I want to go on record as stating that I had no advance knowledge of the purchase by ? in New Vrindaban of the 10 cows that arrived yesterday.
I was not consulted on this purchase.
There was no advance public discussion of this purchase wherein I could have offered my opinion.
The fact I have an ongoing and active interest in cow protection is well established. See numerous articles over the decades on several devotee publications and the attention I have paid to cows on my own blog, this being the 92nd post in the category of Cows and Environment. Although lately I have broadened the topic to include general issues of Land and Cows, the first 80 or so in the category are exclusively about cows.
I have worked both directly and indirectly with cows and in support of cows in New Vrindaban for 34 years.
I was unable to sleep the night after I heard about these new cows from Ray, the local employee who does the majority of the actual work of caring for NV’s cows.
I have some questions about this purchase that have not been addressed by any announcement.
Why is the first time I heard of this from Ray?
Who is committed to take the responsibility for the management of the lifetime care of these 10 cows?
What staffing has been added to care for these cows? Additional cows require additional staffing.
What arrangement have been made to assure continued qualified staffing for the 20 year life expectancy of these cows?
What arrangement has been made for the financial security of these cows for the next twenty years? While milk may (or may not) cover the bills for the first year, what of the 19 years after that?
Where will the calves be cared for? There is no currently existing calf care facility. The two current calves are housed in the birthing pen at the temple barn.
Who will train the oxen that will be born? Cow protection mandates the oxen being trained, otherwise it is simply milk production.
This is not an all inclusive list of questions I have.
While I hesitated to address this issue in public, as there is no other obvious channel to do so, I had no choice.
I approached the Board of Trustees and they had no knowledge of this purchase.
Kirtananada also was very eager to add cows, but when reality set in, he abandoned them and we are still, 15 years later, caring for many of the cows he caused to be birthed. They are cared for industrially. While a tribute to those who stayed the course and at least maintained the minimum despite all odds against them, this is not a standard that should be perpetuated.
Regardless of popular opinion, it was Kirtanananda’s lack of committement to care for the cows he brought into the community that was the internal cause of his going to prison.
View From a New Vrindaban Ridge 
March 29, 2007 at 4:27 pm
“Cow Protection” means to stand up and advocate for those who otherwise have no voice.
Of course it a warning sign that this hasn’t been planned properly that you were neither consulted nor informed. Unfortunately as a society we’re still pretty weak on team work. The “inspired individual initiative” – in isolation – still seems to be the dominant model.
Here’s hoping that neglecting to inform NV’s global PR man was the only oversight.
Keep asking the hard questions and speaking your truth prabhu. We have a duty to call it as we see it, humbly but definitely.
March 29, 2007 at 5:06 pm
may be they can get some illegal mexicans to work on the farm like they did in the past to help with the new cows.
March 29, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Violation of ISKCON Minimum Cow Protection Standards
In response to Madhava Gosh’s letter, I feel compelled to publicly voice my observation on the purchase of new cows to restart the New Vrindavan herd. During the course of numerous discussions with the NV cow department over the last 10 years, it was acknowledged that the breed of choice to restart the New Vrindavan herd would be Brown Swiss.
Last November a donor gave a sizable donation to purchase cows. More cows than we wanted to begin with. At that time, 2 Brown Swiss heifers were located and they were both pregnant. They were purchased and close to Christmas day, they both gave birth to bull calves during the Mangal Artik time (4:30 am). So 2 cows now turn into 4 cows. It was also considered auspicious that both calves born were bull calves, because this will be the 1st ox team for the new herd. So far so good.
About 10 days ago, Ranaka prabhu (goshalla in charge) and I again were talking about the next installment of new cows for New Vrindavan. He said it was hard to find Brown Swiss and he was thinking about the Jersey breed. There was no talk of actually buying the next installment of cows. Three days ago, I heard that 5 pregnant Holsteins had been purchased and they would be arriving on Wed. March 28th. These 5 pregnant Holsteins cost $8,000 and were delivered to the temple.
The problem lies in the fact that the temple goshalla has maxed out the little barn by the temple. The little barn has 8 stalls which will now be filled. The 2 existing calves are now living in what would be the birthing stall and within 2 to 3 months there will be at least another 3 calves. What to do with the calves when the birthing stall is needed?
