For years we have been kicking around the idea of vicarious cow protection. Facing the reality that most will have to, for the time being, purchase milk from cows that will be slaughtered, what is a sincere devotee of the Supreme Cowherd Boy, Krishna, to do? The idea is that if someone has to buy Putana milk, they can purify it by contributing to cow protection programs.
We have roughly calculated that it costs about $10-12 in the US to produce a gallon of milk where the cow shall be given life time protection. Compare that to the $3 slaughtered cows’ milk would typically go for. The concept is that by paying the differential, or portion thereof. into a cow protection program or endowment fund, the consumer would in effect be consuming milk from protected cows vicariously. A cow is protected and milk is available.
Whole Foods has applied this concept to wind generated electricity.
Whole Foods offers cards to fund wind power market
“LOS ANGELES, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Top U.S. natural and organic foods retailer Whole Foods Market (WFMI.O: Quote, Profile , Research) on Wednesday began selling “wind-power cards” that seek to fund and market the growing renewable energy.
“Seventy-six Whole Foods stores in nine states will offer $5 and $15 plastic cards that are to represent the average electricity use by a person – 250 kilowatt hours – and an average household — 750 KWh – in the United States per month.
“Renewable Choice Energy will collect money from the sale of the cards and use it to market wind power produced by its clients, which are U.S. wind power producers that sell to utilities on the open power market, said Ted Rose, director of business development for Renewable Choice Energy.
“The card does not reduce or impact consumers utility bills, nor does it deliver wind power to consumers. Rather, it helps U.S. wind-power producers market their product.
“ “This is for consumers who want to ensure they are paying for clean energy” rather than electricity produced by using fossil fuels like natural gas and coal, said Rose, who offered no projections on how the card will sell.
“ “It’s impossible for us to deliver wind power electrons to people’s homes,” he said. “But this system allows people to pay the premium on the (wind-produced) electricity.”
“Rose said the $5 per individual and $15 per household is in line with the increased costs of producing and marketing wind power in North America over the costs or producing power from plants that run on fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.
“In January, Whole Foods announced the largest corporate purchase of renewable energy credits in North America to offset all of its electricity use.
“ “A purchase of a wind power card provides an opportunity for an individual or a family to help reduce their dependence on fossil fuels by supporting the production of renewable energy,” said Michael Besancon, Whole Foods Market Southern Pacific president.”
This is a wonderful idea Prabhu. This gave me another idea. I will donate whatever money I can afford(I have to donate to my local iskcon temple also), to a bonafide cow protection charity like KurmaPrabhu’s in Vrindavan.
Hari Bol
Your Servant
PS
I can not thank enough to PraghoshaPrabhu for starting this blog forum. Earlier for a neophyte devotee like me (2.5 years of following KC) there was no easy way to send suggestions to iskcon authorities. I hope that GBC is watching this website and consider implementing positive suggestions posted on this website.
IMHO, GBC could formulate standards for Goshalas for cow protection. Possibly, they could arrange for peiodic inspection of those Goshalas and make sure that they are following prescribed standards.
Once a Goshala has a GBC certification, devotees will feel comfortable donating money to them. We will have to weed out charlatans who may pose as a bonafide Goshala.
Regarding comment #2
ISKCON’s cow protection ministry more or less fulfils this function. For details you can contact ISCOWP@pamho.net
I know that their European branch headed up by Syamasundara prabhu regularly visits all the gosalla’s in western Europe and makes detailed reports about their activities, standards and areas that require improvement. I understand that soon Syamasundara will be covering the whole of Europe.
Your servant, Praghosa dasa
The Minimum Cow Protection Standards (ISKCON LAW 507) is published at:
http://tinyurl.com/2ckb8r
I find it notable that a Google search for “Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture” produces only 10 results, and “cow protection ministry” produces only 5. All of the pages seem fairly outdated. Perhaps it would be a good idea to put up a site telling about what the Cow Protection Ministry is doing.
I’m somewhat confused about the leading of this ministry. About two years ago when I was editing ISCOWP’s book (It’s 9 megabytes; download link below)
http://tinyurl.com/2prlar
Chayadevi told me that Balabhadra had resigned, and the ISCOWP “about us” page confirms that. Yet the Krishna.com directory gives his contact info for the Ministry of Cow Protection and Agriculture, and an August 26, 2006 article here by Balabhadra says he is the minister again. I wonder what happened.
