Have You Recognized? The Vegan Or Vegetarian People Are Your Friends Hiding In Plain Sight

 At many recent global events, they served 100% plant-based (Vegan), or 100% Vegetarian food. It is a relatively new trend.

Golden Globe, 77th award ceremony at Beverly Hills (USA), the Responsible Investment Summit (PRI) at Sao Paulo (Brazil), Climate Change conference COP28 at Dubai (UAE) and the Summit of major emerging economies, BRICS etc. had a strictly vegan/vegetarian food spread and their menus had zero meat offering.

At all these events, the underlying idea behind serving meat-free food was to emphasise their objective of sustainability arising from lower carbon footprint and environmental friendliness of the vegan/vegetarian diet. (A study in the Journal of Cleaner Production found that meat-based meals had, on average, 14 times higher environmental impact than their vegan equivalents)

People who consciously opt for vegan/vegetarian food are either health or climate enthusiasts. There may be other reasons too but even these two are good enough to die for. These veg freaks of the world, with their smaller carbon footprint, help the world to last a bit longer for us. In that sense, they are our friends. Courtesy demands we, at least in our minds, honor them as “Friends of the World”. They are oblivious to the fact that they are obliging us. They have never held this obligation over our heads and never have sought anything in return- not even recognition. A perfect hallmark of a true friend.

Among civilizations, Indians have an ancient tradition of observing vegetarianism as a strict discipline. Modern science too endorses the idea of plant-intensive food. Although India is a majority meat-eating nation, its vegetarian population, too, is massive. It is the world's largest repository of vegetarians. In other words, India hosts the largest group of “Friends of the World”. Translated in the Indian language Friends of the World is “Vishwa-Bandhu”

India and the followers of ancient vegetarian culture are contributing to the wellness and sustainability of all earthlings. They are our benevolent fellow global citizens. They abstain from meat for us to sustain.

The culinary bandwidth of Vegan/Vegetarian food is huge in terms of varieties, ingredients, tastes, flavours and colors. Even occasional, once in a week or once in a month observation of vegetarianism can go a long way towards earth’s cause, our own health benefit and service to our fellow earthlings.

Case for Vegan or Vegetarian Fare at Functions of Governments and Corporates

A storm-in-a-tea-cup debate recently ensued in the Indian media. Why was meat not on menu at the Gala Dinner of BRICS*? Why just vegetarian fare offered to delegates? Of course, Indians know how to create debate even when none is required. No wonder India has more than 400 TV News Channels and 17,000 Newspapers, all thriving on debates. A Nobel laureate has written a whole book entitled, “The Argumentative Indian”. Indeed all democracies are noisy and argumentative but Indians take them to altogether another level.



The policy of 100% plant-based food is a new trend in national and international forums. The delegates who dined at Bharat Mandapam perhaps expected it because of the course already charted at other global events. The food offerings at COP28 at Dubai (UAE), at the Hollywood Golden Globe award 77th ceremony at Beverly Hills (USA) and at the Responsible Investment Summit (PRI) at Sao Paulo (Brazil), etc. had been strictly vegan/vegetarian. At all of those events the rationale behind no-meat-food was sustainability. BRICS2026 was no different, their well publicised theme was “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”. Thus vegetarian fare sat in perfect sync with core objective.

The BRICS2026 delegates did not freak out on meat-free offerings. Their focus was on the culinary bandwidth of Indian vegetarian dishes in terms of ingredients, range, tastes and flavours.

Besides the sustainability angle to the all-veg menu, if one was to speculate any other rationale, he can cite a well entrenched practice of no-meat diet among a sizeable Indian population (though majority population is carnivorous). India, the host country may have wanted to bring home to the world, a USP of India. She is the only nation in the world who claims to be hosting the world's largest vegetarian population, measured on every index, be it number, percentage, antiquity and depth of underlying thought process. Vegetarian food offering aptly emphasises this unique aspect of India. Like Ayurveda and Yoga, Vegetarianism too gets increasingly associated with Indian-ness.

Let all who matter take to Vegetarian/Vegan fare at their official functions in the interest of the mother earth and become “Vishwa-Bandhu”, a friend of the world, a benevolent global citizen who abstains from meat so that we all stay longer on this one earth. Even occasional, once in a week or once in a month observation of vegetarianism can go a long way towards earth’s cause and service to our fellow earthlings.

*-BRICS is a group of emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa etc 11 countries currently. Their objective is to increase trade mutually among member countries to accelerate their economies. BRICS summit was held in New Delhi between 12th and 13th Sept 2026.

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