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The Nordic food journey
The days when Nordic food was viewed as nothing but heavy, meat-based stews are long gone. Today Nordic food is associated with simplicity, sustainability, and seasonality. How did this come to be, and how can this way of thinking be used to address the challenges of nutrition, climate, and urban development?

The UN General Assembly is underway in New York, and as part of a prominent line-up of speakers, I will discuss the global challenges of urban food systems at EATx UNGA. I believe that a Nordic approach is highly relevant to targeting these global issues.

It all started in 2004, with cooperation between creative Nordic chefs and innovators wishing to change the Nordic food culture, an initiative supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers, among others. The result has been a radical change to the Nordic food scene.

A decade later, we are witnessing a striking trickle-down effect in the way people look upon food in Nordic cities. A genuine and holistic new Nordic everyday diet is taking shape - a diet in which both nutrition and sustainability play important roles. I believe that this is an important democratisation of good and sustainable food in the Nordic countries.

This new Nordic everyday diet resonates with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (first established in 1980) - a common set of Nordic recommendations accompanied by Nordic nutritional monitoring. These are tools that help policymakers implement food policies such as nutritional guidelines and front-of-pack labelling, as well as to establish strong trust-based partnerships among governments, NGOs and the food industry.

As is the case in most of the world, the Nordic countries have not been able to completely stop the epidemic of overweight and malnutrition. However, compared to most other developed countries, we have managed to slow down the rise in overweight and obesity and are showing some important signs of improvements in diet. I'm convinced that the nutrition recommendations play an important part in this.

Consequently, this new Nordic Food Movement - although not so new any longer - together with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations are important parts of the Nordic approach to the challenge of sustainable urban food systems.

Another important part of the democratization process are the approximately 5.5 million meals that are served daily from more than 55,000 public kitchens in the Nordic countries. In Sweden, since July 1st, 2011 it has been written into the Education Act that all school meals should be nutritious. In Copenhagen, 90% of the ingredients in all public meals are organic. Oslo and other Nordic cities also have ambitious goals with respect to organic public meals.

The Nordic Food Movement has turned out to be a driver for change as well as a policy tool. Through the energy and entrepreneurship of their citizens, cities can bring radical - and sustainable - change to our food systems. These examples from the Nordic Region highlight how cities can be engines for transforming food culture, and thus the food systems of whole regions.

But the Nordic Food Journey is far from over. We will continue to democratize good food in the Nordic countries by strengthening Nordic co-operation between agents of change.

We are now - in co-operation with EAT - establishing a Nordic Cities EAT Initiative. The Nordic cities have recently all started prioritizing food policy. We will help the cities learn from each other, discover new solutions, and continue the dialogue on the Nordic experience with a global audience. In the years to come, this will be carried out as part of the Nordic Council of Ministers' Prime Minister Initiative on Nordic solutions to global challenges.

Dagfinn Høybråten
Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers

Links:
Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2012: Integrating nutrition and physical activity

New Nordic Food

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and the EAT Foundation, in conjunction with the high-level side event, "Urban Food Systems: The Nutrition Challenge," during the 71st United Nations General Assembly in New York. The EATx at UNGA is a collaboration with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. #EATx #eatforum

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AFL-CIO To Planet Earth: Drop Dead
At a meeting with the deputy political director of the AFL-CIO during my campaign for Congress, she looked across her desk and told me that I could get major union support by coming out in favor of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

That was five years ago. Since then, the nation's biggest labor federation has continued to serve the fossil fuel industry. Call it union leadership for a dead planet.

Last week, the AFL-CIO put out a statement from its president, Richard Trumka, under the headline "Dakota Access Pipeline Provides High-Quality Jobs." The rhetoric was standard flackery for energy conglomerates, declaring "it is fundamentally unfair to hold union members' livelihoods and their families' financial security hostage to endless delay."

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is steadfast against the Dakota Access pipeline: "We will not rest until our lands, people, waters, and sacred sites are permanently protected from this destructive pipeline."

