bovine personhood in ISKCON: cow draining

[Guest guest]

Apart from the health issues of using milk at all, in any form,

there are the very real differences between

(1) drawing milk from a protected and contented cow

on an ISKCON farm

(goshalla means " cow protection " , and is vigorously

advocated by ISKCOWP, the ISKCON society for

Cow Protection)

and

(2) buying commercial milk to sustain the imaginary

parallel between old world ways in religious India

and modern re-enactments of those ways in

technologically efficient America or Europe.

 

The animals from whose milk Dannon yogurt is made

are not legally or culturally protected, and all we can

presume upon is the practical good will and good

business sense of the dairy farmers -- the VERY SAME

dairy farmers who over a decade ago lobbied energetically

with the Massachusetts Farm Bureau (MFB) and

the American Farm Bureau (AFB) AGAINST a simple

statewide ballot initiative to ASSURE that farm animals

had at least SOME basic protections.

 

Millions of dollars in American Farm Bureau money

was ported into Massachusetts, outside money

influencing the Massachusetts election, for powerful

and persuasive TV and radio campaigns to influence

the voters against their native proclivity to support

farm animals in at least this minimal way.

 

So, some of us have at least SOME reluctance

to rely ENTIRELY on the presumption that all

dairy farmers are always going to do all the right things

by all their animals.

 

The sting still burns, if you know what I mean.

 

Also, I'll say this much for the BELIEF in the legitimacy

of drinking milk, offering a perspective which I seldom

see argued, perhaps because it has become a more

integral part of my unfolding " philosophy of religion " .

 

I do believe that a naturalistic explanation of the health and

longevity of the several peoples (and there are several, I believe)

of India could be that the decision to milk the cows and to use

the cows' milk EITHER

(1) ensured human survival enough to allow the ideology of

milk-drinking to be carried along in the religions of India

or

(2) the ideology of milk-drinking was carried along by a

population who INCIDENTALLY drank milk, and who

felt gratitude to the cow for giving the milk, which they

understood religiously as a personal sacrifice (or gift) of

some significance, from the cow as a real and important person.

 

Maynard

 

At 11:24 AM 9/25/00 -0400, RGarlandG wrote:

>As I mentioned in my first post I do not think anyone is trying to make

>excuses for using milk that is not from protected cows, they would obviously

>much rather not. But

>I do not think you have even theoretically grasped the concept that in the

>offering to Krishna of such milk the cow and the consumer are benefited

>spiritually and both are awarded a better life. If this was part of your

>equation (which it obviously is not) you would certainly view things

>differently. For Krishna's this is not an excuse but a fact of life.