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THE ISCOWP NEWS Volume 10 Issue 2 2000
Now that Vraja and Gita are 8 years old, they are very experienced logging in the woods and have gathered several winter's wood supply for heating our home. By showing the usefulness of oxen, like Vraja and Gita, an argument is made against their use for meat consumption. The position that oxen (male cows) are useless is refuted. This issue contains other positions against the slaughter of cows both in the USA and elsewhere. There are many reasons to not slaughter cows, in fact millions on many fronts; environmental, ecological, moral, religious, health, world hunger, and more. The goal of cow exploitation is economic gain. The goal of cow protection is world peace.
Hidden Costs of Animal Factories Cow Protection at Daund, India Back to Back Issues Page
From: "Madhava Gosh (das) ACBSP (New Vrindavan -
USA)" Madhava.Gosh.ACBSP@pamho.net I am writing this Gaura Pournima morning. Some portions are lifted from previous texts, which accounts for the lack of good flow. This is not meant as a finished polished piece, more as a start to be made on this auspicious day. Please excuse the obvious flaws in good writing technique and try to see the concepts. Before I woke this morning, I had a dream that I remembered on waking. I dreamt I was in India, and there had been a big flood along a river that had wiped out all the bridges. There was a great sense of separation, of loss, disruption, and an urgency to reestablish the bridges, yet the materials in the old bridges had been completely washed away. There were stone walkways and plazas, where the stones had been set thousands of years before, carefully cut and set with a greatly admired workmanship that had been used and were an integral part of the patterns of life along the river. They were of a gray type of granite, extremely durable. The need for bridges was so great, however, that permission was granted to pry these stones from the ground and use them for rebuilding the bridges. The people begin prying them from the ground, often lacking even tools and working only with bare hands. The task of rebuilding was huge, daunting, but, with applied energy, doable. When I awoke, I thought of the bridges as being the key portions of the old forms of VAD that had been swept away in the flood of modern ugrakarma. The stone walkways and plazas represented the portions of VAD that had survived. The tearing up of old walkways was not seen as the destruction of the old ways, but of the reconfiguring of them in ways in order to rebuild the bridges that are so necessary for the survival of the greater concepts, even if manifest in different forms than historically recorded. ONE VISION OF VARNASHRAM DHARMA (VAD) UNFOLDING IN MODERN TIMES.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 8: Chapter Twenty-four, Text 5 :PURPORT Without protection of cows, brahminical culture cannot be maintained; and without brahminical culture, the aim of life cannot be fulfilled. Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1: Chapter Nineteen, Text ; :PURPORT Cow protection means feeding the brahminical culture, which leads towards God consciousness, and thus perfection of human civilization is achieved. These are only two representative quotes from hundreds about the necessity for cow protection in Srila Prabhupada's books. Largely, they have been ignored in ISKCON, which is only to be expected, since ISKCON had it's genesis in the belly of the beast of ugrakarmic culture. By the 1960s , over 90% of the population of the US that Srila Prabhupada came to had been either driven or lured from a connection to the land. Not only were they disconnected, but they had been brainwashed to think that lack of connection made them somehow more sophisticated or advanced in material civilization. A civilization based on cow protection is going totally against the grain. So how to do such a thing. Early attempts by ISKCON projects have been by and large failures, with lots of breeding and no long range plan to deal with unslaughtered animals. The nectar in the beginning of milk production soon turned into the poison of undersupported, overflowing barns of nonproductive animals. Additionally, the reality of the lives of most Western devotees is such that the romantic agrarianistic vision of what VAD was is emotionally unobtainable. Even those who have a desire to try, very quickly hit the hard economic realities of land ownership, lack of an older generation to draw guidance from, and harsh competition from agribusiness that maintains artificially low prices subsidized by the blood of cows and the blood of the earth in the form of oil. So how to make a situation where young idealists can get out on the land without dissipating their youth just accumulating the capital necessary to get there? How to connect devotees in urban circumstances whose realities are such that they are most likely to remain in the cities? How to build a society based on the principles of VAD when the historical circumstances have been so radically changed? How to provide the stable social environment for cow protection to flourish, thus meeting the precondition necessary for brahminical culture to flourish? The key thing is establishment of Trusts to protect the cows and properties at the core of a Krsna conscious community. Once things are held in Trusts, as, incidentally, Srila Prabhupada ordered, then devotee's stability can be more assured. Most, if not all, successful enduring institutions, use Trusts to ensure stability. Large donors are more apt to support Trust type situations. These trusts could be separate from ISKCON, in the sense that they will not be under the direct control of ISKCON per se. I like the term Greater ISKCON, to start to develop a society centered around Krsna but not necessarily under one legal umbrella. ISKCON should, I