12/15/07

ISCOWP News

Volume 16 Issue 3 The International Society for Cow Protection 2006

Letters

 Vraja and Related Stories

The Truth Behind the Spinach Scare

Vraja and Related Stories

From: Madan Gopal (das) RNS (Chowpatty, Mumbai - IN) Madan.Gopal.RNS@pamho.net>

To: Iscowp Inc <iscowp@earthlink.net>; Noma Petroff <npetroff@bowdoin.edu>; Cow (Protection and related issues) <Cow@pamho.net>

Date: 11/6/2006 6:48:01 AM

Subject: ISCOWP's famous Vraja ox passes away

Thanks for the heart rending but wonderful inspiring write up about Vraja. Here we can see how cows really have wonderful emotions.

I also had the good fortune to have a similar experience. The difference was that the occasion was of joy.

Once I had been to a farm of my devotee friend HG Dayanidhi prabhu. We reached there early morning. He has a few cows that were disowned by their owners and were left at a veterinary hospital. The owners got them admitted and never came back to get them.

So, he got some of the cows as the hospital authorities were or could not take proper care.

Now the cows were happy as they had enough to eat and a place to graze.

We reached the farm early morning and were doing our prescribed duties. We could also see that the pregnant cow would give birth today. So, that cow was not sent for grazing on the day. At around 10 AM the cow gave birth to a nice calf. As the calf lay on the ground, and the cow was licking the calf, one cow who was grazing with the herd around 200 meters away, came close to the shed and saw that a baby had been born. She started jumping and dancing in happiness seeing the new baby just as we humans celebrate. Then while jumping, she circumambulated the cow and calf, and ran off to graze after being shooed away from the newborn calf by us.

We thought it was over. No, within a few minutes the whole herd came jumping and galloping to the shed and after seeing the cow and calf were all right, performed a group dance for a few minutes. The herd (only a few cows) was just jumping around the cow and calf, and we could see sheer joy on their faces.

All of us were just as joyful seeing the cows dance. This dance was like devotees dancing at climax of Kirtana.

After some time they had to be shooed away and all went to graze happily after having seen and welcomed the new one.

I hope this helps all to develop their love for Sri Krsna's most dear animal and humen's friend.

Your Servant
Madan Gopal Das

From: amol108

To:devotional_nectar@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 4:19 PM

Subject: [devotional_nectar] Krishna's cows..

Hare Krishna,

I wanted to share this with the devotional group to show more proof on the feelings of cows and animals.

My name is Rama Lila and I live in New Vrndavana. My mother and I live off the main road in the part we call Khadiravan, just behind Bahulavan. We rent a place from our landlord and next door devotee neighbor. There are other non devotee residences on the same road and right after our landlord there is a farm. No one lives at the farmhouse but the owners still have a barn and cows in the field. Sadly, around here with the exception of New V. and ISCOWP, all the cows you see in pasture meet with the inevitable horrific end of the slaughterhouse. And sometimes one just forgets what they must go through.

One evening I came home from work and as I got out of the car I could hear the cows in the pasture below bellowing. I didn't think much of it as I hear them from time to time. Only this time it didn't stop. My mother said that the owner had passed by in the afternoon with his trailer, which they use to transport cows and horses to places. Well the cows cried all night and into the next day and beyond. It was heart wrenching as if you or I would cry for our lost loved ones.

I was reminded of the Holocaust survivor turned vegetarian who firmly believed of the link between mass killings of cows/animals and that  of humans and of Srila Prabhupada who first voiced such comparisons in our world.

We can only pray for all cows and animals who are not as fortunate as ones like Vraja and pray for all humankind to develop true compassion.

Your servant,
Rama Lila dasi

From: Shelda Bloomingdale

To: iscowp@earthlink.net

Sent: 10/25/2006 8:17:15 AM

Subject: Re: Vraja

Dear Chaya,

I just wanted to share with you my experience Sunday morning when I accompanied Chaitanya to feed and count the cows.

As you know, the day before Vraja (16-year-old ox) had an accident. Due to his arthritis, he lost his footing and fell flat on the ground. It was a bit scary for Chaitanya Bhagavat and me as we thought that maybe he would not get up. After awhile he got up, but he later lay down again. Once again, we were concerned that he would not get up, as he seemed exhausted. After resting awhile, he got up again. Witnessing his fall, the rest of the herd came running to the scene to see what happened.

The next day I went with Chaitanya on his morning service to the cows. He mixed the medicines in the grain for Vraja and got the bucket of grain for Gita. Since Gita was right at the fence patiently waiting (not), he fed him first. Chaitanya then went around the corner of the barn to feed Vraja.  Vraja heard us and came up to the road. Chaitanya gave him his grains and brushed him a bit before we crossed over the fence to count the other cows who were up on the hill.

We crossed over the fence and Chaitanya started brushing Balaram. I then noticed that all the cows were coming down the hill towards us at a faster than usual speed. I thought that maybe they had seen Chaitanya giving grains and were looking for that, but they sailed past us just as if we weren’t even there and went straight to the fence line where Vraja was still eating his grains. They all were straining to see how he was doing or so it seemed for they paid no attention to us. They just stood there watching him and seemingly stretching their necks over the fence out towards him, talking to him. He seemed to respond back to them as well, maybe reassuring them that he was better today. I don’t know actually how long they were there conversing, because I was so engrossed in watching them communicate. It was such a joyful sight to behold.