In sharp contrast to the AFL-CIO's top echelon, some unions really want to restrain climate change and are now vocally opposing the Dakota pipeline.

Communications Workers of America has expressed solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe "as they fight to protect their community, their land and their water supply."

At National Nurses United, Co-President Jean Ross cites "an obligation to step up climate action to protect public health and the future for the generations to follow us."

Ross said: "We commend the leaders and members of the Standing Rock Sioux, the many First Nation allies who have joined them, and the environmentalists and other supporters who have participated in the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline."

NNU points out that "the proposed 1,172-mile pipeline would carry nearly a half million barrels of dirty crude oil every day across four states." Ross says that such projects "pose a continual threat to public health from the extraction process through the transport to the refinery."

As for the AFL-CIO's support for the pipeline, NNU's director of environmental health and social justice was blunt. "We're deeply disappointed in our labor federation siding with those that would endanger and harm the land, the water, the lives of the people along the pipeline path and the health of the planet itself in the name of profits," Fernando Losada said.

He added that the Dakota pipeline is part of "a drive to extract fossil fuel that is untenable for the future of the planet."

The nurses union is part of the AFL-CIO, but dominant forces within the federation are committed to corporate energy priorities. Losada said that "some elements in the AFL-CIO" have caused a stance that "is a narrow position in the alleged interests of their members for some short-term jobs."

Compare that narrow position to a recent statement from Communications Workers of America: "The labor movement is rooted in the simple and powerful idea of solidarity with all struggles for dignity, justice and respect. CWA will continue to fight against the interests of the 1% and corporate greed and firmly stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the environmental and cultural degradation of their community."

A venerable labor song has a question for the leaders of the AFL-CIO: Which side are you on?

When it comes to planetary survival, the answer from the top of the AFL-CIO hierarchy remains: We're on the wrong side.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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World Leaders Have An Historic Opportunity To Support Migrants And Refugees
Two years ago, I traveled to the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. I met a Syrian refugee family there who had recently fled Raqqa. Unable to find regular work, the family was depending on the labor of their 12-year-old daughter, who was working in the fields. The family and this young girl herself would have preferred her to be in school.

The Bekaa Valley is among the areas hardest hit by the refugee crisis. Two years ago, when I was there, some 770 informal tented settlements had sprung up and the valley was home to more than 410,000 refugees. These numbers have largely stayed the same.

Today, more people are forcibly displaced from their homes than at any time since the end of the World War II. A recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, estimated that 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just a year earlier. Measured against the world's population of 7.4 billion people, one in every 113 people globally is now either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee. This tally is greater than the entire population of the United Kingdom.

In some cases, people are fleeing from poverty and lack of opportunity. In others, people are fleeing from conflict and lawlessness. Many millions need international support.

The Syria crisis has caused serious displacement -- 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees, and 6.5 million are displaced. This is the largest displacement crisis globally.

Many Syrians have fled to neighboring countries that are now hosting large numbers of these refugees. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees number roughly a quarter of the population. In Jordan, the number is estimated at about one in five people. Turkey hosts more than two million Syrians and Iraqis. The host countries and communities need international support too.

The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework within which to respond to these large movements of people. The U.N. Summit for Refugees and Migrants convening this week in New York provides a unique opportunity for world leaders to come up with a blueprint for a strong international response to their needs.

What could be done to prevent displacement crises in future?

First, the international community should place conflict prevention and mediation at the center of international peace and security efforts. Early warning and response systems are needed for when tensions emerge and to foster reconciliation.

Second, international support is needed to strengthen good governance and the rule of law and to address structural inequalities. Promoting inclusive economic growth and sustainable livelihoods is critical for building peaceful and inclusive societies. These are long-term investments that are also critical structural prevention efforts.

Third, development actors can assist governments to improve their capacity for data collection and analysis on the root causes of displacement caused by poverty and lack of opportunity, to help design sustainable responses.