believe, evolve more along the lines of educational institutions, another of Srila Prabhupada's instructions that has been pretty much ignored. ISKCON centers would be places where people come to get education of religious and hopefully also practical knowledge. Key difference is that now, when devotees come to the temple, expectation is that they have made a lifetime commitment, and when, as they inevitably do, they leave, they are considered blooped. In the Srila Prabhupada paradigm, they would be considered alumni, and treated as valued potential contributors. Thus I see ISKCON evolving more as a brahminical organization, with Deity worship, education, and community counseling as their focus. The vast majority of devotees would move on, with blessings. Networks of devotee businesses would hopefully work somewhat cooperatively and provide employment opportunities for graduates. Others may move on and get regular jobs in regular society, the cash economy. Most of these devotees would be in urban environments, so how to be connected? They could make donations to Trusts set up to protect cows. While it is indisputable that VAD is land based, I am not an agrarian\ romanticist. One barrier to actually having more devotees on the land has been the unrealistic expectations placed on them. Another of the either/or type deals. However, material life is not about the actual attainment of some idealistic situation, but rather the struggle, or endeavor to attain such an ideal. As I hope to make a VAD cliché, it is not where you are at, but the direction you are heading. Yes, there are city dwellers who would be engaged in the cash economy. The method by which they would be plugged into VAD would be by purifying the blood milk they drink by paying into Trusts that own the land at the core of the Greater ISKCON farming communities. Past experiences of throwing money at farm projects that was used for operational expenses has not been very successful. The donations to Trusts would be capital gifts, the assets of which would be managed by trustees. The trustees will be the modern day ksatriyas Facility would be provided by the Trust so the young idealists who did want to get directly onto the land, would be able to do so while still young, instead of having to expend their peak productive years making the money to get into the situations themselves. There would be a mix of temple property, leased land, and private ownership. But it would require a lot of initial capitalization, which is where those still in the cash economy would be essential. In the long term, devotees on the farms would ideally be producing land based products for sale to the city devotees, which would further stimulate the agrarian economies. Often the hardest part of farming is not the growing, but the marketing. Initially, however, the cash economy devotees would continue to purchase from the agribusiness markets ( the de facto reality we have anyway). As for the ISKCON colleges, a minimal part of every devotees education would be at least one summer spent in a rural community, either as part of a temple program, or as an apprentice on a privately run devotee farm. Even though the majority of devotees will not stay on the farm, it will give them an appreciation and a broader perspective. Connection to the land is an essential part of VAD. For some, this will be a direct connection, for most, it will be in the form of retreats to farm communities, and by supporting financially the Trusts that are expanding the land based economies. Brahmans show by example. So two practical ideas how to stimulate all of this. One, for two days each month, all brahmanas would eat only things grown by devotees. If they have no connection for such things,then it would be a water fast. As the connection grows, they could have all sorts of things, no limitation, except that it be grown by devotees. Other varnas would be expected to help make a nice arrangement for brahmanas on those days, and to follow themselves as they feel inspired. This would stimulate demand for devotee products. The other is that no blood milk be allowed to be offered to any Deities. If no protected milk is available, the Temple would pay into a Trust an amount over and above the financial cost of the blood milk, equal to what it would have additionally cost to produce the protected milk. This is typically 4 times blood milk market price. The eventual goal would be that the Trust would be generating enough income to actually buy real protected milk from devotee communities. So, stay in the city, make money, fund Trusts that subsidize devotee agriculture that produces protected milk to offer to Krsna in the temples. Support colleges that produce devotees that either move to the land, or stay in the city, make money, fund Trusts that subsidize devotee agriculture that produces protected milk to offer to Krsna in the temples. In this way, we have brahmanas providing education,
vaisyas generating
Seeds 1. Beej Bachao Andolan, Haveidhari, PO: Nagani - 249 1745
Tehri, Garhwal (UP) Kindly publish so that all your readers can have benefit from this important information. For Rural Development World
Organic Commodity Exchange Have you heard of the World organic commodity exchange? They have a SGS production standard. It's like a booklet that you can read and if you follow their strict requirements, then you can become an organically certified farmer - which means that you receive advice from them and they will come by to check that you are using organic methods. e.g. for instance they may do soil samples to check that your not using pesticides and artificial fertilizers. Here is their address in South Africa; World Organic
Commodity Exchange The manager here in S.A is Greg MacNeillie. I wrote to them and they were really helpful, they sent me this booklet on the SGS standard requirements to become organically certified.
