Dear Damodara Svarupa dasa, Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! I thank you for your further questions and attempt to understand this matter deeper.
Onion and garlic are only flowering plants. Who invented the story it comes from the cow’s meat or bones? This is way off, and is just as odd as the origin of the plant called mandrake.
This statement is from the Rig Veda, which is one of the original four Vedas. You can read this and the other quotes from the Puranas on the same lines in my original post. They are plants now but it is how they actually originated in one of the previous Yuga according to the Vedic scriptures (cannot be scientifically verified now). The exact time of that origination is not specified. As we read in the Vedic scriptures, in the previous yugas, there were many things possible which are not possible now. For example making a woman pregnant simply by glancing at her like in the case of Shrila Vyasadeva and Ambika etc. So, even if it may not sound very scientific, the possibility of plants originating from a piece of cow's meat and bones in the previous yugas, cannot certainly be ruled out.
As you can see from the appearance of the red onion in my original post, it does look a lot like the red blood with the veins in a piece of meat with blood. The photo of garlic does look similar to the bones of a cow. Of course the appearance is not the proof but the Vedic statement is. I personal don't think this story is simply an imagination with some hidden agenda just to make us avoid eating onions and garlic and it is my realization that it is the truth. But ultimately it is upto the reader to accept it or ignore it as speculation. Many Gaudiya Vaishnava Gurus also accept this story and have related it to their disciples.
I’ve read other reports on garlic, onions and even chocolate which claim just the opposite. Why all of a sudden hang on to ‘scientists’ who change their logic every other day?
The rajasic (passionate) vipaka (nature) of onions and garlic is accepted never on the basis of findings by scientists but on the basis on the Vedic scriptures and ancient Vedic sciences like Ayurveda etc. And it happens that many other paths like Christianity, Chinese, Jainism etc. have independently come to the same conclusion. And it just so happens that coincidentally some scientific findings seems to support this too.
Why is it unacceptable (for offering)? What is the true reason for this?
Again, it is due to the above two reasons as described in the Vedic scriptures.
Since leek is related to onions and garlic, are we not to eat leek as well?
The leek , Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum (L.), also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to the Alliaceae family. Two related vegetables, the elephant garlic and kurrat, are also variant subspecies of Allium ampeloprasum, although different in their uses as food.
Frankly, I cannot say a confirmed yes or no about leek as the specific and direct scriptural description and injunction about leek is not available. But it may be possible that leek, belonging to the same family and looking quite similar to garlic, may have it's origin in the same way during that same time as described in the Rig Veda story above. But there is a possibility that this may not be case also. I am sorry I cannot say it for certain in the case of leek. Of course, in such a case, to be on the safer side, some devotees may prefer to avoid leek also. I hope this helps a little bit more.
Daaso'smi, BRS Swami Gaurangapada.
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