Cows and the Earth – a story of cruelty-free milk
Did you know that the milk and the cheese we consume is coming from dairy herds who had no access to pasture and are feed on high protein fodder, enriched with hormones and antibiotics? And they are milked twice a day after being loaded into mechanised milk production lines, in order to keep the price low. And yet, one litre of milk costs less than a half-litre bottle of water at a UK motorway service or railway station. The farmer receives only 25p a litre, and the real cost is paid by the cow, which lives a short and painful life.
Running a farm on ox power costs less than it does on fossil fuel dependent expensive machinery. Admittedly, working a farm manually is hard labour. However, at times of rising unemployment and alienation from nature, perhaps this could be the answer to many of the problems the world is facing.
To give you an example, there is already a project in the UK, which protects cows and produces its own milk, totally free of animal cruelty. The full story can be read in Ranchor Prime’s book Cows and the Earth, which has just been released by Fitzrovia Press (www.fitzroviapress.com).
1. Cows have been our partners in survival; these noble creatures have lived
alongside humans for thousands of years. At Bhaktivedanta Manor, the Hare
Krishna temple in Hertfordshire, just north of London, a dairy herd has
lived for over three decades.
2. The herd is managed according to the four principles of Cow Protection. ONE: All animals live out their full natural lives. This is an image of the oldest cow of the farm and she was performing an important role during religious ceremonies at her later years. Her name is Chandini and she died peacefully in early 2009.
3. TWO: The cows are hand-milked. Milk gives a balanced supplement to a vegetarian diet - the cows give good quantities of milk well into later life. About 100 litres of milk a day is supplied to the temple kitchen and some of it is made into the manor’s famous sweets.
4. THREE: Calves are allowed to drink milk directly from their mothers until they are weaned. In 2009 the herd had a lucky growth of 4 new baby cows. This newcomer is called Gangotri and is born to Aditi.
5. FOUR: Bulls are given meaningful work. Even the farm workers are describing their work and daily animal contact as deeply rewarding and satisfying; they love their work.
6. The king of the herd is the bull Kamadeva. Here he is with one of his wives and a young son. His only duty is to produce offspring, and he has the pleasure to stay in the field with his harem all summer.
7. The manor has ten trained working oxen. They are the backbone of the farm. In this image they are bringing in the hay, which will be used as winter fodder.
8. They do everything a tractor would do, but they don’t require diesel fuel, only fodder such as grass, vegetable, grain and – of course – hay.
9. Oxen are slower than farming machinery, but they are climate-friendly. A farm run by ox power is organic, sustainable and less vulnerable to external shocks and challenges. Plus, cows produce manure, the most natural provider of nutrients for fertilising the soil.
10. They even give rides to the guests, as in this case, much to the excitement of a group of school children.
11. The oxen are treated with kindness and affection. They are gentle beings, who enjoy human contact. You can bring them some carrots and they will gladly take them from your hand.
12. Don’t we all want a fulfilling and peaceful life? How can we be healthy if our farm animals are treated like machines and regarded as ‘just meat’? And our food is produced in soil enriched with chemical fertilisers, which in the long run destroys the eco system? Our own well-being is closely connected to our environment and to those living beings who share the planet with us. Let’s start thinking about a wholesome future for us, our cows and for the planet we all share as our living space.
© Astrid Schulz