The organization I head, the United Nations Development Program, will play its part. We provide support for host communities and help countries anticipate and prevent future crises. We promote inclusive and accountable institutions which can improve social cohesion, and drive inclusive development. We work to tackle inequalities and to improve access to justice and to basic services like education and health.

Going forward, the UNDP will work to ensure that the inclusion of migration and displacement issues are priorities during the implementation of the SDGs. The UNDP will also support at least 30 program countries over the next five years to analyze and address the drivers of migration and of forced displacement. And we will work with partners to build evidence and gather data around migration and displacement. More needs to be known about the development impact of displacement in countries of origin and in host countries and communities.

This week, world leaders have an historic opportunity to address this issue and come together in a spirit of shared responsibility for the world's refugees and migrants. Let's remember those refugee children sent out to work instead of being able to go to school, and resolve to see that their needs are met.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of two critical conferences at the UN on the Refugee and Migrant crisis: the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants (Sept. 19th, a UN conference) and the Leaders Summit on Refugees (Sept. 20th, hosted by U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, at the UN). To see all the posts in the series, visit here. To follow the conversation on Twitter, see #UN4RefugeesMigrants.

Also on WorldPost:

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GLOBAL EXPERT: Miami Beach Naled Pesticide Spraying Ineffective Against Zika Virus Carrying Mosquitos

Miami Beach has been spraying the toxic chemical Naled frequently as the Zika virus outbreak covering South Beach has spread north to encompass two-thirds of the island city.

Global expert Dr. Michael Callahan says that it's not only an ineffective strategy to combat the aedes aegypti mosquito which carries the tropical disease he termed “dengue fever light,” but it may be counterproductive by wiping out predators who might eat carrier mosquitos.

In an extended video interview with Dr. Richard Perlmutter (below), Dr. Callahan, who is the co-founder of the Zika Foundation explained that our officials are implementing a mosquito control plan appropriate for West Nile disease, but isn't likely to tamp down Miami Beach's public health problems:

We can tell you what hasn't worked in the past with aerial spraying with this mosquito. There's been a lot of money wasted in Singapore, Taiwan and Japan and several Central American countries, trying to control aedes aegypti with aerial spraying. It does not work. It is an indoor resident. About 60-70 of our total community population is indoors and it is not flying around at night when the aerial spraying controls. What you see in Florida is the adaptive plan for West Nile mosquito... Aerial spraying with naled or many of the other insecticides have been proven systematically to be less effective. For aedes aegypti you need on the ground spray, houses and yards and absolutely control breeding sites by getting rid of standing water.

The Harvard-based Dr. Callahan has practiced on roughly over 2,000 Zika patients over the years around the world.

Until 2013, there was no history of pregnancy-related illness linked to Zika Virus, and it was considered more of a children's disease.

Dr. Callahan explained that in Brazil, children are taught the following ‘nursery rhyme' (there is no other way for me to describe this) which helps explain to that vulnerable population how the aedes aegypti mosquito:

Black and white, indoor bite, silent flight and you're safe at night.

The aedes aegypti mosquito is known for its black and white stripes. They like to find their way indoors, so regular use of repellant is a must.

The zika virus carrying mosquitos do not make significant noise, but the good news is that they generally do not bite during the night time either.

Additionally, Dr. Callahan explained that lemon eucalyptus repellant is a safe, natural product to use for protection against bites, for example Repel Eucalyptus which runs under $5 per bottle on Amazon.

The aedes aegypti mosquito prefers to bite on the back of the neck, though more than 65 percent of bites come below the knees as you can see below the video in a graphic by the Zika Foundation.

The doctor indicated that Zika vaccine is not only unlikely, but could carry even more significant medical risks than a regular transmission of the virus, no doctor could ethically rush one into production during an outbreak either.

Prevention of transmission is the most effective treatment today and for the foreseeable future.

“It is a highly visual public health intervention. It helps to promote a lot of trust that things are being done. But I am emphatic about this... for this mosquito and for this problem you need yard to yard control .

