Come 2015, my story took a very dark turn – I was diagnosed with prediabetes, PCOD, hypothyroidism and tachycardia (166 bpm at rest at the peak of my chronic illness). I was also suffering from migraine (chronic; since 8th grade) and would regularly self-medicate for pain relief. In March 2018 with my health worsening by the day – I read The China Study, watched Forks over Knives & Plant Pure Nation; embraced a 100% Whole Foods Plant Based Oil-Free diet overnight and became a veritable case-study of complete healing at the Mastering Diabetes program. In 2020, I suffered several personal COVID-related losses, including tragically losing my father. If animal agriculture did not exist along with such an emphasis on animal-based protein, such personal suffering owing to chronic illness and zoonotic pandemics could be avoided altogether. In the Fall of 2018, I founded The Virsa Foundation, a Boston-based 501c3 nonprofit that exclusively serves underserved communities, especially BIPOC women through our JIVINITI research & strategy programs, women-led coalitioning and campaign-based activism in the U.S., India and around the world. I’m on a mission to help manifest a vegan world, where avoidable chronic illness, animal agriculture and systemic racism are a thing of the past and we can finally restore both public health as well as planetary health. Factory farms (CAFOs) represent the worst nightmare that one species can wreck upon another in the name of food. All my professional might is now devoted to bringing this and related injustices to light and to nudge plant-powered change at an individual and policy level.”
