{"id":12269,"date":"2014-01-18T15:46:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T14:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=12269"},"modified":"2014-01-18T15:47:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T14:47:38","slug":"milk-offsets-%e2%80%93the-fourth-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=12269","title":{"rendered":"Milk Offsets \u2013The Fourth Alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy Madhava Gosh<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWithout protection of cows, brahminical culture cannot be maintained;
\nand without brahminical culture, the aim of life cannot be
\nfulfilled.\u201dSrimad Bhagavatam 8.24.5<\/p>\n

The discussion of whether devotees should use industrial milk
\ncurrently has 3 schools of thought.<\/p>\n

1. Use it and ok if it is offered <\/b>.<\/p>\n

Advantages:<\/span> Fulfills
\nSrila Prabhupada’s (ACBSP) instruction use milk to develop finer brain
\ntissues<\/p>\n

Fulfills ACBSP’s instruction to use milk to lure meat eaters to prasadam<\/p>\n

Scaleable as what is needed can be purchased as needed<\/p>\n

Cheap and abundant<\/p>\n

Cow unknowingly benefits from having milk offered to Krsna<\/p>\n

Disadvantages:<\/span>
\nRequires animal slaughter to subsidize cheap price<\/p>\n

Cows lives shortened unnaturally and generally raised in poor
\nunnatural conditions<\/p>\n

Lose credibility with animal rightists and situational vegans<\/p>\n

Creates complacency in not following ACBSP’s instruction to get from
\nprotected cows<\/p>\n

2. Become a vegan <\/b><\/p>\n

Advantages:<\/span> Not
\nimplicated in animal slaughter or suffering<\/p>\n

Credibility with animal rightists and situational vegans (preaching to
\nWesterners programs double size when menu shifts to vegan)<\/p>\n

Disadvantages:<\/span> Most
\ndevotees can’t\/won’t perform the austerity<\/p>\n

Doesn’t fulfill ACBSP’s instructions to use milk<\/p>\n

Creates complacency in not following ACBSP’s instruction to get from
\nprotected cows<\/p>\n

3. Drink milk only from protected cows<\/b><\/p>\n

Advantages:<\/span> Fulfills
\nACBSP’s ideal<\/p>\n

<\/b>Credibility with animal rightists and vegans<\/p>\n

Cows live full life naturally and reciprocate loving relationship with devotees<\/p>\n

Better quality safer milk<\/p>\n

Major step towards varnashram<\/p>\n

Disadvantages:<\/span>
\nBenefit (milk) short term but obligations (care for cows up to 20
\nyears) long term<\/p>\n

Capital intensive – up to 6 times more expensive than industrial milk<\/p>\n

Requires dedicated milker(s)<\/p>\n

Requires 20+ year commitment to calves born<\/p>\n

Requires enforcement mechanism so money collected now is there for cow’s old age<\/p>\n

<\/b>Not easily scaleable \u2013 good for small groups not peak events
\nor increasing numbers<\/p>\n

<\/b>Complex logistics to supply devotee and well wishers diaspora<\/p>\n

Requires oxen program to be true cow protection<\/p>\n

A fourth alternative has been discussed, Milk Offsets. It is based on
\nthe widely accepted concept of Carbon Offsets which is applied a
\ncouple of ways. One is when renewable energizes are produced they are
\ngiven credits that utilities purchase to fulfill state law mandates
\nthat they produce a % of their energy from renewables. They are also
\noffered to individuals paying their electric bill to pay a premium
\nover what they owe and the extra used to buy renewable energy credits
\noffsetting their individual usage.<\/p>\n

4. Milk Offsets<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>Advantages:<\/span>
\nAnyone anywhere can do it requires no authorization<\/p>\n

Use of industrial milk and its disadvantages offset by donation to cow
\nprotection program<\/p>\n

Donation is used by programs to expand cow protection<\/p>\n

Milk is used and a cow is protected<\/p>\n

Scaleable as Krishna Consciousness spreads and for peak events<\/p>\n

Concept accessible to animal rightists and vegans who tend to be
\nenvironmentalists<\/p>\n

Disadvantages:<\/span> Cows
\nstill suffer<\/p>\n

Requires financial sacrifice<\/p>\n

Not understood by persons unfamiliar with current environmental practices<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

Carbon offsets<\/a><\/p>\n

Srila Prabhupada on why devotees should protect
\ncows<\/a><\/p>\n


\nEuropean GBC discussion of the milk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Madhava Gosh<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discussion of whether devotees should use industrial milk currently has 3 schools of thought: 1. Use it and ok if it is offered. 2. Become a vegan. 3. Drink milk only from protected cows. A fourth alternative has been discussed, Milk Offsets. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cow-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}