“That aerial spraying does a disservice by wiping out mosquito eating insects,” opined the world's foremost Zika virus expert, “in some parts of the world, they count for 20 percent of the predation of the aedes mosquito.”

The Miami Beach City Commission voted last week ― after two weeks of intense protests which made national and global news ― to urge higher government officials to end Naled spraying and implement an alternative to the chemical banned in the EU since 2012.

Interestingly, Miami's Wynwood neighborhood only had one single spraying with Naled, which also led to protests and then immediate cessation of the organophosphate neurotoxin aerial spraying.

Barring a last-minute surprise, Wynwood is expected to be removed from travel warnings today, after going 45 days without a new, local infection.

Now, it's up to Florida's public health officials to take a long, hard look at Dr. Callahan's suggestions, before their “cure” for mosquito-borne Zika virus becomes worse than the disease.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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New York City's Sustainable Dream
New York City is a collection of places and neighborhoods, tied together by a few touchstone elements of cultural values, and built on century-old infrastructure that is constantly being dug up, repaired, and remodeled. I am a New Yorker and have lived here for over fifty years. I grew up in Brooklyn, on East 59th street between Avenue T and Avenue O. I went to PS 236, Junior High School 78, and James Madison High School. After high school I spent a decade in small-town Indiana, Buffalo, New York, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. But the center of gravity for me has always been New York, and I have worked at Columbia University in the City of New York for 35 years. The city I grew up in may be long gone, but the city I moved back to has evolved into a place that I never want to leave.

From its start, New York has been a commercial place. The city that never sleeps has always been about commerce. At one time we manufactured products here: clothing, beer, bicycles, and even the Studebaker auto. Today we make ideas, movies, health care, software, communications strategy, and nightlife. We have over a million post-secondary students here, a number of great universities, several great hospitals, live theater, art museums and galleries, live music, sports teams, great public spaces, a real 24/7 mass transit system, and the most diverse population of any city in the world. About 40% of the people who live here were born in other countries. Including students, tourists, and illegals, most of the people you walk by on the street in New York were born outside America. Even those of us who grew up here, while a distinct minority of the city's population, typically don't have to go back too far to find our immigrant roots.

During most of the second half of the twentieth century, New York seemed like a city in decline. People were moving to the suburbs, and to Florida, California and Arizona. Industry was leaving, and in the 1970s the city came within a whisper of bankruptcy. Some people point to out-migration and still worry that the city is in decline. But in 2010 our population was 8,175,133 and in 2015 it was 8,555,405; that's not a city on the skids. Much of our population increase is due to births. Our international immigration more or less offsets our domestic migration to other parts of the United States. In an excellent report on New York City's population dynamics, Luke Junday of the University of Virginia's Demographics Research Group asks and answers the question: "How is New York City growing if it is constantly losing people?" According to Junday:

New York City... all but Staten Island - were among the eight counties with the biggest losses in net domestic migration last year...The conclusion suggested by domestic migration numbers is that New York is dying as its residents abandon ship...[However,] the city is as crowded and economically powerful as ever. Its population continues to climb despite an astronomical cost of living that suggests even more people would live there if they could... What gives? Outside of major urban centers, domestic migration numbers are generally a pretty good indicator of whether a county's population is growing or shrinking.

There are two parts to the answer [of New York City's growth]:

1. International Immigration
The first answer is simple and readily available. Big cities are gateways for international immigrants, who crowd into apartment blocks in search of economic opportunity before eventually moving elsewhere...

2. Natural Increase and Migration
This brings us to the second and, I would argue, more important answer: this cycle is part of the nature of cities in the 21st century. The additional population is being made up by something called "natural increase." Natural increase simply means that there are more births than deaths in a given location, thus increasing the population. Natural increase in New York and other cities is due to the age structure of those cities... New York is a young city compared to the nation as a whole...Young adults are important in demographics for two reasons. First is what they don't do: die. A population of 20-somethings will have far fewer deaths in any given year than a population of 60-somethings. Second is what they do: have babies.

