Kosher / Halal vs "Here's my arbitrary list of restrictions..."

While in New Zealand on my recent trip, and looking for food ingredients in the supermarket with my mother, I had this realization:

Religious traditions with dietary restrictions such as Islam and Judaism have terms which describe their otherwise complex and arbitrary (to outsiders) lists of do and don'ts. In the case of Islam approved foods are halal. In the case of Judaism the term is kosher.

Hare Krishnas, Gaudiya Vaisnavas, don't have a term like this to describe foods made from approved ingredients. Instead of looking for the "Gaudiya Vaisnava approved food" term - let's call it sat-bhoga hypothetically - instead of looking for the "sat-bhoga" label on an item, I, or my mother if she's looking for something that Prahlad and I can eat, have to read all the ingredients and compare it with a list of things that we can and cannot eat.

For my mother that's particularly frustrating, because it just seems random and arbitrary. She'll buy something and then find out that we can't eat it because of yet another ingredient that doesn't make the cut. It can seem like we're just trying to be difficult.

For a mother whose son has become Jewish or Muslim, however, she can just look for kosher and halal foods, or ask people: "Is this halal / kosher?" The person may not even know, but the mother has a term at least, and doesn't have to carry around a list of ingredients and components and query about each one. These traditions encapsulate their conception, give it a name, and then systematically push that into the consciousness of the outside society. Check out Kosher Australia for an example.

Having a term gives these religions mainstream credibility and respectability.

Until we have a term for sat-bhoga, we are still a fringe cult.

When you're ordering something at a restaurant or for an airplane meal you can't say: "Vegetarian / Vegan / Halal / Kosher". You have to say: "Vegetarian with no onions or garlic". That's not serious. That's not standardized. That's arbitrary.

Of course the idea is that strict Gaudiya Vaisnavas never eat anything at a restaurant or on a plane, but as Gauranga Kishore was saying the other day, at the same time we have to engage with the world and transform it.

Imagine how easy it would be to help people make lifestyle changes if you could tell them - "oh, just look out for the 'sat-bhoga'' label".

in that regard, my mother took Prahlad out for an icecream at Lynmall. She said that when the lady at the icecream stall saw Prahlad's sikha (the tuft of hair that many Hare Krishnas have) she said: "Oh, devotees can have this flavour, and this one...."

Seems like at least some devotees (let's be honest - many if not most) do frequently "eat outside".

We urgently need our own food term for acceptable bhoga in the mainstream vocabulary.

I reckon "Bonafide" would be a good one. The logo could be a big "Bonafide" with "for devotees" underneath it. That way you can tell your mum: "Just ask them if it's bonafide..."