HIDDEN COSTS OF ANIMAL FACTORIES
As the U.S. discards its family farms and in their place erects factory farms, we might consider the costs. Here we will consider only one cost: the harm to human health from increased use of antibiotics in confined livestock operations, sometimes known as animal factories. As most people know, modern animal factories in the U.S. now raise tens of thousands of chickens, cattle and pigs in the smallest possible space. The animals are physically close to each other -- jammed together might be a better description -- so an outbreak of disease can pass readily from animal to animal. To prevent this from happening -- and to promote rapid growth -- the animals are regularly treated with antibiotics. The Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences, began to question this practice in 1989.[1] The Institute identified a hazard to human health: the creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which can cause serious human diseases. Resistance is a well-understood phenomenon. Not all bacteria are affected equally by antibiotics -- some bacteria are genetically able to resist the killing effects of an antibiotic. As a result, when a group of bacteria is dosed with an antibiotic, some hardy bacteria survive. These resistant bacteria reproduce and the next time they are dosed with the same antibiotic, a hardy few survive again. Eventually, the only surviving bacteria are immune to that particular antibiotic. They have developed "resistance," and that antibiotic has lost its effectiveness against those bacteria. As time passes, some bacteria can develop resistance to multiple antibiotics and these are referred to as "multi-drug-resistant strains." Such multi-drug-resistant bacteria are a serious medical concern because they may cause diseases that are difficult or impossible to cure, the Institute of Medicine said in 1992.[2,pg.92] Some of the costs of antibiotic-resistant bacteria were
summarized by the Institute of Medicine: The Institute went on to outline the human costs of antibiotic-resistant germs: "Treating resistant infections requires the use of more expensive or more toxic alternative drugs and longer hospital stays; in addition, it frequently means a higher risk of death for the patient harboring a resistant pathogen. Estimates of the cost of antibiotic resistance in the United States annually range as high as $30 billion. Even with the continuing development of new drugs, resistance to antibiotics is an increasingly important problem with certain bacterial pathogens."[2,pg.93] The Institute laid the problem squarely on the doorstep of animal factories: "New agricultural procedures can also have unanticipated microbiological effects. For example, the introduction of feedlots and large-scale poultry rearing and processing facilities has been implicated in the increasing incidence of human pathogens, such as SALMONELLA, in domestic animals over the past 30 years. The use of antibiotics to enhance the growth of and prevent illness in domestic animals has been questioned because of its potential role in the development and dissemination of antibiotic resistance. Approximately half the tonnage of antibiotics produced in the U.S. is used in the raising of animals for human consumption. Thus, concerns about the selection of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria and their passage into the human population as a result of this excessive use of antibiotics are realistic."[2,pg.64] Throughout the 1990s, awareness of this problem has been growing. In May 1998, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE that a strain of salmonella bacteria had emerged in the U.S. in the last 5 years which is resistant to 5 different antibiotics.[3] Called typhimurium DT 104, this rapidly-emerging bacterium is responsible for an estimated 68,000 to 340,000 illnesses each year in the U.S. The proportion of salmonella infections caused by typhimurium DT 104 increased 30-fold in the U.S. between 1980 and 1996. The Centers for Disease Control blamed the rapid emergence of this infectious agent on the use of antibiotics in livestock, summarizing its recommendations this way: "More prudent use of antimicrobial agents [antibiotics] in farm animals and more effective disease prevention on farms are necessary to reduce the dissemination of multi-drug-resistant typhimurium DT 104 and to slow the emergence of resistance to additional agents in this and other strains of salmonella."[3] In March of 1999 the FDA began a multi-year process to regulate the use of antibiotics in farm animals. Here is how the NEW YORK TIMES reported the FDA's action in a front-page story March 8: "Faced with mounting evidence that the routine use of antibiotics in livestock may diminish the drugs' power to cure infections in people, the Food and Drug Administration has begun a major revision of its guidelines for approving new antibiotics for animals and for monitoring the effects of old ones. The goal of the revision is to minimize the emergence off bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics, which makes them difficult or even impossible to kill. Drug resistant infections, some fatal, have been increasing in people in the United States, and many scientists attribute the problem to the misuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals." The NEW YORK TIMES then described[4] the May, 1998, study by the federal Centers for Disease Control,[3] adding new information from an interview with Dr. Fred Angulo, one of the authors of the study: "Last May, a team from the centers reported in the
New England Journal of Medicine that the prevalence of a salmonella strain
resistant to five different antibiotics increased from 0.6 percent of all
specimens from around the country tested by the centers in 1980 to 34 percent in
1996. Deaths due to infectious diseases have been increasing in
the U.S. in recent years. In the '50s and '60s, public health In sum, serious infectious diseases are enjoying a resurgence in the U.S. Our national policy of replacing family farms with animal factories in the name of "economic efficiency" is one of the key reasons.
