Food For Life Global Interview

[00:00:00] Welcome. Today in great.com talks with Food for Life Global, and in tonight’s episode, we’re going to explore a philosophy that concerns every human being on this planet.

[00:00:13] And that philosophy is you become what you eat. And Food for Life Global is providing two million meals every day, vegan meals for people in need.

[00:00:27] And on the surface, it might look like the core of food for life is about ending starvation on food relief. And I guess maybe that is a big part of it. But I also suspect that there’s something more going on behind the curtains. And that’s why we have invited the founder, Paul Turner, to kind of help us understand what is the mission, how big is the problem and what’s food for life all about. So welcome to this podcast.

[00:00:56] Thank you, Spirit. I appreciate the opportunity.

[00:01:02] Could you elaborate about food as a way to connect? Does that resonate with you?

[00:01:12] Yes, of course. I mean, we can see that food is at the center of every culture. You can literally define a culture by the food. When you think about pizza or lasagna or anything like that, you think of Italian culture. When you think of spicy foods, you think of Indian culture. So food is the center of culture is the center of consciousness. It’s. The kitchen or the dinner table is the center of the household. We all sort of congregate around the dinner table. So it’s an important part of. Our evolution and a daily life, so food for Life Global is, as you indicated, is more than simply just a food relief organization. Although we’re very good at what we do, we effectively serve, as you mentioned, around two million meals every day. And they’re freshly cooked meals, too, by the way. They’re freshly cooked vegan meals. So that morning the vegetables are cleaned and chopped, the rice is clean and and then the kitchen goes into full swing and meals are prepared and served on the same day, directly served to the recipient. So it’s quite unique. We’re very, very effective in what we do. We can feed more people for less money than any other organization in the world. However, and underline under an undercurrent of the actual mission is is superimportant and that is that food being a center of culture, it’s also the great unifier. Food speaks all languages. And so food has the ability to break through barriers and remove all of the divisive sort of mentalities and things which keep us separate and bring us all together around the cultural dinner table of the universal dinner table of life and bring us, you know, make us feel like brothers and sisters, like one big family. So our tagline, our mission is to unite the world through pure food. And what this relates to is that we believe that is the solution to addressing the root cause of hunger, because hunger is not of that world.

[00:03:25] Hunger is not because of a lack of food. There’s plenty of food in the world. In fact, there’s enough food to feed probably two to three times the population. So the question must be asked, why is there.

[00:03:38] World hunger, if there’s so much food in the world, so the United Nations is contemplated this question for many years and they come up with the answer that it’s because of an equity, inequitable distribution. But no one’s going the next step in asking the question, why is there an equitable distribution? And we believe we have the answer to that. And that answer is it’s because of a sense of division in the sense of like inequality. We don’t see ourselves as a united family earthlings, you know, like a global family. And because of that, we’re not equally sharing the resources of the world. So with Food for Life Global, we’re trying to not only feed families, but also teach this

message of unity, of bringing people together, of uniting the world around a plate of pure food with loving consciousness, good consciousness. And so in that way, we nourishing not only the body, but the mind and soul as well.

[00:04:37] You can hear the rooster in the background, too, but we’re hearing this living on a farm that is it’s not it’s an animal.

[00:04:45] My wife runs an animal sanctuary in the Andes Mountains of Colombia. It’s the only certified animal sanctuary in South America. And it was actually the first one.

[00:04:56] And so, yeah, this is our life. We live high up in the mountains with 120 animals.

[00:05:02] So you’re saying food can break the Paracel language, or was that a sign that they can break down the barriers of division like the things which separate us?

[00:05:15] Because at the end of the day, it’s like we can all we may have philosophical political differences, but hey, let’s all enjoy a vegan pizza. Let’s all enjoy, you know, a bowl of beautiful vegetable soup and fresh rye bread. It’s there is those things which divide us sort of just dissolve into the into the, you know, around the dinner table.

[00:05:39] So that that’s what we’re sort of aiming for is on a much bigger scale to bring the world together around.

[00:05:46] Pure food and a huge side effect of that would also be that you’re actually advocating for animals while being.