This sounds like a brilliant idea with outstanding potential, if it can be organized very professionally.
Not just in ISKCON, but among many good people throughout the world, there is probably a willingness to pay an extra surcharge on milk for the purpose of protecting cows.
Exactly how the surcharge would be spent through the cow protection fund should be carefully thought out.
It could be used for making direct payments to dairy farmers who agree to not sell the cows but to care for them throuhgout their lives (but that system would require careful monitoring).
Or it could be used to buy cows from dairy farmers in competition with the slaughterhouses and then to care for those cows in special goshalas until they peacefully leave their bodies. (That system would require operation of special goshalas).
Or it could be used to pay independent goshalas if they meet some minimum standards (like an accredidation procedure for being entitled to receive cow protection fund payments).
As far as possible, the goshalas could be located near where the milk is purchased, and families could visit the places being funded with their milk surcharges and see their money at work.
However it is done, there would have to be crystal clear accounting for every penny to establish consumer confidence, and some of the fund could be used for increasing awareness of the fund. Good advertising and promotion of the campaign, and freedom from accounting scandals or other scandals (e.g., poorly cared for cows) would be important to really make this fly.
This could end up being a huge, enormously successful project that spans the globe.
Someone could win the Nobel Cow Prize (the “Cowbell Prize”?)
Seriously, if there were a reliable, well-run, scandal free organization in place that permitted people to pay an extra $10-15 per gallon of milk to assure that, in a real sense, they were not participating economically in slaughtering dairy cows whose milking years were over, many ethically minded lacto-vegetarians and pious Hindus would surely want to pay that premium.
(It would also bring home the point that if you didn’t pay the premium, you would be participating economically in animal slaughter, in a way that could be quantified in dollars and cents.)
Many people already pay extra for “organic” milk and butter from cows not treated with bovine growth hormone. It was in the news yesterday that Starbucks Corporation announced it would not use the BGH milk in all its stores (at least in the U.S.–I did not pay close attention to the announcement), and that this might result in a price hike.
If this could be done somehow in affiliation with Krishna consciousness (whether at the organizational level or at least at the level of running some of the accredited goshalas), so much the better. It would not only help cows and decrease the earth’s burdens of terrible sins committed daily, but could also be used to glorify Sri Krishna and even as a tie-in with other Krishna conscious things (like Prabhupada’s books).
But to do it well would require some first-class planning and management.
Regarding comment #4
Balabhadra prabhu simply changed his mind.
Your servant, Praghosa dasa.
Regarding comment 3: Our correct email address is iscowp@earthlink.net
Regarding comment 4: Notice that the link for the Cow Standards takes you to the ISCOWP site: www.iscowp.org
Balabhadra is the president of ISCOWP and the ISKCON Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture. The ISCOWP site serves as an educational site for cow protection. At this site: Cow Protection, Book 1, the cow standards, and other educational materials can be downloaded, informative newsletters since 1991 are accessible, Original Cow T-shirts purchased, cows adopted, reources linked, oxpower instructions, etc.
Balabhadra also has a blog Life With the Cows and Land
At one point there was an ISKCON Ministry page on www.Krsna.com that linked the ISKCON Minstry for Cow Protection and Agriculture to the ISCOWP page. Whatever help any one would like to donate to help us claifiy the connection online is appreciated. We also need help to set up a shopping cart that would allow the purchase of the educationl disks on training oxen, the Cow Protection, Book 1, and more.
In regards to comment 1 : Madhava Gosh has been proposing this plan for many years. It is in the Cow Protection Book 1 and in other locations on the ISCOWP web page. Presently one of ISCOWP’s donors is setting the example by donating a dollar for every dollar he spends on commercial milk. His name is Vrindavana das, now living in Hawaii. He is a wonderful example and we pray that more devotees will follow him in this service. Whatever cow program inspires you , please give to Krsna’s cows.