New York has always been a place where people from other parts of the world grabbed hold of a small piece of the American Dream, but then moved to Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, or Los Angeles where the housing was cheaper and as long as you could buy and drive a car, the path to success looked easier. New York's role as a port of entry continues the tradition that peaked at Ellis Island, where my grandparents began their own American Dream.

But New York City continues to attract ambitious dreamers from all over the world. As Junday indicates, many of those dreamers are young and at the start of their working life. They come for economic opportunity and are assisted by family and friends who speak their language and arrived before they did--and this is not limited to the city itself. While the five boroughs are the heart of the city, it is important to also count the twenty million people in the New York metropolitan area. From Valley Stream to Hoboken, and from Yonkers to Jersey City, these areas are part of the fabric of a place called "the city" that grew out from Flatbush to Astoria, sharing a few core values.

Those values include a tolerance of diversity, even when the foreign seems strange and maybe a little dangerous. New Yorkers may not always like new migrants but they believe that the city was built to accommodate new arrivals. New Yorkers stand in a subway car or walk down Broadway and their senses are always alert because they understand they are in public space not under their own control. This is not your SUV on the freeway, your suburban home with a security system, lawn and garage; you are sharing space on the city's mass transit circulatory system and everyone who pays the subsidized fare gets to ride. You get to control who sits next to you in your personal vehicle, but you share a subway car with scores of strangers.

Another obvious New York City value is a work ethic and, for many, a desire for frequent interaction with others. While it's possible to remain anonymous in a crowd, it's still a crowd. You can't simply drive past the homeless camped under the interstate, and while some try, most New Yorkers do not look away from people in need. They carry baby carriages up a subway stair well, give up their seat for someone who needs to sit, and say something when they see something. New Yorkers give the surface appearance of being tough and hard, but for the most part, there is melting mush beneath the hard exterior.

A growing value, but certainly nowhere close to dominant, is sustainability and environmental protection. Our water and air are cleaner than they've been in many decades. Our water system and parks are all being renovated. Our electric supply system is slowly getting modernized and made more efficient. Our recycling rate is slowly increasing. Government and the private sector are investing billions of dollars to make the city more resilient in the face of sea level rise. We still may end up underwater, but we are not giving up this place without a fight.

While older people may be set in their sloppy wasteful ways, young people are changing the culture. Greenmarkets, gyms, and environmental advocacy are on the rise. Teenagers from all over the world see the city on the Web and want to come to college here. Many come to school and stay here. People from nations with less stable political regimes are buying apartments and stashing cash and valuables in case they need to quickly run from home. New York City is always in the global media and the images of this place are the inescapable backdrop of the emerging global culture.

And that culture does not require the luxury consumer goods that are now available in all of the world's major cities. Its core culture values a place that is safe to raise a family and create a social and home life free from violence, and capable of interaction and acceptance by other immigrants and people who grew up here. Also valued is the vivid place that you see on the media: the parades, fireworks, movies, TV shows, nightlife, restaurants, celebrities, theatre, music and art. And young people are adding environmental sustainability to those core beliefs. Their emerging demand for environmental sustainability is the beating heart of New York's sustainable dream.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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A Better Business Plan for a Healthy Ocean
We are used to thinking of the Ocean as a force of nature, but what about the Ocean as a major force in the global economy? After all, with a 'GDP' of US$2.5 trillion (about 5% of the global GDP) and assets modestly valued at over US$24 trillion, the Ocean is the world's 7th largest economy. Yet it has no seat at the G7, G20 or any other decision-making table, and there is no coherent strategy for preserving and nurturing this wealth.

The Ocean directly supports the livelihoods of over 3 billion people, puts vital food on the table for over 2.6 billion around the globe, and transports 90% of our internationally traded goods. Yet it has been chronically neglected - even in the sustainable development arena - and has suffered decades of declining health, largely as a result of human exploitation.

It's time for a concerted intervention to reverse this trend. It makes no sense for the powers that be to just sit by and let one of the world's financial powerhouses and a lynchpin of its entire economy quietly deteriorate without putting up a fight and reversing the trend.