[2] Institute of Medicine, EMERGING INFECTIONS: MICROBIAL [3] M. Kathleen Glynn and others, "Emergence of [4] Denise Grady, "A Move to Limit Antibiotic Use in
Animal [5] Robert W. Pinner and others, "Trends in
Infectious Diseases
RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #690 All back issues are available by E-mail: send E-mail to: info@rachel.org with the single word HELP in the message. Back issues are also available from http://www.rachel.org To start your own free subscription, send E-mail to: listserv@rachel.org with the words . SUBSCRIBE RACHEL-WEEKLY YOUR NAME in the message. The Rachel newsletter is now also available in Spanish, to learn how to subscribe, send the word AYUDA in an E-mail message to info@rachel.org Back to index of this issue issue
Is
Nothing Sacred? From: Tarakadas@aol.com CNN recently reported on cow killing in India. Read the
article at this URL:
MAY 29, 2000 VOL, 156 NO 21 Mahatma Gandhi believed that a nation could be judged by the way it treats its animals. If that yardstick were applied to his own country today, India would be in the doghouse. Hindus venerate many of God's creatures, and the cow is considered especially sacred. But the international animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has exposed horrendous cruelty to India's cows as they are transported, illegally, to slaughter houses. Many arrive dead or badly injured after long and torturous journeys in trains and trucks or on foot. "It is Dante's Inferno for cows and bullocks," says PETA president Ingrid Newkirk. India's livestock population, estimated at more than 500 million, is the world's largest. More than half are cows, buffalo and bulls. Once they become unproductive, many of the animals are sold by their owners, mostly subsistence farmers, and marched off to slaughter houses. Cow slaughter is permitted in just two provinces, the communist-ruled states of West Bengal in the east and Kerala in the south. Although it is illegal to transport the animals for slaughter across state borders, traders bribe officials to look the other way as they pack the cows into rail cars or trucks headed for West Bengal or Kerala. The animals frequently gore one another or break their pelvises when forced to jump from the trucks. Some suffocate inside boxcars. Thousands of others are surreptitiously herded overland--often without food or water. If they collapse from exhaustion, herders break their tails or throw chili pepper and tobacco in their eyes to make them walk again. The campaign against the practice is attracting support from a number of animal-activist celebrities. Paul McCartney, Brigitte Bardot, Steven Seagal and Nina Hagen took part in an international day of protest two weeks ago in their home countries. "My heart breaks for the misery endured by all the mother cows and their calves ... who have become throw-aways in today's India," McCartney declared. The $1.6 billion Indian leather export industry is feeling the pinch. Gap and its subsidiaries Banana Republic and Old Navy have banned the use of Indian leather in their garments. The British shoe company Clark's announced last week that it will review the purchase of products made from Indian leather. PETA's hit list also includes Florsheim, Nordstrom, Casual Corner and other retail chains. "It's a wake-up call to India's leather industry," says PETA's Indian campaign coordinator Jason Baker. "If it doesn't do something soon to stop the cruelty against cows, there will be no leather industry left." India's leather barons are worried that the protests will cripple exports to the West. Nearly 4,000 tanneries and leather-goods factories depend on the export trade. The industry employs around 1.7 million people, nearly a third of whom are women. "The campaign is going to affect us, no doubt about it," says Mohammed Hashim, chairman of the Council for Leather Exports. He feels his tribe is unfairly targeted. "We're only scavengers," he says. "We take skins sold by slaughter houses." Moreover, he adds, 90% of the hides council members use are from buffalo, goats or sheep. His organization has appealed to exporters to use only leather from animals that have been killed humanely. The government, though, shows no sign of moving against the illegal transport and slaughter. Before PETA's campaign, Indian animal-rights groups had been trying for years to stop the brutal cattle trail. It's a multimillion-dollar business, and the kickbacks to politicians and officials are thought to be huge. (The cow "death trains" are operated by the state-owned railway.) Banning cow slaughter in West Bengal and Kerala probably wouldn't help, as it would surely lead to an increase in the number of illegal, backstreet slaughter houses. New Delhi may simply find it easier to respond to other demands by animal lovers, like creating a national authority for protecting cows or introducing tougher penalties for cruelty to animals (under existing law, the fine is only about $1). A simpler solution would be to lift the ban on cow slaughter throughout India, to deter the deadly, illegal herdings across state lines. "Villagers can't afford to keep unproductive cows. They're not saints," says Bangalore animal-welfare worker Suparna Baksi-Ganguly. "Slaughter has to be made more accessible--suppressing it causes greater misery to the animals." But such a step would provoke the ire of cow lovers, and no political party is likely to risk that. So in a land that venerates them, cows will continue to pay a high price for their holiness.