Hare Krishna
Comment #5 has excellent ideas. These could have a longer lead time. For the short term, cow protection ministry can do the following:
There is a company in UK which sells carbon credit and donate the money to setup wind farms. They keep a small percentage of donations, I guess for administrative cost. They have carbon calculators. see example: http://www.carbonneutral.com/shop/results.asp?cat1=Driving
We can follow this idea and modify existing cow protection website and add cow-killed calculators and accept donations from that website. IMHO, $12/= per gallon is a steep price for many people. If a family of two youg kids is spending $150/= per month on regular milk, they will have to spend $600/= per month. They can not reduce their growing children’s milk. People can check their cow score and whatever they can afford, they will buy credits.
Cow protection ministry can use this money to maintain existing Goshalas and start new ones. They can also send quartely reports to donors.
This can be quickly set up.
IMHO, I am not sure cow protection activities are sufficiently advertized within iskcon centers. Maybe temple presidents might feel competition for donations.
To circumvent this issue, cow protection ministry can give funds to larger iskcon centers like New York, LA etc and assist them to start Goshalas in their vicinity. Donors can specify which Goshala their donation should go to. This way temple presidents will encourage visitors to donate for cow protection. I know it may not be possible to start a Goshala in New York city itself, but under Brooklyn temple control they can find a place at a drivable distance.
Hari Bol
What about the milk bought at the market? These milk purveyors force the cows to be pregnant to overproduce milk, then slaughter the calves.
Thanks for all the comments. Couple of thoughts.
I think that sending any amount is more important than the actual amount sent. It has to do with consiousness more than quantity. Anyone who drinks milk can afford something. If someone is living an austere life, they wouldn’t be expected to donate as much as someone living comfortably. Anyone in the US could afford at least $1.
Milk is an opulence, not a commodity.
I would like to see the donations, or at least a significant portion of them, go into endowment funds. The income from the endowment would then be given to the actual cow protection programs, assuring lonterm protection of the cows. Most successful colleges and universities are significantly funded by endowments. Setting up long term programs based solely on cash flow is not prudent.
This is going to require experienced administors to setup and run. With the internet, they could live in any urban center. Truth is, most hands on cow protectors already have their hands full, so it is an opportunity for anyone to serve the cows.
Most importantly, this is not something anyone has to wait for someone else, that mythical “They” to do something. It is a decision any individual can make, right now, and is not dependent on any institution for approval or iniation of a program.
Institutions could run programs to facilitate and expand this, and I hope they will, but there is no reason for an individual to wait. Programs are already set up to receive donations for cow care.
The potential to expand these programs and eventually establish more of them and create a network of sustainable protected cow’s milk producers is huge. A long term goal would be to make milk products literally available to devotees. Value added products like milk sweets that could be shipped would probably be the first manifestation of that.
A lot of patience to see this all manifest is necessary.
Krishna is a cowherd boy. How can someone want to worship Krishna and ignore the cows?
“Without protection of cows, brahminical culture cannot be maintained; and without brahminical culture, the aim of life cannot be fulfilled.”
Srimad Bhagavatam 8.24.5
Dear Aspring_Vaishnav,
In regards to your comment 8 – We checked it out and it sounds like a good idea.
“We can follow this idea and modify existing cow protection website and add cow-killed calculators and accept donations from that website.”
Can you help us do this? We are not very computer savy. Please contact us at: iscowp@earthlink.net
Dear Pandu,
Haribol!
In regards to comment 4: Sorry, forgot to update the About Us page on the ISCOWP site. Will do so soon.
In addition to Kurmarupa Prabhu’s Care for Cows, I suggest that donations be made to the similar program Sudevi runs north of Radha kunda. Donations can be made to her through Kurmarupa if they are tagged for that program. She takes care of about 150 abandoned and injured cows and bulls practically singlehandedly. Her program is rarely visited and there is little income over that supplied by her parents.
Also–those cow programs deal with symptoms–what about getting to the root, at least in the Vrindavana area? How can we restore a cow culture in the dhama before the cow slaughter culture there becomes irreversible and all the grazing land is gone?
Your servant, Urmila devid asi
Hare Krishna
PAMHO. AGTSP.
I sent in my first donation to Kurmarupa Prabhu’s Care for Cows to partially atone for the sin of using commercial milk. I could only do US$ 1 per gallon. I will continue donating as long as finances are ok.
Hari Bol
Your Servant
Thank you very much. It may not seem like a lot, but remember the sparrow who was throwing grains of sand into the ocean to help Lord Rama. May many others be inspired by your example.
Hare Krishna