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Subverting Traditions & Returning to Nature (II) —The Awakening of an 4th Generation Rancher, Howard Lyman

While I was in England, one of thestrangest things in the world happened.The stars aligned correctly; maybe Bud-dha had something to do with it. Theministers stood in front of Parliamentand said we no longer can assure theEnglish people that Mad Cow Diseasecannot be transferred from cows tohumans. The National Parliament BeefAssociation said it was the explosion thatwas heard around the world. I was theonly person in England from the UnitedStates willing to speak about the issue. Idid 70 press events in nine days. I wasinvited to BBC radio to speak on WorldService Tonight. While there I asked the

producer, “How many stations is thison?” He said, “I don’t know. But we arein 200 countries; a few thousandstations.” I went there as a farm boy. Ileft as a celebrity. I walked out the doorfrom BBC radio and next to them wasBBC television. The limo that was theretook me across the street. We could havedone a U-turn, and I spent an hour onBBC television. When I got back to myhotel, seven newspapers were waiting tointerview me. It went like this for dayafter day for nine days.

After nine days in England, I got ona plane and flew back to New York City.I got off the plane, and over the loud-

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speaker I heard: Howard Lyman, pick upa white paging telephone. I picked up thephone; it was Oprah Winfrey! Oprah saidto me, “We would like to do a show called‘Dangerous Food: Could It HappenHere?’” She said, “If I send you a ticket,will you come and appear on my televi-sion show in front of a few millionviewers?” Remember, I was a celebrity.To make a decision on whether I wasgoing to go and speak in front of a fewmillion people, I had to stop and seewhether it was worth my celebrity statusto do that. I took at least four or fiveseconds, and then I agreed. Oprah sentme a ticket; I flew to Chicago. I got offthe plane walking down the runway car-rying my suit. There was a person in alimo driver’s hat, a blue suit with a bigsign said: Lyman. I said to him, “Couldyou wait for a few minutes until I findsomebody with a camera? I would like toget a picture of this.” He said, “ no. ” Hetook me out and put me in a limo, andthis is absolutely true--that limo was solong I had a phone to talk to the driver. Iwas embarrassed. Luckily the windowswere frosted. Nobody could see. Theytook me down and put me in a suite in ahotel that was larger than a home that Iwas raised in with my two sisters and abrother. But I was there. I knew the nextmorning, I was going to put on my suitand see for the first time, Oprah Winfrey.

I was up early; I had my suit on. Iwent down. My limo was waiting for me.They took me and I met Oprah Winfreyfor the first time. Oprah came up to meand said, “You know, I saw the movieyou made five times. I will never againeat pork.” I could remember looking upand saying, “Oh. Lord! It is going to be agreat day.” I walked into the green room,where every individual goes before go-ing on television to speak to millions ofpeople. You have a responsibility to haveyour wife contact you and tell you ex-actly what you have to say. The phone in

the green room rang; it was my wife. Shetold me exactly what to say. I was think-ing about it. But before I had time to pro-cess it, they put me on the stage. On theright of me was a grandmother from En-gland whose granddaughter was dying ofMad Cow Disease. On the left of me wasthe guy from the National CattlemenBeef Association. Going through mymind was what my wife told me. She said,“Remember, don’t say anything stupid.”Now I was trying to figure out if therewas a comma in that sentence or not. Butbefore I could figure that out, Oprahcame out and pointed at me and said,“Here is a man who believes within tenyears we will have a disease that will makeAIDS look like the common cold.” AndI said, “Absolutely!” Oprah said, “Thatis a strong statement.” I said, “Oprah,we have 100,000 cows a year fine at night,dead in the morning. We grind them upand feed them back to other cows. Wecollect roadkill, deer, elk, raccoons,possums, grind them up and feed thoseto cows. And then we take euthanizedpets that are full of chemicals used tokill them. In the city of Los Angelesalone, 200 tons of euthanized dogs andcats a month are ground up, turned intofeed and fed back to pets for food.”Oprah’s eyes were as big as saucers. Iknow I’d got her. She turned around andlooked at the man from the NationalCattlemen Beef Association, and shesaid, “Dr. Weber, are we feeding cows tocows?” I will never forget what he hadto say, “Oh well…a limited amount ofthat is going on. As near as I could tell,90 percent of all the cattle in fact wereeating the remains of other animals.”The next thing out of Oprah’s mouthgot her sued; she said, “That just stopsme cold; I will never again eat a burger.”

Before going on the Oprah show, Iknew that thirteen states had a law thatwas called the Food Disparagement Law.That law said that it was against the law

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The judge was a seventy-six old lady. Atough old lady. I was sure she would dismissthe case, seeing how exactly what I called forwas exactly what the USDA and FDA werecarrying out. I went to Amarillo, Texas. Allover town, there were bumper stickers thatsaid, “The only mad cow in Texas is namedOprah.” The largest employer in Amarillo wasa slaughter facility killing cows. I knew we werein trouble. I said to my lawyer, “ We need tochange venue.” We went to the judge and said,“Your honor, we would like to change venue.”

She picked up the hammer, slammed itdown, and said, “Motion denied.”

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To be continued

to go and say something you knewto be at fault about a perishablecommodity. I was not worried. Ev-erything that I said on that show, Ibelieved to be true. It took us abouttwo hours to tape the show. Afterwe finish taping the show, I walkedup to Oprah Winfrey and I said toOprah: “Oprah, give me ten minutes.I’ll get you off of chicken.” Oprahlooked at me and said, “Only one ani-mal a day!” I was not worried. I wentout and started doing my thing. Afew weeks later, I got a call from theNational News Magazine, and wasasked, “Do you realize that you arebeing sued along with OprahWinfrey by a group of Texascattlemen?” I said, “No! I don’t knowthat to be true.” I said, “Can I put

you on hold?” I raced in my library.I inventor ied my vegetar iancookbooks. I knew those cattlemenwanted those vegetarian cookbooksbad. I went back and called Oprah,and I said, “Oprah, if we lose thissuit, I’m throwing in my vegetariancookbooks. You’ve got to put up themoney.”

The trial was to be held inAmarillo, Texas. I don’t knowwhether you’ve ever been toAmarillo, Texas. It is not the end ofthe world, but it is clearly visiblefrom there. Prior to the trial, USDAand FDA did exactly what I calledfor. They had been feeding the cowswith sheep and goats.

And I said, “Sure, we will go toAmarillo, Texas.”

(A talk given by Howard Lyman in the CTTBBuddha Hall on March 15, 2008/Chinesetranslated by Yvonne Chu)

A Heart of Compassion for All Life--The Venerable Master’s Answers to Questions on Vegetarianism