Yet these impressive financial figures represent just a fraction of the Ocean's true worth to humanity and the functioning of our planet. Some contributions are impossible to price, like the fact that the Ocean provides the oxygen for every second breath we take, and absorbs 30% of our CO2 emissions, making it the largest global carbon sink. It has also absorbed 90% of the additional heat generated from these emissions as a result of which it is becoming warmer and more acidic at unprecedented rates. As we envisage a sustainable future we look increasingly out to sea for renewable energy production from offshore wind and tides, and to fishing and aquaculture to feed a growing population. Finally, the Ocean is also home to more than 80% of all life on Earth, much of which remains undiscovered but is already threatened by the impacts of climate change, pollution and overfishing.

A healthy Ocean is an absolute prerequisite both for maintaining the marine financial assets so vital to the global economy, and for allowing the Ocean to go on providing its life-giving services. To achieve this, a radical change is needed in the way we treat the Ocean. A 'business as usual' trajectory depicts a bleak outlook for the future. Unless urgent action is taken, accelerating deterioration of the marine environment puts us at serious risk of earth system-level collapse, resulting in immeasurable harm for people and the planet.

The Ocean, most of which lies outside state jurisdiction, is our common heritage and our common responsibility. These challenges must be tackled together and the benefits equitably shared. But global Ocean governance is patchy, fragmented and ranges from woefully ineffective to entirely non-existent, while marine resource extraction and use is unsustainable and in many cases illicit. We lack the international legislation, mechanisms and tools to solve the global ocean crisis. The Global Ocean Commission's 2014 Report not only points this out, but articulately elaborates on eight specific actions we can take - all scientifically backed and economically feasible - to restore the Ocean's health.

©Wolcott Henry

We should all recognize the value of the Ocean! We should demand and take action to restore its heath. We live at a time where unprecedented opportunities abound that can restore the ocean, but we have to seize them. Meeting these strong commitments will yield significant returns for global food security, livelihoods, climate security and biodiversity, and for business. From fishing and shipping, to tourism, retail and energy generation, ocean-related industries and businesses have everything to gain from a productive, flourishing ocean.

The ocean needs a 'Business Plan' such as the one set out by the Global Ocean Commission. This Plan incorporates viable solutions that directly and effectively reverse the cycle of decline and establish a way forward which enshrines good governance, sustainable development, and effective conservation for the common good.

Following last year's conference held in Chile, under the leadership of Minister Heraldo Muñoz, the third Our Ocean Conference has just taken place in Washington DC, once again bringing together visionary and bold actors and leaders - including many from business and industry - to forge partnerships and mobilize action. It was the second Our Ocean event hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and I want to personally thank him for his unwavering leadership on Ocean challenges during the past few years. The results speak for themselves: since their launch by Secretary Kerry in 2014, Our Ocean conferences have generated initiatives valued at over US$9.2 billion, and secured pledges to protect 9.9 million square kilometers of the Ocean. These commitments prove that many governments and corporations are ready to be ambitious and inventive in pursuing ocean solutions: we need to build on this momentum.

Our goal now is to accelerate and expand the process of building awareness and understanding of the importance of the Ocean to the business community, and the need for strong corporate engagement and leadership, and to develop and advance a Global Ocean Business Plan that promotes and stimulates ocean health.

A vibrant Ocean is one of the fundamental pillars keeping the global economy afloat. Thus taking action to protect it is one of the best investments we can make.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Secretary of State John Kerry's Our Oceanconference and Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference (September 15th, 16th) as part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here. The State Department does not endorse the content of this blog. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #OurOcean #MakeASplash.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Meatless Monday: Alex Hershaft, From Holocaust Survivor to FARM Hero
Before there was PETA, PCRM, Farm Sanctuary, Vegan Street and Meatless Monday, there was Farm Animal Rights Movement. Now celebrating its 40th year, FARM wears its years lightly. So does its founder, Alex Hershaft, 82.

