Protection Farms

[Guest guest]

> My point was that the farmer should not depend on

> the commercial market. The

> farms should work economically without it. The

> profit from the commercial

> market would be used for non-essentials only. The

> cows and bulls should

> never be at the mercy of the global economy.

 

Have you not noticed that at the moment they are

completely at the mercy of the global economy? A few

self sufficient communities are not, at the moment,

going to blow a hole in that. Yet a commercial model

of farm animal protection could do. How much will the

farmer and cows be at the mercy of commerce? That all

depends on the system in place, but commercial it will

be.

 

> Let the entrepreneurs invest and take the risks and

> make the maximum profit,

> but in no case should the cows suffer. That is the

> difficult thing. It may

> not be possible, but I agree that we should explore

> the possibilities.

 

Exactly. The possibilities that a business model can

secure land, animals, families, communities based on

premium products and services to an enlightened

consumer base.

 

> The essential element here is how much commercial

> surplus can a farm based

> on organic methods and cow protection actually

> generate after meeting the

> farmers and the cows own food needs.

 

A lot.

 

> This is different from subsistence farming, of

> course and there is an

> argument that complete daivi-varnasrama communities

> would be based on

> subsistence farming. Iam not sure this is true, but

> in any case, there is a

> large number of people who are not willing to just

> subsist when the global

> economy beckons with its high living standards. Many

> of these people,

> however might be willing to participate in a system

> which both provides

> self-reliance for essentials and an opportunity to

> exploit the global

> economy for meaningful luxuries (like pilgrimages to

> India, computers to

> communicate, advanced health care, etc.).

 

Exactly. An enlightened consumer base to buy the

products, and enlightened producers to come up with

the merchandise-

 

> Mark, if you have the interest in developing this

> business model, why don't

> you start asking the questions that are needed to

> plug in the spreadsheet?

 

 

I gave an email last week with the basic maths. I hope

that the devotees following this will inform me of how

favourable they are in pursuing this option along with

the self sufficient option. If there is a general

agreement on this approach I would like to put forward

my compertmentalised format and try and get some more

real data in there. Once a business model is costed

then a market appraisal can be made based on expected

costs.

 

I believe in an area with about 50 devotee families

and a congregation that if the devotees realised they

had to pay the price, as it is their consumption

patterns that will save the cow, they would do, and

this model could be replicable across ISKCON world and

into the mainstream.

 

What do you think?

 

Yours, Mark

 

 

 

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