 It was really amazing to be given the opportunity to witness this first hand, you could tell that they were genuinely concerned about their friend and were glad to see him back on his feet after his mishap yesterday morning. I have read about things like this before, as I am sure you have, but had never had the privilege to witness it. They truly do have compassion, respect, and love for one another, more so than most humans it would seem. Actually, I think most humans could learn something valuable from the cowherd families. At least you can know that their reactions are honest and pure and not the fake concerns that most humans offer one another.

Well, I am so glad that Vraja is doing much better now and I am sure that everyone else feels the same.

Shelda Bloomingdale

Back to letters Volume 16 Issue 3

The Truth Behind the Spinach Scare: Cheap Beef
By Christopher Wanjek
LiveScience's Bad Medicine Columnist
posted: 26 September 2006
09:44 am ET
 
From: hans jurgen kary

To: Lakshmikary@yahoo.com

Cc: iscowp@earthlink.net

Sent: 9/27/2006 7:06:33 PM

Subject: The Truth behind the SPINACH SCARE, please read , please forward to others

When in Mexico, the saying goes, don't drink the water.  You shouldn't eat the spinach either because it could be contaminated with the E. coli strain that has sickened close to 200 people in the United States and killed at least one, likely more.

The problem is our food production system is so complex that most of us cannot be certain where our food comes from.  Even the U.S. government, after two weeks on the case of the spinach E. coli outbreak, has narrowed the source to, oh, somewhere in central California.
Gee, you think?  California produces

about three-fourths of the nation's fresh spinach, and Salinas Valley accounts for about three-fourths of that.  These guys are sharp.  But they aren't looking closely enough.
 

You excrete billions
E. coli, short for Escherichia coli, is a bacterium with hundreds of strains, most of which are relatively harmless in healthy individuals.  E. coli is ubiquitous in the guts of cows and humans and is spread from cow to cow and from human to human through feces. 

Humans excrete billions of E. coli bacteria with each bowel movement, which is why hand-washing is so important.

Cows don't have the luxury of hand-washing.  When they are cramped into pens, ankle-deep in the manure of hundreds to thousands of cows, E. coli tends to spread.  Bacteria can splash up on udders and get into milk; or get into intestines and contaminate meat during the slaughtering process; or pass through the cow in manure and ultimately end up on crops directly as fertilizer or indirectly by leaching into the water supply.

Most E. coli outbreaks in the United States are caused by a particular virulent and deadly strain called O157:H7.  If you eat, you are at risk. 

Meat eaters are at risk because most beef is loaded with harmful bacteria, often the bad E. coli, and needs to be cooked.  Vegetarians aren't spared, as evidenced by the spinach E. coli outbreak.  Organic consumers aren't spared; organic spinach can have E. coli.  And raw food advocates are most certainly at risk, because cooking is the best way to kill the bacteria.
 

Local food is best
It's September.  Every state in the union can grow spinach.  In fact, spinach is largely a cool-weather spring and fall crop.  Why is California growing all of our spinach?

At work are the perverse forces of economic markets, not the forces of nature.  The U.S. food production system has been fined-tuned to maximize profits for a small group of farmers, often corporations, holding vast acres of land.

Spinach from small, local farms could very well be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.  It simply wouldn't spread to other states, or to other cities for that matter.  Health authorities would be able to identify the source of the bad E. coli within hours.  And tons of safe spinach sold around the country wouldn't need to be recalled "just in case," as is the case now.

Small-scale farming inherently means fewer hands and fewer opportunities for contamination---bacterial, viral or parasitic---from field to fork.  So while the small, local guys aren't immune to the kind of contamination problems that plague the big guys, the odds are in their favor.

Big, fat cows
While some food safety experts are unfairly bashing organic farmers and their reliance on manure for fertilizer, the real culprit behind E. coli outbreaks is the industrial beef and cattle industry.  First, certified organic farmers are prohibited from using raw manure for 90 days before harvest of food for humans.  Second, most organic farmers compost their manure, which kills most E. coli.

Industrial beef and dairy farms are disease-ridden cesspools.  A growing body of evidence suggests that corn-fed cattle have higher counts of E. coli O157:H7 compared to free-range, grass-fed cattle, which seem largely free from this bacterium.  The reason is twofold:  Free-rangers come in less contact with each others' manure compared to stressed-out cattle packed in feeding lots; and corn makes the cow's stomach juices more acidic, which gives rise to the acid-loving O157:H7 strain.

Also, mega-farms cannot get rid of their tons of O157:H7-rich manure.  This sits in cesspools and

ultimately contaminates the surrounding environment.

Switching back to free-range, grass-fed cattle would solve this problem.  But beef would be more expensive, and some view this as a bad thing despite the epidemic of obesity and diabetes and the clear link between high beef consumption and colon cancer.

Zap those buggers
Look for Band-Aid solutions touted in the weeks to come, such as irradiation, with its cute, deceptive nickname of cold pasteurization. 

Irradiation entails zapping food with gamma rays, X-rays or electrons to deactivate harmful bacteria along with other stuff helpful in the food, like vitamins.

But with the unnatural process of irradiation, we can continue the unnatural but cheap practice of feeding cows corn, which they can't digest, so we can continue the unnatural process of consuming lots and lots of this modern invention called the cow. 

Then maybe we can counter any adverse human health effects with expensive surgery or drug therapy.  It's the American way.

Christopher Wanjek is the author of the books "Bad Medicine" and "Food At Work."

Back to letters Volume 16 Issue 3