When I asked Ranaka prabhu about the calves and birthing stall, he said cows could be sent to the big barn in the valley where New Vrindavan ran their commercial dairy that was shut down in 1992. At this location, 2 miles away, 150 cows were milking tied into a commercial dairy quota of milk for sale.
A few years ago, Radhanath Swami and other devotees at NV wanted to counteract the past history of cow neglect that took place at the NV big barn. The consensus was that when the cows are out of sight, less community participation in their care takes place and that’s one of the reasons that the cows were neglected. Even today, the old cows and invalid cows are staying at the big barn and do not receive proper medical attention. Guest are not brought down there, nor do the devotees go down there regularly.
Once again, the cows are being sent out of sight, out of mind.
When I asked Ranaka prabhu what the plan was for the new cows and calves, it was stated that there is no plan.
After 12 years of trying to get New Vrindavan to at least name their cows and to at least comply with the Minimum ISKCON Cow Protection Standards, it is now necessary to bring up this current violation. The purchase of these last 5 pregnant cows was a total surprise to the vast majority of community members, what to speak of some of the current Board of Trustees who had no idea that the purchase was taking place. The final straw of Managerial neglect is that there is no plan other than milk production for these cows.
I have been giving seminars at New Vrindavan for several years now entitled HOLISTIC COW CARE: NOT JUST MILK. It is unfortunate that this topic has fallen on deaf ears and that the cows are still considered as CASH COWS for fund raising, for milk production, and possibly for commercial milk sales. My position as the ISKCON Minister of Cow Protection and Agriculture is as an advisor. My advice on this purchase of 5 pregnant Holsteins was not sought. If consulted, I would have said too many cows too quickly. I am writing this letter to go on record that I was not a part of this purchase nor do I approve of this purchase.
Listed below is Standard 9, Requirements for Acquiring Cows, Not Allowed.
This is the standard that New Vrindavan has violated.
Not Allowed
• 1) Animal Acquisition
Procuring or breeding of a cow for the purpose of supplying milk without any plan for the care, training and engagement of offspring.
• 2) Lack of land and funds for animal care. Failure to provide sufficient land, cowherds, and funds to support the cow and/or offspring.
For a full view of the standards and this standard refer to: MINIMUM COW PROTECTION STANDARDS, ISKCON Law 507
Go to Section 2: Breeding Standards, Standard 1X Requirements for Acquiring Cows
Your servant,
Balabhadra das
ISKCON Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture
March 29, 2007 at 7:57 pm
It is outrageous that Madhava Ghosh, a responsible community elder who has invested years in the service of New Vrindaban’s cows, was not consulted. It is is hypocrisy to extol the virtues of a New Vrindaban Goshalla on a community website and not abide by the cow protection rules of ISKCON, especially when the Minister of C.P. lives just a few miles down the road.
I was there when 8-year-old boys were sent to the big barn to clean because there weren’t enough adults to do the work. I was there when devotees were told to gather leaves for the cows to eat because there was no money for hay. The person(s) who authorized this expenditure, along with the person who signed the check, should be held personally responsible for all costs associated with these cows. It is not enough to say that a donor gave for their initial purchase. The donor should have been given a cost analysis for the entire projected lifetime of upkeep for the said cows and offspring. This is where the education aspect of cow protection enters the equation. If the donor was not willing to cover the real, lifetime, cost of these cows, THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BOUGHT. Oh, the baby boomers who signed for these cows don’t have to worry about bovine long term care–these men will either be dead or retired from community service in 20 years.
March 30, 2007 at 9:07 am
[…] weekly shot which I took Wed. night. One side effect is irritability. Hence my initial perhaps over reaction to this cow purchase. 545 posts on my blog and this is the first time I let temple politics enter into it. On one level, […]
March 30, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Some interesting comments.
I am trying to keep an open mind about this but I am not going to let history repeat itself.
Madhu: you used to work for the barn, does that mean that I am the father of an illegal immigrant? :-)
April 1, 2007 at 9:27 am
no,
I was child labor and I did fill out my I-9. I figured the farm could get cheap labor from the parking lot of Home Depot and have more funds to get more cows. I just hope they don’t repeat history by killing over a woman.
