Protection Farms - we need a united front

[Guest guest]

<Syamasundara (AT) pamho (DOT) net> wrote: > In the hard light of

reality it is probably

> unrealistic to look to the

> members of this conference to fund a detailed

> buiseness plan as is often

> mentioned.

> Such a plan done by professional would cost much

> money. this conference is

> not know for having much disposable income. In fact

> it probably hasn't got

> any.

 

Maybe, but really it is not their money we would need.

This is why we need a charity to be set up to fund

such research. It was you, Syam, who came up with the

name VEDA - for vegetarian environment and dynamic

agriculture, to replace my IFVS - International

vegetarian farming society. I changed VEDA to

Vegetarian Environmental Development Association.

I have approached the IVU, CIWF, FARM, PETA et al.

Most are run by vegans. At least the UK veg society

took my proposals to their Board, but as they are cash

strapped they rejected it for now. Still, I have a

space open to write for them - and the last article

attracted a good amount of attention. I am therefore

aiding in the stimulation of demand, but our supply

base is shell-shocked form past failures.

 

> There are many devotees who are giving these

> thoughts of viability in the

> twenty first century much deliberation. Would they

> fund the research of a

> buiseness plan?. They would probably need a sober

> approach.

 

Good, let's give it them. One must understand that any

communist-type system (meaning top-down) will probably

fail. It needs a bottom-up approach based on the

selfish interests of the participants. I have stripped

out of the ISKCON model all "wishy washy niceties"

that rely on selfless activities, ie bhakti. If that

comes all the better, much better.

But it is in the ability for the material needs of the

participants to be met that it will work - thus a

bottom up, bread and butter, knuts and bolts approach.

Meaning, how many knuts and bolts do we need, how do

we process them, what are the labour costs, the

capital costs, the running costs, what is the ultimate

price, what is expected demand, what can be done to

increase demand, what are ways to add value???????????

 

 

> in the mean time, why dont you make a start or

> continue as you are doing.

>

> You may be aware that every year wye college puts

> out a book describing the

> calculations for agriculture and all the

> considerations one needs to do to

> see if one is making money or not. The book is by

> professer hicks. Perhaps

> one should contact them and one could get a book of

> the present year and

> also a book dealing with post war or as near as

> possible. In that way one

> can get a measure of the old way of doing things.

>

> One other consideration is that this is a pioneering

> project and some of the

> elements have not been fully developed yet.

>

> An area of discussion is to use machinery that does

> not compromise the

> dependancy on the ox. For example one could use a

> petrol engine mounted on a

> small cart which has a tractor PTO bar. In this way

> one could pull tractor

> machinery by oxen and have the machinery powered by

> petrol power. This

> appoach may not be approved by some but perhaps it

> may be a middle way and

> it doesn't seem to compromise the dependancy on the

> ox. If the policy is one

> can use any machinery as long as it does not replace

> the ox then there are

> many things one can do paralleling modern farming

> but using ox power rather

> than tractor.

>

> We need to innovative to be forward thinking and not

> backward thinking. To

> find a farming system that is appropriate and

> practicable in the modern age.

>

> ys syam,

 

 

I completely agree with your reasonings.

 

Also, there are many highly expert devotees out there

with a bale full of knowledge.

 

WE CAN FORM PROCEDURES FOR THIS SYSTEM AND COST THEM.

 

I would love to spend full time researching this, to

do a PhD in it, and everything. Yet, due to wild sex

desire, I now have a 3-year-old kid with an Argentine,

which for now keeps me in BA, working 50 hour weeks in

rich schools to provide a basic karmi life. I am

trapped in my own makings.

 

The internet provides us with the best resource to do

this work. We, the interested participants, need to

agree on the vision, mission statement and action

plans.

 

And I would do this on an ISKCON basis - following as

closely as possible to Prabhupada's teachings, and on

a Protection Farms basis - an acknowledged and agreed

upon compromise, feasable both for devotees and karmis

alike. Therefore we would be riding on two rails - the

vaisnava transcendentalist path and the

materialistically bonded one. Both dedicated to the

lifetime protection of farm animals, but with

different levels of consciousness behind them.

 

I believe it is time the cow devotees took a stance

and formed there own ways - ISCOWP for the vaisnavas,

and VEDA for the rest.

This would then open the gateways for networking with

the secular world which is full of experts and money.

Sustainability, community partnerships, animal

welfare, organic farming, agroforestry, intermediate

technology, alternative energy, rural revitalisation -

are just a few of the key words that many grant-giving

bodies are looking for to give to groups with sensible

projects.

 

Syam, you more than any other devotee know my mind set

on this issue, and also how dificult it is to make

progress, especially whilst trapped in Argentina

(though I am back in the UK in July). With the

knowledge-based resources that the cow conference

devotees have, it is surely possible to galvinise

support, information, agricultural systems procedures

and costs. With this then we can present a

more-than-a-nice-idea reality-based project to

researchers, government agencies, charity funders,

venture capitalists, Hinduja, McCartney, etc, etc...

 

What says thee...

 

In faith and reasoning,

 

Mark Jon

 

 

 

 

 

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