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Hershaft was five when he and his family were sent to the Warsaw Ghetto, along with 450,000 other Warsaw Jews. He and his mother escaped and survived. The rest of his family did not. Hershaft, who serves on the Advisory Council of Jewish Veg, speaks about how he went from Holocaust survivor to animal rights pioneer next week in New York.

The short version is, 30 years after the war, Hershaft, a chemical engineer living in the States and struggling with survivor guilt was assigned to do a wastewater study of a slaughterhouse. The facility was piled with bones and bodies -- all part of the process, part of the job. In the same way, he realized, the bones and bodies of millions killed in concentration camps were all part of the job.

Look up the word slaughter --it means mass killing, in a cruel or violent way. What chilled Hershaft wasn't just the cruelty of the slaughterhouse but the callousness that keeps the system going -- and our tacit participation in it. "We subsidize terrible oppression of animals every time we shop at the supermarket," he says. "The terrible price my family paid deserves some kind of lesson. That lesson to me is the germ of oppression is within all of us and we must be forever watchful."

To do that, Hershaft created FARM and initiatives including the Animals Rights National Conference, all designed to create consciousness. Including his own. Hershaft had been vegetarian for years, but as FARM honed its message and expanded its reach, its Board of Directors approached him and kindly but firmly said, go vegan or away. Hershaft laughs. "It was social pressure -- I was forced to become vegan."

Despite all he has lived through, Hershaft laughs easily and often. His secret? He laughs again. "Let me tell you for free what I paid Dale Carnegie $500 dollars for -- work in very tight compartments. Make a path for the week, for each day, then don't think about the problem, get involved in the solution."

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A believer in grassroots activism, Hershaft prefers action to prayer, or perhaps action is prayer for him. On October 2, he'll observe a tradition he began in 1983, his annual fast on behalf of animals. This year, the date falls on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, but Hershaft chose the date because it's Gandhi's birthday. Thousands of people have joined the fast each year. For Hershaft, though, the fast remains "a personal thing." You don't have to miss a meal to usher in the New Year meaningfully. Do it "by dropping animals from the menu."

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FARM celebrates its 40th anniversary with a celeb-studded party next month. Hershaft will be there -- he loves to dance. But he's also thinking about the future of FARM, now searching for a new executive director. Hershaft officially stepped back from FARM leadership years ago, but he'll always be the spirit of the nonprofit and a hero of the movement. You don't earn a spot on VegNews' vegan Mount Rushmore for nothing.

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Even after all these years, Hershaft continues to find purpose and passion in what he does. "Especially the conference," he says. "I really love doing it. Seeing what it does for people, the transformations, the life-changing experiences, is very satisfying."

Apple and Date Coffee Cake

The beloved Rosh Hashanah tradition of starting the new year sweet with apples and honey gets a vegan update. We keep the apples, but swap out honey for dates. Moist, rich, super-quick to make and made with spelt flour, for some whole grain goodness. Lovely with coffee or tea, served plain or dusted with powdered sugar.

1 cup raw almonds
1-1/2 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon clove
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk or almond milk
1/2 cup 1 tablespoon brandy (optional)
1 baking apple, such as Granny Smith or Pink Lady, peeled, cored and chopped fine
1/4 cup Medjool dates (about 4), pitted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil an 8" layer cake pan.

In a large bowl, sift together spelt and unbleached flour, evaporated cane sugar, baking powder, spices and lemon zest.

Using a blender or food processor, chop almonds fine and add to flour mixture, stirring to combine.

In a small bowl, combine the chopped apple and the fresh lemon juice.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in soy or almond milk and optional brandy Stir lightly, just until the mixture forms a thick batter.

Add the chopped apple, lemon juice and the chopped dates, stir until just combined. Spoon batter into the prepared layer cake pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until cake smells fragrant and coffee cake springs back when gently poked.

Tickets still available for Alex Hershaft's September 27 talk at Hebrew Union College.
Next month in Meatless Monday: FARM looks at 40.
More at soulfulvegan.com

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