--------------------------------- A PETA statement said the companies had pledged to ban
Indian leather after seeing a PETA video showing cows and buffaloes injured and
suffocated in overloaded lorries on their way to slaughterhouses. It said the
companies had pledged to continue the ban until the government improved the
conditions under which animals were transported and slaughtered for leather and
meat. India's leather exports are worth $1.7 billion a year. Cows are sacred to Hindus, who make up roughly 80 percent of India's billion-strong population, and cattle slaughter is banned in all but two of India's 26 states. But PETA estimates around 13 million cows are slaughtered in India every year for beef and hide. PETA says cattle are also made to march for days to slaughterhouses under cruel conditions. _______________________________ An excerpt from the "Secular Cow Economy": Here
one point in respect of Hinduism needs be borne in mind, namely, that Hinduism
as a religion is perhaps the most practical and earth-bound, i.e. material
religion so far as material life is concerned as it is highly idealistic in
respect of spiritual aspects. For centuries downwards our country's economy is
cow based, carrying on farming and transport with bullocks, and obtaining
nourishing food from cow. So old thinkers placed the cow on a high religious
pedestal to provide adequate protection to the cow and thereby to the economy.
This essay attempts to bring to the notice of the people the basic facts of the
cow economy which has so far been disregarded.(pg.1).
GOD
AGAINST COW SLAUGHTER
Bhagavad-gita Every living creature is a son of the Supreme Lord, and He does not tolerate even an ant's being killed. One has to pay for it. So indulgence in animal killing for the taste of the tongue is the grossest kind of ignorance. A human being has no need to kill animals, because God has supplied so many nice things. If one indulges in meat-eating anyway, it is to be understood that he is acting in ignorance and is making his future very dark. Of all kinds of animal killing, the killing of cows is most vicious because the cow gives us all kinds of pleasure by supplying milk. Cow slaughter is an act of the grossest type of ignorance. In the Vedic literature (Rg Veda 9.4.64) the words gobhih prinita-matsaram indicate that one who, being fully satisfied by milk, is desirous of killing the cow is in the grossest ignorance. Isaiah 66.3 Srila Prabhupada's Garden Conversation Srila Prabhupada's Morning Walk Prabhupada: Yes. Demigods, you have got responsibility. Deva, rsi, bhuta, living entities. Just like you are taking milk from the cows. You have the responsibility to protect it, but you are killing. So you must suffer. Koran,surah 6, verse 38 Srimad-Bhagavatam Adi-lila Genesis, 1:29, 31 Srila Prabhupada's Lectures Besides that, scientifically, your teeth is meant for eating vegetables. The tiger has teeth for eating meat. Nature has made it like that. It has to kill another... Therefore he has got nails, he has got teeth, he has got strength. But you have no such strength. You cannot kill a cow like that, pouncing like tiger. You have to make slaughterhouse and sit down at your home. Somebody may slaughter, and you can eat very nicely. What is this? Srimad-Bhagavatam Srimad-Bhagavatam People do not know what they are doing in the name of
economic development. Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal-killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. Srimad-Bhagavatam He says that in the act of killing an animal, there is a regular conspiracy by the party of sinners, and all of them are liable to be punished as murderers exactly like a party of conspirators who kill a human being combinedly. He who gives permission, he who kills the animal, he who sells the slaughtered animal, he who cooks the animal, he who administers distribution of the foodstuff, and at last he who eats such cooked animal food are all murderers, and all of them are liable to be punished by the laws of nature. Srimad-Bhagavatam Srila Prabhupada's Lectures Ecclesiastes 3:19 Reputed to be only text written by Buddha himself:
It's a Boy!