Actually, I know the amount of hard work and money it takes to keep cows and I agree with not letting history repeat itself like the group of mexican living at Fraizers. Also, I remember the rainbow folks who got all the kids sick one year.
madhu
April 1, 2007 at 9:54 am
Actually, they weren’t Mexicans. They were refugees from El Salvador and Nicaragua where wars had been going on, and some of them had issues, as it turned out.
To clarify for those unfamiliar with the story, two of them were vying for the affection of a local woman (not a member of NV) , came to blows over it, and one of them died from his injuries.
April 7, 2007 at 12:54 am
Madhava Gosh,and Balabadra Pranams,
I agree – sounds like you are in reality about the cow situation.I sent this post below to Chakra.
Hare Krishna
Dear friends,
In response to the recent posts about cows in devotee communities.I found myself getting upset when i read the posts.
Its too bad that after all these years the devotees cant learn from their mistakes with cows.
Often it seems the devotee community rush in and get cows, or breed the cows without much fore thought and not being realistic about what having cows is all about.
For example , when i visited Mayapur 3 years ago I noticed they have a large herd of gigantic animals.The majority of cows look like they are mixed with the huge meat brahmas from USA! Large animals eat alot , are harder to handle and can be dangerous.Why get and produce such incredibly huge animals?. I’d like to know how many bulls and oxen they have in Mayapur (that arent working) and are just existing and eating. At some point people should be practical. For that gallon of milk today you might have to pay for it for many years to come in the form of caring for bullocks for their lifetime, that arent ever used for any purpose.Isnt it better to have one cow and take perfect care of her and her offspring, they get a huge unmanageable herd with large care demands.
Everyone knows all of the bull calf offspring will not be used for plowing etc. in fact most will get big and eat.
Hasnt this happened almost EVERYWHERE the devotees have had cows? What do to with all the bull calfs? In the past many end up “disappearing” or dying mysteriously,etc
Training bullocks can only be done be a special class of dedicated people.How many people have a use for trained bullocks ? I think in Mayapur I saw big tractor rows in the fields.
Where are all the cows from 3 rivers, mt. kailas, tenn,Penn,New Vrndavan etc etc ?? Aside from child abuse this is another terrible story within ISKCON that no one wants to talk about.
We wont get into what happened with all the “useless” holsteins, the bullocks, the barren or old heifers, the lame ones, the ones with cancer, in NV from many years ago.Suffice to say, devotees incurred alot of bad karma when they thought the big dairy thing would work out there.
Plans to get cows should always include what to do with all the bull calves and also hiefers that cant /wont get pregnant etc. Who will care for them,who will pay for feed and willingly pay for any vet care,etc? . I have cows that are 20and 18years old. I wont begin to tell you how much ive spent on their feed, fencing and care.Yes, and when I move, they cows have to move with me. I dont mind , because for me they are part of the family.Cows , well cared for can live a long time, so before any community or individual gets a cows they shoud ask themsleves are they willing to PAY and care for an animal for the next 20 years whether it gives milk or not! People should think before they create a baby and devotees should think seriously and practically before getting cows.I remember going to Vrndavan ,India 7 years ago and seeing pens FULL of bull calves. Where are they now???
I would like to suggest.
1), Devotees should consider getting/having smaller cows like jerseys or mini jerseys.They eat less,are easier and thus safer to handle but still produce alot of milk. My Jerseys mother tested 125 lbs of milk per day! (and in India they found that only the jersey was able to be intergrated as an outside breed to increase production with the zebu,etc).Holstiens are the worst breed to work with.I dont know why anyone would want Holsteins. Brown swiss are big, but good, if you shopped around some smaller animals can be found within the breed.Why not cross Jerseys with mini jerseys or milkingshorthorns with mini jerseys???
2) Given that the vast majority of bull calves arent wanted or used – Try using SEXED semen as it comes in almost all breeds and at least pretty much quarantees a heifer(female) calf. I just bred my Jersey using Sexed semen for a heifer calf only.
3) Only get as many animals as can be cared for is common sense.I hope any animals purchased or acquired were tested for Johnes disease among many other disease common to dairy cows.Science is starting to link some bovine disease to human disease.
4) Many cows dont need to be bred every year, most will give a decent supply of milk for several years after calving if they are milked nicely and cared for. SO why breed them each year?
