Religious Leaders Eat Vegan Lunch at Windsor Castle

Earlier this week, more than 200 representatives of the world's major religions gathered together for a vegan lunch at Windsor Castle in the U.K. Jewish, Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Daoist, Hindu, Muslim, Shinto, and Sikh leaders involved in environmental efforts were participating in the "Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet" interfaith conference. Prince Philip and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were also on hand.

According to Reuters UK, the local and sustainable menu reportedly included "a salad of roasted English pear, celeriac and cobnuts (a type of hazelnut grown in Kent)"; "mushrooms stuffed with artichoke, red onion and thyme, served on pearl barley and butternut squash risotto"; and "non-alcoholic cranberry and orange cocktails."

In the Forward last week, Leah Koenig wrote that the eight Jewish delegates from the U.S. and Israel included Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair (founder of the Jewish Climate Change Campaign in Israel), Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur, and Hazon founder Nigel Savage.

Koenig explained that conference organizers "chose vegan food to provide a low-impact meal that accommodates the widest spectrum of the delegates’ dietary needs." Nevertheless, she noted that despite the organizers' "least-common-denominator approach," "the lack of a mashgiach and separate dishes means that kosher-keeping Jewish delegates will not be able to eat the lunch." They are apparently "the only participants unable to do so." Koenig added that some of them declined an offer to order food from "an outside kosher kitchen" because, as Rabbi Sinclair said, "I realized I'd be eating food that was triple-wrapped in plastic with disposable cutlery at an environmental conference."