Great
Britain is one of the few European countries which had little or no macrobiotic
activity during the Ohsawa years. The first signs of
life were in the late 1960s when Greg and Craig
Sams began to promote macrobiotics in London. Of Anglo-American parentage
they had learned of the movement whilein the States.
The brothers started
a food company, Harmony Foods, and opened a small restaurant in the Portobello
Road section of London. While there was little formal teaching done, macrobiotic
literature and food were made available.
The warmest reception was in the
emerging counter culture. Many young people involved with radical politics, rock
music, or with various fringe social and religious groups saw macrobiotics as
a viable dietary expression of their views.
There was, as in America, some
misunderstanding of the diet, and proponents of the brown rice and
marijuana
regimen were not unknown.
In 1970 Bill Tara,then a manager of Erewhon,
passed through on a longer trip east ward and gave several talks.
Two years
later he returned to look into the possibility of opening an Erewhon operation
somewhere in Europe. When the plan fell through Tara decided to stay on and began
to manage Ceres, the Sams brothers' food shop. Well-spoken, and with experience
teaching macrobiotics in Boston,Chicago,
and Los Angeles, Tara started to
hold public meetings and talks at his home.
In 1974, working with Peter
Bradford, a Britisher just returned from a period of study in Boston, Tara
set up Sunwheel Foods. This was a macrobiotic food company modeled after Erewhon.
It dealt in macrobiotic staples including imported specialty items from Japan.
Also, it produced and distributed more generally popular items like peanut butter
and granola. That same year Tara, Bradford and others organized the Self Health
Center to promote macrobiotics and other holistic and spiritually-oriented teachings.
By
1976 the group which had grown up around the Center felt ready for a major expansion.
They organized the Community Health Foundation and rented a large,five-story Victorian
school in East London.A restaurant and bookshop were opened on the ground floor.
The first Kushi Institute, earlier than even the Boston school, was established
on the upper level. The core curriculum, which Tara had worked out with the Kushis
during one of their visits, included macrobiotic philosophy,cooking and medicine,
plus Oriental diagnosis and massage. Extra space was rented out to groups with
similar views and aims. The CHF was among the first self-supporting centers of
macrobiotic activity.
It served as a model for macrobiotic groups in other
European countries including Holland, Belgium and Switzerland.
In 1975 Tara
had helped arrange Kushi's first European tour. As interest developed on the continent
Tara traveled widely and lectured in Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia.
Also. many aspiring teachers and leaders went from other countries to the Kushi
Institute in London. Thus Tara and the London center played a major role in the
development of macrobiotics throughout Europe. Meanwhile, smaller centers began
to open up around Britain.
In 1978, for example, Michael Burns, an Irishman
who had studied in Boston, went to Edinburgh to start activities. London, however,
remained 'the basis of the movement. Perhaps the first macrobiotic nursery school
in the West was opened in the yard behind the CHF building on Old Street.
In
1981 Tara returned to the United States to become director of the Kushi Institute
of Boston. Denny Waxman,
head of the Philadelphia East West Center went to London to run the CHF
and the Kushi Institute,
He stayed two years. Since then the operations
have been run by Kenyan-born Britisher Jon
Sandifer and others.
Source: macrobiotics Yesterday
and Today
by Ronald E. Kotzsch, Ph.D