5) Devotees should be made to keep accurate records on each animal so its care and whereabouts can be seen to insure it doesnt become another one of those “by products” of the devotees wanting cows.
I would hope that Balabadra and family, would be consulted as he has had hands on experience and dedicated his life to cows, further he has traveled extensively and knows the problems involved with keep ing cows.ISCKON set up a cow board for a reason.
Your in service,
Lakshmi Kary
April 7, 2007 at 9:15 am
Thanks for sharing.
While there was a dark period in NV cow protection, after Kirtanananda left some devotees and management did step up and care for the cows he so heartlessly abandoned.
He had the illusion that he could fund the cows with milk sales which was a complete and utter illusion.
In order to do that, he had to depersonalize the cows. This was the underlying problem with most ISKCON cow programs.
That NV stopped breeding cows 15 years ago after Kirtanananda left, means that besides a few unplanned pregnancies from trespassing bulls, the large majority of NV’s 80 remaining cows are 15 years or older, with several 20 year olds.
Still, most of them are given custodial care — adequate and well in excess of American dairy industry standards, but it still falls short of familial style care.
My concern with purchasing these cows is not with the ability to care for them, but the qualitative level of care.
Additionally, you are spot on with your concerns about the Holstein breed, which has been selected for high production over a short life span, and zero consideration of the ability of the oxen.
My personal research had led to a conclusion that Milking Shorthorn would be a good choice, but the Brown Swiss advocates had prevailed in the theoretical side of the discussion, and it wasn’t a strongly held opinion on my side.
The Holstein decision caught us really off guard as it is a major decision setting the direction of breed for the herd for many years to come, as it is the offspring of the cows that will be the next generation bred.
April 7, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Dear Madhava Gosh,
I know several of you at NV tried your best to care for the cows during a very difficult time.I’m glad to here there are survivors, also the weather in NV is hard on animals, and they require more care than for exmaple in california.
This is Kali Yuga, even in the Bhagavatam there are stories of test tube(vessel) babies.Also I know this is radical, but embryos are used extensively in the dairy industry.
There is still hope- So the holsteins can carry brown swiss or any other major breed.It requires some skill to learn how to do it, but it is very successful and is even being used in the milking goat world.
Or,since you arent interested in producing registered animals , the holsteins can still be bred to a Jersey or mini Jersey bull or even a brown swiss/mini Jersey bullX.Who needs big gigantic oxen? Smaller size oxen might be kind of a nice option.
In my opinion the best option is dont be in a rush to produce and when breeding is done use sexed semen to help reduce the numbers of bull calves if dont have a future.
all the best,
Lakshmi Kary
April 8, 2007 at 7:41 am
They can cross in other breeds and eventually bred out the Holstein and that isn’t very high tech. Just takes decades.
The broader issue is that cow protection is not just milk. To have a really positive preaching cow protection program, engaging the oxen should be there, especially in a community that purports to represent Vedic culture.
April 9, 2007 at 2:19 pm
It is really great to know that devotees share so much love and compassion for the cows of NV,BUT I’m afraid that you all have missed one small detail.That is the management does not care what you all thinks,these cows are just a prop for the fundraising boys to use an excuse to collect money to fund their rediculous over paid salaries.
April 10, 2007 at 1:19 pm
prabhu–ki jaya your response! looking at the history of iskcon’s problems, over and again one can clearly see the tamas and raja-guna approach to new projects, which over and again ended in foolishness and distress. Temple projects, Deity installations, sannyasa, marriage, children and gurukula, farms and cow protection, and last but not least, becoming guru.
April 11, 2007 at 11:28 am
With some due respect to the fundraisers, they are the ones who are keeping the cows funded and as such are an essential part of the team.
As for the value of their salaries, that is not a discussion I care to get into, but my approach would be one of if they are worth it.
I don’t think that being upset with any particular institutional manifestation or individual is a productive approach to cow protection.
I have consistently taken the angle of vision that this is an individual responsibility. If you partake in milk products, you have a responsibility to your mother the cow and your father the bull to support and protect them.
The inactions or actions of others has no bearing on this personal responsibility, and I am not prepared to sacrifice the current well being of cows just because they are not in some theoretical best possible situation.