His birth was without complications. As Lakshmi and I were taking our morning walk, Lakshmi saw Ganga on top of the hill alone. She noticed Ganga was passing part of the afterbirth. Lakshmi ran to get Balabhadra and I went to the top of the hill. Veda was already standing and trying to suck from his mother. We spent most of that day with Ganga and Veda to make sure everything went okay: That Ganga passed the rest of the afterbirth and baby Veda remained strong and out of trouble. Ganga would not let him sit down. She kept prodding him to get up by licking him clean and pushing him. He looked very tired. As the days progressed Ganga proved to be an extremely attentive mother. Never would she let Veda out of her sight. Eventually we let them join the herd. We were happy to see that all the oxen and cows accepted Veda openly. As a result, Veda is without fear. He hangs out with Vraja who is the King of the herd and often a bully. But it seems Veda doesn't get bullied by Vraja. It is quite a joyful sight to see little black Veda jumping and running alongside the "Big Boys." Ganga is still close by and watches him closely. We are letting Ganga nurse Veda, and we are taking what milk is left. Veda is getting stronger every day. Rid the Barn of Mud Campaign New ISCOWP Headquarters This week we are pouring the cement for the floor. Then what is left is installing the doors, windows, inside walls, bathroom, and kitchen. We wish to move into the facility in October at which point our son and his family will move into the house we are now sharing with our son. Garden We have already begun to supplement our meals with produce from the garden and Lakshmi is planning to can vegetables and fruits again this summer. She has already canned some black raspberries. Due to the plentiful rain, the apple trees look like they will be very productive this year. We still have a few cans of tomatoes left that we use for pizza, pasta or vegetables. Training New Teamsters
Cow
Protection at Daund, India We just went to visit the Daund farm 6 hours from here and stayed over night. They are devotees from the ISKCON Chowpatty Temple in Mumbai and disciples of Radhanath Maharaj. There are some brahmarcaries, two householder couples and small children from that district who have just become devotees. Maharaj had told the devotees at the Chowpatty temple that if they wanted a farm they should convince persons who were already farmers to become devotees. and work the farm. Also, they have workers come from nearby villages on a daily basis. Some workers are living there like one Baba, old man/without family, who is completely dedicated to taking care of the cows.
They have 50 acres at the river side and very fertile black earth, but before they could plant anything, they had to remove this "bad" babul thorny bush with huge roots. These huge roots are being made into charcoal for cooking in a slow fire. Another old man attends this huge black heap of slag with slowly burning roots inside and no oxygen, so they become charcoal instead of ash. They have grown a big crop of barley, millet and wheat, the latter which is to supply the temple in Mumbai. The devotees themselves eat big flat dry "bakris" or chapatis of millet which are so delicious that just one will satisfy completely. The farming is all organic. They are planning vermicompost now.
They have nine cattle of Thapkar breed, a bull, one milking cow and calf, some heifers, and 2 bullocks. They are beautiful white cattle from Rajasthan and very nice in temperament, good milkers, strong milkers, strong workers, and hardy. They also have four Dangi bullocks who are doing all the work now. They are black and white and also very friendly and easy to handle. They borrowed 2 Killri bullocks from one padayatra (Pnahapur) but they were ferocious and nearly killed one farmer. They are oxen, big white ones with curved back horns from this part of India only.
The children of the farmers there have become very advanced in Krsna consciousness: they are chanting, dancing, and are very happy. They plan to grow medicinal plants and hook up with a company in advance to make money so they can send the whole wheat crop to the temple, plus other crops, such as the flowers they are growing for Sri Sri Radha Gopinath. They have buildings: a kitchen, prasadam room (dining area), a temple building, two householder buildings, and a guest house. All are built according to principles of Vastu Sastra and made from stone with walls two feet thick plastered with cow dung, floors made from pounded soft stones also plastered with cow dung, and roofs made of thatched jowar (barley) stalks, There is a big open cow shed but the cows are tied outside at night. They are using one hand pump for the cows and devotees, and the river for the crops. At present there is no electricity but they will get it in order to lift water from the river to the field for irrigation. They are using diesel pump but it is very expensive to run. They also lifted water by bullock and bucket but the bank is far down. Sanat Kumar is in charge of the whole project and is keen to get the ISCOWP newsletter. |
This site was last updated 10/23/07