[00:06:01] Yes, exactly, and, you know, that’s that’s obviously directly related to it, because we’re promoting a plant based diet and at the same time we’re encouraging people to, you know, not get the nutrition from animal based foods, which is obviously not necessary. And in fact, that’s another reason why this project that my wife is running is so relevant, because in her project, she’s not feeding people like we do at Food for Life Global that she’s promoting also the sense of equality of all beings by showing people that animals also have personalities, their living, breathing souls within different bodies. And so she essentially has the same mission, but just presenting it in a different way.

[00:06:46] So in a sense, on the surface, you are providing food to people in need, but on the behind that, it’s a matter of the problem that you are trying to solve is inequality Gotabaya definition for the problem that you’re.

[00:07:02] Absolutely. That’s a big it’s a very important part of our mission, is to promote the sense of unity, you know, equality of all beings. Because whether you’re a theist or an atheist, say you’re an atheist and you don’t believe in a supreme personality of Godhead, a supreme being, you still have to come to the you know, agree to the fact that at some particular point in time, there was a singular, energetic explosion, which we all came from the Big Bang.

[00:07:30] So essentially, we’re energetically connected. We all have the same energetic signature. So whether you’re a theorist or a or an atheist, you we all have to agree that we are energetically connected. There’s an energetic signature which resonates for all of us. So at a spiritual or a fundamental energetic level, we’re all one and the same. Although we’re individuals, we’re still very much connected. So that has that’s a that’s an important message that people need to understand.

[00:08:04] Could you help us to find them like food? Everybody eats food all the time, so it really goes down to personal choices all the time. And could you help us define hi conscious food versus low conscious food? I guess killing would be a very low conscious food. Are there more categories like this to define high versus low conscious food, according to the ancient scriptures of India, at least?

[00:08:30] And of course, I’m sure other. Spiritual cultures have different ways of looking at it, but food essentially comes in three categories is at three three basic characteristics ignorance, passion and goodness. So the food that is in a sense of goodness, it’s uplifting to the consciousness, that’s satisfying to the senses. It makes the mind peaceful. It’s very, very.

[00:08:58]

Very uplifting, whereas food and passion is very agitating to the mind. It’s very entertaining to the senses as very spicy, very like very hot foods, a in amount of passionate food, in the mode of ignorances, putrefied foods which lower their consciousness, which are filled with anger and fear and all of these negative energies and that can, you know, cloud our consciousness, make us very lazy and and very unclear. So what we do try to do, which would flood levels, we’re only serving plant based meals so that. The food has the least amount of negative energy, this is the least amount of. Violence is involved in preparing food and then on top of that, the cooks try to prepare the meal with a good attitude because intention is actually one of the important ingredients when we’re preparing food. The thoughts that we have also go into that food, and it does physically change the food and this is actually scientifically proven, there’s literally a whole scientific.

[00:10:08] Area of research called, you know, where there are literally thousands of scientists around the world now studying the effect of intention. On physical reality, there’s a great book by Lynn Lynn McTaggert, I think she’s from England and she wrote two books. One was called The Field, another one’s called the Intention Experiment. And she goes into, you know, she goes deep into this subject and she shares the research of thousands of scientists around the world on intention. So intention is one of the ingredients that go into food and the rest to be conscious about that really shift perspective.

[00:10:47] Intention is one of the ingredients of food I’ve never heard of before, and it resonates very strongly. So basically by if I want to live a like a healthy life, one of the things to look out for would be am I allowing negative energy violence to go step into my door just from the food that I pick. And that is then going to affect the quality of my life and as a whole.

[00:11:17] Hmm, yeah, people aren’t thinking about that, they’re thinking in terms of just the physical experience, you know, what’s going to taste good? You know, what’s what’s going to satisfy my physical senses, my tongue. And that’s you know, that’s a big mistake if we just see the world.

[00:11:32] On that very surface level, we need to go deeper. We need to understand that the food that we eat does actually physically affect our body as well as our consciousness in our mind, and it can actually make us happy or sad or angry and so on. And this is this is a proven fact. So we have to be aware of that. If we want to raise our consciousness, if we want to be a happier person, eat happier foods, eat foods, which is foods which are less affected by pain and suffering, because that will help us. Tremendously. So on this on this subject, I actually wrote a book called Fujioka where I dive deep into this topic. And one of the takeaways of Fujinaga is that. And I learned this as a monk because I was a monk for 14 years and my younger, younger life from the age of 19 to 33, and that is that in order to raise our consciousness, we need to master the time. We need to control the tongue. That’s actually the secret of success in life, is to master the tongue. The tongue has two functions, tasting and vibrating. So what we speak and what we eat has a tremendous impact on our consciousness. So the more we can master tongue speaking words which are positive, which are truthful, which are uplifting, eating food, which are of high vibration, like pure clean foods, all of these things can help to raise our consciousness in mastering the tongue is actually the secret to raising consciousness.