If you feel that there is a better way, please step up and demonstrate it. No one is preventing you from doing some pro bono fundraising for the cows.
If you are concerned about how those funds would be utilized, I could work with you, or anyone else, to bypass the existing structure and apply the funds to some very specific expenses to increase the care now given to the cows in NV.
I am more enlivened by positive actions of someone than having them point out the perceived flaws of others.
Not to become apathetic about improving the present situation, but to simply focus on the negative without some balance is not healthy for anyone and may have unintended consequences of harming the cows.
April 13, 2007 at 12:14 pm
You mentioned that there is nothing stopping anyone from doing some pro bono fundraising for the cows.Do you honestly think that the management would let you do that knowing is their only means for collecting funds.NV does not have any other strutural financial revenue other than cow collection or adopt a cow.If you start doing that,what are they going to do?I would like to see a successful program there for the cows.I would encourage people to contribute for Krsna cows.But if you really want to make it successful then I would like to suggest that a seperate fund be set up for the cows.A board of a few devotees who knows about cow protection and who REALLY cares for the cows be set up.Proper acountability for the funds.Something like this would be more successful,the cows would get the attention they need without having to wait for the management board to decide if they have the funds or can they afford to do something or not because it is salary time of the month.Now if the temple do need funds to manage their daily activities then a percentage can be given to then accordingly from the cow protection fund.Right now it is the opposite,after using the funds whatever remains is then used for the cows whether it is enough or not.To ensure that the cows are well cared for would be to have their own account and seperate caring board from the temple.Ballabhadra has a successful program working,which runs seperate from the temple,thats why it is successful.Proper advice for caring and breeding should be sort out.As you can see no one in the temple seems to know much about this hence is the reason for all the varied opinions on this site.With great respect prabhu the temple does not see things the way you and others do.You all love the cows,they love what the cows bring for them.For all this to work,then a true KRSNA CONCIOUS SPIRIT has to prevail in NV.
April 17, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Why can’t our operations be more like these:
http://www.realmilk.com/faqcowshare.html
Obviously they treat their cows quite nicely, and so they produce good milk and live a long time.
We might have to assume a higher maintenance cost, seeping into unproductive old age. And certainly the produce of each animal would be managed more to maintain a herd size in keeping with a 1/2 acre per animal and available water surplus rather than to produce milk.
But it is strange to see the organic, real milk, and healthy peaceful environment for milking cows being run more professionally outside of this movement. Granted there are other costs and factors associated with not producing meat, but this is a perfect starting point for how to run such a model professionally.
Assuming the production is lower so that each producing cow is sustaining both a non-productive cow and two bulls, this multiplies the cost of the milk product by 4.
Assuming you only want milk product that can last a long time and be transported a long way for shareholders, all milk product should be turned into butter (ghee), low fat yogurt, and cheese. This could be given to shareholders of each animal, or if properly made, sold to visitors (many of whom use ghee on a regular basis).
All the best to your varied services.
Kapila
April 17, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Here is one idea I’ve just come up with. Forgive any ridiculous numbers I use, I can’t quite fine all the data I want, and much of this is averages. But I think the principle works. I’d like to know what you think and if it is far fetched.
Given that there are various types of cows, various types of environments, various types of feed etc etc, I’m only using averages from decent dairy lands)
Given an average lifespan of a healthy well treated cow of between 14-20 years I’ll use an 18 year lifespan.
With an 18 year lifespan, the only sustainable number is as each cow dies, one cow is born. Thus herd size per producing cow is 18. This 18 includes an even split of 9 bulls or oxen and 9 cows.
Each producing cow is thus responsible for the maintenance of 18 others. Of course, if a cow is kind and produces for more than one year, so much the better, but lets stick with worst case scenarios.
One healthy well treated Jersey cow can produce 25 gallons of milk a week with 4.6% butter fat content (in Virginia)
If we assume that a family of 4 might reasonably and moderately consume:
1 gallon of milk a week
.5lb (250g) of butter a week
1.5 gallons of low fat yogurt or low fat milk
1lb of cheese
This is a moderate and reasonable intake of 4 gallons of milk (and milk products) a week.
So one cow, supporting 17 non-producing cows, can support around 6 families with a little left over.
