CLAUDIO NICOLIG
When I met Lorenza, my wife Justine was waiting for the little Rebecca. Well, that's just the reason that’s pushed me to approach the vegan culture. At that time Diego and I, who we know as children, were on the way back from a long sailboat trip we had kept away from home for many months. In the quiet marina of Horta, Faial Island, the Azores, each year the return boats from the Caribbean Sea meet.
A short break to allow the crews to gather their forces before facing the last thousand miles to Gibraltar and return to the warm waters of the Nostrum Sea. And among the members of this comedy, here comes Lorenza, embarked on a beautiful sailing ship from the Americas, full of enthusiasm, strength and health. How many times can a casual encounter lead to a change in our lives?
A difficult friendship ours. For my fault, I admit it. In the beginning, in fact, I’ve faced Lorenza's thought and philosophy of life with much skepticism. Her idea of proper nutrition collided with everything I had learned in my life. How? Does meat hurt? Is milk a poison? Does fine flour starch paste into the intestinal walls? But are we crazy?
Yet, I felt that within me some truths found their place. Some tiles of the mosaic that in the years of study I had not been able to put in order, miraculously joined each other in a logical thread that led to one conclusion. A conclusion that I struggled to accept. In fact, I refused to accept. But with my little baby coming in, I could not, genuinely, look the other way.
Since then, some years have passed and with the birth and development of the project "Fruit Paradise" I had to face a long and exhausting journey. Within me, as consciousness was getting more and more space, anger began, however, to mount.
Son of a materialistic-scientific culture, I’ve spent my whole life dealing with problems rationally. Everything must have its own scientific explanation. Miracles do not exist, and even if some things may seem miraculous, it is only due to a lack of science that has not yet been able to find the right answers. During college years of study, my confidence in scientific knowledge was further increased.
The study of organic chemistry, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, all led me to believe that science would give all the answers. My confidence in medicine also grew. My mom was a pharmacist and taught me to consider today's drug culture perfectly suited to our needs. Headache? A tablet of ibuprofen and everything goes by. Sore throat? A good antibiotic and you're cured. There is a drug for each disease. If there is not, soon, there will be!...