[00:13:09] “You might say spirituality begins with the tongue”.

[00:13:13] Exactly. Exactly.

[00:13:17] And then if we go back to Food for Life Global, you then have you realize this is a big problem and people are basically blind to even see feel the vibrations going into food. Now, you start to see now and now you start to help people to see this what you’re doing then in this organization, providing Veum plant based food. Could you tell us a little bit more on is that the solution that we we give people new experience of food? Have you tried different ways to address this issue of inequality and ignorance and when it comes to food consciousness?

[00:14:01] I of course, there’s many ways to address the inequalities of the world, but I believe since food is such a universally accepted thing and then we all eat, every single person on this planet eats two to three times a day.

[00:14:14] And it’s the thing which brings us all together. It’s just a fact of life.

[00:14:18] So, you know, this is the easiest way to address this problem by preparing by teaching people about the importance of preparing food in good consciousness, eating food which is less violent, you know, cleaner, higher vibration. All of these things can help to make us feel better personally and also help us to connect with others on

a deeper level. So we believe this is the most effective way to do that. The more and in fact, you know, we don’t want to just keep this secret to ourselves. I mean, we’re very, very enthusiastic to share this with others and to see other people start their own particular project. I mean. We actually have books that we booked, a book that I wrote specifically talking about how anyone can start their own fruitfly project project and become affiliated with our organization and expand this idea of sharing food, uniting the world through pure food and addressing the problems of the world, because I believe very strongly that. If we had this sense of unity, the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood hung, things like hunger would disappear overnight, I would just disappear, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t be present anymore. No one would tolerate it if we actually had the sense of unity.

[00:15:38] And then what ripple effects would that provide to other inequalities? I guess I would say exactly now. Exactly. So what I’m getting out there to make it more practical for someone listening on one way is that you’re providing food, meals to people who doesn’t have that much possibilities to get food themselves so that you’re ending starvation or food relief.

[00:16:09] And you said that you managed to do that in a very effective way. Could you tell us a little bit about some would donate 100 euros hundred dollars to discuss what would that given in proportion to the amount of food?

[00:16:26] Well, one hundred dollars would actually enable us to feed 400 people because literally we could provide a meal for 25 cents, a completely freshly cooked vegan meal delivered to that person for 25 cents. So in this in this connection, we actually started a separate social enterprise called Feed on the Kindness Ecosystem. And this social enterprise is selling what’s called the guarantee certification own guarantee and own standards for output, measurable, guaranteed. So essentially what we’re doing is we’re leveraging the cost efficiency of the charity Food for Life Global and bringing it to the marketplace as a digital asset that socially responsible companies can use to enhance the value of their brand and in effect, certify their social output. So a company, for example, could certify a particular product that they sell or service and allocate a set number of, um, guarantee certifications to that product so that when their customer buys that product, they will effectively be able to say to that customer, oh, by the way, it is food to children, 20 children, 100 children, whatever that number is. So they get certified for doing good. And the guarantees also only cost 25 cents. So we have many companies that have already signed up and are using this vegan snack food companies, restaurants, financial companies, travel companies. And as they sell their services, they can then very enthusiastically tell their customers, not only are you getting this great product or service, but you just fed a child a vegan meal. And so it’s a very effective way for companies in a very cost efficient way for socially responsible companies to get back, but then get something tangible that they can add value, that can add value to their marketing, as in the. As a as an actual certification for the product.

[00:18:24] See, if I understand correctly, partner with organizations already into the catering business and yes, provide them with conscious food and then they can channel that through their customers.

[00:18:38] So in this way, you can spread the chain of conscious food?