So each family of 4 should really maintain 3 cows/bulls for their moderate consumption.
Lets assume the land is decent land, with 8 months of grazing and 4 months of winter. Such land can usually sustain 1-2 animals per acre in spring and fall and 3-4 in summer.
So the cost to maintain these 3 animals should be:
provision of 1.5 acres of land assuming well chosen grass, good fertilization, and efficient crop rotation.
$540 dollars a year for lodging assuming 4 months on hay (2 tons-4 bales=$60) and health costs etc.
$657 dollars a year on water assuming a consumption rate of 40 gallons a day and a cost of tap water of $.0025 per gallon.
$833 dollars a year for a cowherd assuming this person milks 6 animals a day- for 36 families, manages 108 animals total(6 herds of 18), and earns $30,000 a year)
This is a total cost of $2030 per year per family for moderate but decent consumption of karma free, natural, stress free milk products provided by an appreciated and sustainably worked cowherder.
Now, given that there is an over abundance of mistreated and slaughtered cows, and a great abundance of milk products available in much more efficient supply chains and in keeping with legislation etc. What we should really focus on is the healthy retirement of well treated dairy cows- since others are already producing and marketing organic, stress free, natural dairy.
If each family of 4 were to moderate their consumption to the outline above (or pay for increased consumption) and each family purchased the best possible milk products they could find. Then they should donate $2030 per year minus the cost of 52 gallons of milk a year, 26lb of butter a year, 78 gallons of low fat yogurt or milk, and 52lb of cheese.
If they are buying more expensive organic stress free products then they would donate less. If they are buying from supermarkets with high stress dairy cows raised for slaughter and lifespans of less than 5 years they will pay more.
This remainder that is donated is gathered and spent on either paying the good milk producers to retire their herds (think of it as a pension fund for well treated animals), or for the transport and retirement of cows from such places. This would encourage these types of producers at least until the full karma free milk production facility was created.
As part of the pension arrangement, we could demand that as the animals die, they are sold only to pet food manufacturers for healthy meat for animals (and not any human consumption), and that the leather is used for organic, non-mistreated animal leather. This would be proper utilisation of the natural by product of death and in keeping with vedic traditions.
The amount of leather produced per animal per year could also be credited to each family as part of their annual subscription- so a 1/6th share of the amount of leather produced by a carcass.
The $2030 quoted is a fairly high price. In many cases the water may cost less, the cowherd may be able to take care of more than 108, and feed and boarding may cost less. But it is a decent sum and works out to $1.39 per day per person for what I think and estimate is a reasonable amount of healthy milk product- more would arguably be both unhealthy, and unsustainable.
Given that a family of 4 is also the perfectly sustainable population size (replicating itself), the model above is a close aproximation of what a wholesome, healthy, sustainable community would focus on creating.
Just a thought. Let me know what you think?
Kapila
April 18, 2007 at 10:33 am
Thanks Kapila. Your point that it costs about 4 times as much to produce protected milk as commercial milk is pretty accurate and is best the figure to work from.
Producing protected milk needs to be done as a religious duty.
I appreciate the effort you spent working out how this can be done. We can certainly bat numbers around on the details and they would vary but the general idea that a more complex arrangement needs to be made is correct.
We have the general idea that trust funds should be set up to subsidize the lifetime care of cows under devotee care.
The reality is that most devotees are urban and will never be hands on caretakers. There contribute needs to be in the form of taking working vacations on devotee farms, or contributing to the endowing of these trust funds.
Cow protection needs to be done by the entire society of devotees in order to be successful.
The previous paradigm of departmentalization of cows and “those other” devotees specialize in cow care, hasn’t worked.
If someone individually drinks milk, then they have an individual responsibilty to contribute to cow protection, that is regardless of the overall society, but for cow protection programs to be really successful , there needs to be a whole society participation to leverage out those inividual contributions.
Right now we could really use some devotees to step up and make arrangements for trust funds. They could be set up individually, or in conjunction with devotee project managements.
This will help assure the eventual success of the cow protection programs and maybe even at some point large scale surplus of milk production that could be shipped into the urban devotees.
Hey, we can dream, can’t we?
