Karmi ghee

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On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, WWW: Vyapaka (Dasa) ACBSP (Montreal - CAN) wrote:

 

> [Text 2802718 from COM]

>

> Are there any laws against the sale of slaughtered animal (cow)byproducts as

> fundraisers for Iskcon projects? I am referring to the ghee business at New

> Vrindavana. I don't know of any other project which gets funding from such

> distasteful activities.

 

First of all, I hope that New Vrndavana is not still using ghee as a fund

raiser. If they are, this seems most unwise, as it would promote a

situation of overbreeding. Someone has not done the proper economic

analysis of profits from selling the ghee produced from one calf -- versus

the cost of maintaining that calf for the next 12-20 years.

 

But, second of all, even if it is true, New Vrndavana is hardly alone in

the practice of selling ghee from unprotected cows. Whatever the actual

results, at least they have an intention to protect the cows. But, in

most ISKCON temples, you can walk into the gift store and see several

bottles of ghee from slaughtered cows being sold to help raise money to

support the temple. So I cannot say that New Vrndavana would be alone in

this practice, by any means. It is simply that other temples are not

engaged in this practice on the same scale.

 

But, again -- I'm not sure that New Vrndavana is still doing large-scale

ghee distribution. I thought they had stopped that several years ago.

Maybe I am wrong about that.

 

> Wouldn't the sale of such items/products contravene at least the spirit if

not

> the actual standards themselves? This would seem relevant since the Min. of

> Ag/H.K.d.d. has singled out the Saranagati project which isn't even an Iskcon

> project.

 

[if Saranagati is not an ISKCON farm project, why is it listed in Back to

Godhead? Prabhupada Village, where the Bhaktivedanta Archives is located,

is not listed in Back to Godhead. Also, Saranagati has by no means been

"singled out" by anyone. As mentioned many times, there are very serious

allegations of cow abuse at Mayapura, Vrndavana and New Vrndavana as well

as other places. The devotees at Saranagati are certainly not being

"singled out" for their alleged shortcomings in the matter of cow

protection. We are hoping to rectify our past mistakes in cow protection

throughout our ISKCON society. This is not for the purpose of attacking

different projects, it is for the purpose of pleasing His Divine Grace

Srila Prabhupada and removing a large stone which is dragging us down as

we attempt to make spiritual progress. ]

 

First of all, as I mentioned to Malati prabhu, who is one of the GBCs for

New Vrndavana, the more important issue is that an investigation should be

initiated by the GBC as to why - if New Vrndavana was actually breeding

60-100 animals per year - the herd size is so low today.

 

For ISKCON temples and farm projects to sell ghee from unprotected animals

has always been a very disturbing practice, as far as I am concerned. I

wrote to Ravindra Svarupa about this way back in 1989, when some devotees

were doing this at Gita-nagari. Soon after that, Gita-nagari saw the

light and switched over to using burfi from its own - protected - cows,

rather than karmi ghee as part of its fund raising project.

 

But in many ISKCON temples, when you walk into the gift shop, you will see

bottles of ghee which are the product of cows who have subsequently been

shot in the head with a stun gun, hoisted upside-down and then had their

throats slit. To me it is an inauspicious practice in the mode of

ignorance. Most of these temples do not have any specific programs to

support a rural project where cows are protected. They have no program of

cow protection at all -- although in many cases, there are individual

members of the temples who are very magnanimous contributors to cow

protection projects, and they visit them frequently.

 

So, selling karmi ghee, or using karmi ghee as a component of fund raising

has always been a disturbing practice to me. I think people only do it

because they have not thought through the implications of their actions.

It's simply out of ignorance, not out of any particular malicious spirit.

 

So, I personally am not in favor of such a practice, even though it is

widespread in many ISKCON temples.

 

On the other hand, this is a battle which is very difficult to fight. If

you want to be the leader in it, go ahead.

 

The problem is that most or even all of our temples which have restaurants

are also using products from slaughtered cows (which is why many vegans

will not eat in them). So -- where do you draw the line? Shall we say

that our temples will only use products from our own protected cows?

Actually, Gita nagari used to provide all the curd for several Govinda's

restaurants on the East Coast.

 

There was an agreement with the temples that they, in turn would help

support the cows at Gita-nagari. This went along alright for a number of

years, but by the mid-1980s, they were facing their own economic problems

and they dropped their commitment to the cows like a hot potato. Their

support for the cows only lasted maybe 6-8 years -- but the cows and oxen

produced as a result of providing dairy products to them lived to be 12-20

years old.

 

So, based on real-world experience, I would never recommend developing a

dairy program based on an agreement with some Govinda restaurant that they

will then protect the cows. You will probably be left in the lurch.

Twenty years is a long time for devotees -- especially changing temple

management -- to commit to anything.

 

So, the answer is that I, personally, am opposed to distributing ghee from

slaughtered cows as a fund-raiser, and I have strong reservations about

using ghee from so-called protected cows as a fund raiser, because it can

easily lead to overbreeding of the cows (it takes many gallons of milk to

produce one gallon of ghee). Better to use burfi from protected cows, as

it takes much less milk, and consequently entails much less risk of

overbreeding.

 

But, this is not a battle that I want to focus my time and energy on.

Rather than focus so much on what not to do, I would like if possible to

focus more on what we should do -- which is to build up agriculture/cow

protection training programs for our young devotees and helping them get

settled on the land, without mortgaging their lives to buy property.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi