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ARANGASEM: Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika declared Sunday as World Organic Vegan Day during the Save the Earth Festival at Ashram Ratu Bagus in Muncan, Karangasem.

The governor also announced Friday as the day of abstinence from animal products.

“Let us together save this earth by controlling and changing our consumption pattern,” Pastika said Sunday before hundreds of environmental activists and religious leaders.

The festival was initiated by the Bali Green Community, an organization of spiritual seekers.

Bali Green Community leader Made Aripta Wibawa said that the root of global warming was not the pollution created by motor vehicles or industry but the waste generated by modern livestock farms.

“A Food and Agriculture Organization report disclosed that such farms and the whole process of preparing livestock into consumption-grade meat contributed 18 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions,” he said.

“That percentage is higher than the 13 percent generated by all vehicles in the world combined,” he argued.

He said that by becoming a vegetarian, a person could save up to 1.5 tons of carbon emissions per year.

Pastika expressed his support for the Bali Green Community’s initiative, stating that it supported his vision of transforming Bali into a green province.

“Bali will be a pioneer in implementing eco-friendly policies and activities,” he added. — JP