April 18, 2007 at 10:41 am
“What we should really focus on is the healthy retirement of well treated dairy cows- since others are already producing and marketing organic, stress free, natural dairy.”
The retirement issue IS the crux of the whole thing.
On the idea that organic milk is stress free though, I addressed that here
April 18, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Thanks for the comments Madhava Prabhu.
I’m just relieved that my thinking wasn’t off key.
I like to act when I’ve got the pieces of the puzzle in place, but this has taken an entrenched part of my thinking for the future.
I understand what you mean about involving all of society, but a functional society has specialists, but also has a consciousness of the various functions of those specialists across the whole community. So book distributors can also feel left out etc.
In terms of organic, I can understand it’s not perfect, but if we actually had a fund of money to retire animals and pay more for the good quality producers, the market would move with us, as you see the market move towards organic now that people are voting with their money.
Anyhow, I appreciate all of you who are keeping the flames alive and I hope we can live up to it sometime.
Kapila
May 5, 2007 at 8:19 am
Hare Krishna prabhu and matajis
Please accept my humble obiesances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.
My name is bhakta Scott and I live in Chile, Sth America. I just recently found this website and today have just been reading everything that has been written about Cow Protection, this year. I am not very knowledgeable about CP but I am trying to learn, as one day soon I wish to purchase land and set up a sustainable devotional community here.
When the community is set up I definantely want a cow protection program in place, because I believe this it is an extremely important part of devotional life, which unfortunately seems not to have much importance in our society, though for the life of me I can’t understand why.
I don’t know that much, but one thing I do know is that the cows who I will be protecting, will be protected unconditionally, without question, no matter what, for the whole of their beautiful long lives.
In regards to selling milk, any milk that the community cannot drink, turn into butter, ghee, yogurt, cheese, sweets or any other milk related products, which I imagine will be very little could be sold, I suppose, though I would try my very best to make sure it is a last resort.
The land I will purchase is approx 30 mins from a small size city, (and it will be large enough to sustain a large herd as well as grow an abundance of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains etc) with good preaching prospects, a possibilty of 5-6 small restaurants, which will be supplied by a central temple kitchen (with as much of the ingredients being grown on the community as possible), with all profits going to the temple, I will also set up an organic vegetable home / non-devotional restaurant delivery business, with all vegetables and fruits being grown on temple land, the business will also sell bread, cookies, and other assorted products. All this even before I mention Laksmi collected from book distribution or donations to the temple. Also the capital Santiago, is only 1 hour by car from this area and could quite easily be accessed daily if more restaurants were need to suuport the community, or for further preaching activities. A small bus full of devotees driving one hour, chanting all the way, what a great way to travel!
Water will be collected from boars and anual rain fall pumped into 6 large tanks at the highest point of the property, using a small solar powered pump, to provide water for all areas of the temples, so no large water bills. Luckily the area the farm will be in is a temperate region so cows can graze all year, but any extra feed (hay) needed will be grown on the property, so again no large feed bills. Also no one will be paid $30,000 a year to tend the cows, so this will be a great saving from the outset.
I believe this type of situation could be replicated in many areas all around the world, and would solve many community econonomical problems. I think the biggest problem I have noticed with our society is that no one wants to live on farms. It’s funny because I think this is exactly where Srila Prabhupada wanted and expected the society to end up, living in farm communties and going into the cities to preach and distribute prasadam, which to me is the perfect situation to be living in in this material world.
Anyway these are just some of my thoughts and I hope in some way they can help our society.
Hare Krishna
Bhakta Scott
May 5, 2007 at 9:35 am
Thank you for sharing your vision. Milk production only lasts a shrt while. The more important contribution of the cow is the dung which can be used as fertilizer.
The idea that the farm makes its money from sales of produce is much souunder than a plan based on income from milk.
August 11, 2007 at 6:23 am
Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Hare Krishna!
Dear Balabhadra das
My name is Radha priti dd, I’m from Brazil. I’m His Holiness Purushatraya Swami’s disciple. In this year I’ll do the Vyasa Puja book of Gurudeva. I’d like to ask for you write some offering for him and send me in this e-mail, I know that you met Gurudeva!. Can you try to do it before August 20?
With love,
Radha-priti dd
August 11, 2007 at 10:58 am
I have forwarded your request to Balabhadra.