[00:18:43] Well, yes. In other words, typically a company may want to align their product or service or their brand with a cause. Right now, don’t make a donation to a charity. And that’s all good. But the difference between the unguaranteed certification is that they’re actually purchasing a digital asset, which essentially is an advertising cost. It’s not a donation. So the tax benefits are much better and but the effect is the same. So they’re actually getting 25 cents for the delivery of this actual meal to a needy child. And in return, they get back a digital asset in the form of a certification, which they can put on their product, put on their website, put on their social media and say, yeah, we’re on guarantee certified a child. We just fed a thousand children, whatever that number is. So we have the system set up. So it’s dynamically calculated. So as they as they continue to purchase some guarantees, that number is reflected on their website dynamically and their customers can get an instant feedback and encouragement and incentivize them to continue buying products and services from that company.

[00:19:55] And great, thank you for that kind of explanation on what ways you can do as an individual or as a company. I guess there’s different ways as well. And you can participate.

[00:20:05] And then you would go to the website Food for Life Global.

[00:20:10] Yeah, FFL dot org, so people can obviously volunteer their time as a virtual volunteer or if they want to volunteer in the field or they can donate to a charity directly, or they can if they’re a company and they want to take advantage of the certification project, they can they can purchase certifications. And it’s the same effect. At the end of the day, many children are getting a fresh look at big and real.

[00:20:36] I’m assuming that people are interested to self assess how conscious am I in my choices of food, that’s at least where I’m thinking at the moment. I’ve been eating vegetarian for eight years and two of those who were vegan years. But now I’m back to vegetarian and I’m already starting to think, OK, am I allowing negative energy to flow into my system? And I thought I was having quite a good understanding about the food I’m eating, but I’m not now start to question the food that I’m actually bringing into. So if people want to understand more about their own food choices, where would you recommend people?

[00:21:22] Yeah, it’s it’s a big thing, which most people don’t think about too much, they just they think, as I said, it’s the consciousness from most people is on a very surface level. What can satisfy my tongue? And that’s it. They’re not thinking about the end result of that. You know how this is going to affect my consciousness, how this is going to affect my karma, my future, my future. Because as you eat, you’re accumulating karma as well. So in terms of like, the difference between vegetarian and vegan, obviously with vegetarian, you still consuming dairy products. And the problem with the dairy products is that they’re so linked to the abuse of animals. Dairy cows are horribly abused in the modern dairy system. And so that’s why most vegans choose to abstain from from dairy products because of the animal abuse. And it’s literally impossible to separate the two unless you have your own cow. But that’s. Typically not really possible for most people, so. You just have to be conscious of what you put in your mouth not doesn’t simply nourish your body, but it does impact your your mind and your consciousness, your soul and. It the quicker we can understand that and embrace that, the happier and more successful will be in life.

[00:22:46] Thank you.

[00:22:47] How about we end this interview on that kind of message, OK? Would you would you want to say something I said before? When is there anything else that you would like for people to understand here that you think is an important message on the.

[00:23:08] Um. I think.

[00:23:13] I think, you know, what I said today is, you know, essentially what I sort of stand for, as I mentioned in my early years, I was a monk and I invested a lot of time in developing and raising my consciousness and purifying my mind. And so that now feeds into everything I do later on in my life, including the books that I write and the work that I’m involved in. It’s always has a spiritual sort of undercurrent where even though it may not be, it’s certainly not sectarian, it’s very universal. But there’s always a spiritual message there in a certain way with the armed guarantee certification, for example, it’s a social enterprise. We’re selling a digital asset, but it’s the only guarantee. And all, of course, is a spiritual sound vibration. So, you know, so so right there, there’s there’s a very positive effect on the on the consciousness. People will say the unguaranteed in this context. I’m using that as an acronym for Output Measurable Guarantee. And the same thing with the books that I write. I’ve written quite a few books now. One one book. The most recent book I wrote was called The Seven Maxims for Soul Happiness. And there I talk about how to actually achieve constant happiness and the seven rules for that. And and I share that. And it’s it’s based on my spiritual experience, but it’s also rooted in scientific research and logic. So that’s another thing which I try to try to share with people. I’m not simply just quoting scripture, but I’m trying to present these spiritual concepts in a modern in a modern context and a practical context so that people can apply it in their life. They don’t have to be a monk. You don’t have to be a monk to be spiritual. That’s that’s not the point.

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