First Topics

[Guest guest]

Haribol prabhus,

PAMHO AGTSP

 

Just flicking through the feedback for the cow resources on the point of

trusts, it is a difficult thing to set up internally, because usually there

are so many who don't see the need for one. If they did, then maybe we could

say that it isn't necessary. The reality is that the cow will be around in

any one centre practically longer than a lot of devotees, and in some cases

within the greater ISKCON movement. Therefore the trusts are an essential

part of the continuity of the programme, but also to stop, as mentioned

before, the intrusion into cow lands by successive managements or settling

devotees. This may not be done in a malicious way, but it's a fact of life,

that cow lands are seeping away in some centres to housing needs, roads,

infrasture etc. It is up to the current management and cowherders to ensure

that the cows maintain possession of their grazing land into the future. A

trust is ideal, and often is needed to avoid difficulties in the community

itself.

 

An example would be the land here, it is marsh, and due to rising and

lowering of the lake it will nearly always be marsh. We are fighting nature

to keep it in green pastures. Underneath it lie the water and electrical

cables for the community. The well pump house is now in a part of one field.

Successive housing developments has meant that the fields are being dug time

and time again. So it's important to make sure that there is protection and

policy surrounding the use and preservation of the land for the cows.

 

However the government here are into an environmental programme which will

not only keep the land in trust via a legal agreement, but will pay

compensation to us. This compensation means that we farm as we now do, but

have the benefit of ensuring the basic amount of laxmi to look after the

aging herd. The agreement is the next best thing to a trust. Although we

still are looking to future land and other developments, it's a safeguard in

a community which is only settling down, and above all it ensures that the

lands are safe from any more development. At the end of the agreement, we

can re-enter or withdraw as we choose. Either way the fencing will have been

grant aided and in place, the cow sheds should be repaired, the pastures and

cutting fields in the same condition as at present, and then the community

will be in a position to evalutate where it's going. The problem of the cow

programme at present in many places it seems that it is depending on one or

two people, who themselves will be getting older, as we are ourselves. Even

with the best of intentions we cannot guarntee a lifespan of 20 years

protection to any animal we breed now, because we may not be around

ourselves then. Who knows? So the trust is one way to ensure that we are

putting the future of cow protection in some amount of safety in that the

lands will be preserved, more gained in some cases, and it gives time to

educate or re-educate communities as they mature.

 

There are restrictions on our usage, but none contravene what our practical

use is at present. In the situation we are in, it's the first step to having

an enforcable agreement. The next step is to make an official 'trust', that

will stand the test of time. It may seem to some devotees that breeding is

the issue, and it can be, but it's not always. We have a small herd and will

not be really breeding at all as such, so our reasons are not stemming from

overpopulation of cows etc. It is to continue the commitment to these

animals, to Prabhupada and indeed to Krsna, that His cows will have

protection, having served well for so many years, even though we won't have

high milk yields. Also it's to avoid the fall-out of the many horrible

problems we have seen over the years, including politics, changes, disasters

and any other internal as well as external factors. Above all it is to

protect from over population of devotees, who may see the cow lands like

assets they can avail of, or to see them as real estate to increase cash

flow, procure sites or expand surburbia. The establishment of cow trusts is

actually a step towards establishing responsible approaches to implementing

good farm and rural initiatives.

ys