There is plenty of protein in fruit and animal products. There are so many alternatives now, much more than when I was growing up, there's rice milk and soy yogurt, for example," says Berry.

He also does not wear any leather shoes and does not use anything made of animal fur.

On a vegetarian diet, Berry says, people "live longer, are stronger and healthier, and morally superior". Morally, he adds, he can "look a cow in the eye".

His prognosis for all non-vegetarians is that they "will die" very quickly on their diet of "dead flesh and its products".

Fascinated by India's vegetarian culture, Berry went to Bombay seven years ago and stayed with a Jain family while doing research for his books. He had been three times before that trip.

"The world looks up to India's vegetarian culture," he says.

Last year, he published Foods for Gods; Vegetarianism and the World's Religions. Eight years ago, he published Famous Vegetarians and their Favorite Recipes.

Foods for Gods is a collection of essays on Hinduism, Jainism, Islam and Buddhism with conversations with spiritual leaders of all these faiths. He also added vegetarian recipes that are traditional in each religion.

In Famous Vegetarians, he talks about Buddha, Gandhi, Annie Besant, Swami Prabhupada, Leo Tolstoy, Leonardo da Vinci and George Harrison.

Apart from working on other books, he teaches history and vegetarianism at the New School of Social Research. He will continue to write books on cooking, as he seems to have found his "niche".

He has co-authored a booklet, The Vegan Guide to New York City, listing over 100 restaurants because Manhattan has the "greatest vegetarian restaurants" and "it's important for vegetarians to know that they can survive here". His favourite in Manhattan is 'Caravan of Dreams', a Spanish restaurant.

He says medical research backs up his claim about people having longer lives if they eat only vegetarian foods. He uses a popular doctor called Dean Ornish in California, who preaches low-fat, no-oil vegetarian diet for patients of heart and cholesterol problems.

He was intrigued by research done on why Adolf Hitler, who was advised by his doctors to be on a vegetarian diet, frequently lapsed from it.

Berry was born in Hawaii, where his parents lived briefly, before moving to Florida, New England and Brooklyn. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in ancient history, moved back to Brooklyn and taught ancient history, archaeology, classical literature and comparative religions at Columbia University.

To promote vegetarianism, Berry co-founded Big Apple Vegetarian Society a decade ago and is a historical adviser to the North American Vegetarian Society, which publishes the Vegetarian Journal.

If there is something Berry is still searching for, it's a vegetarian life partner. "I don't think I could marry a non-vegetarian. I have had bad experiences in the past just meeting them. I can smell dead animals on their breath and I get queasy," he says with a shudder.

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