Production of UK's Most Expensive Milk, At Bhaktivedanta Manor To Be Expanded
Production of the most expensive pint of milk in the UK will be expanded after Hare Krishna farmers in Aldenham agreed a deal with a Kent dairy.
Ahimsa milk, costing £2.40 per litre, or £1.70 a pint, is currently produced at Bhaktivedanta Manor, in Hilfield Lane, Aldenham, but officials at the temple have penned a deal to increase production.
The Lotus Trust, which manages sales of the produce through its Ahimsa Milk Foundation, has agreed a deal with Commonwork Organic Dairy, in Kent, to produce more of the luxury white stuff.
Customers in Watford will be able to order the dear dairy straight to their door, via a subscription, when production begins in July.
The extraordinary produce costs more than double the price of organic milk due to the special treatment the pampered cows receive before and during milking.
The animals, considered holy by the Hare Krishna faith, are massaged during the process and scented candles and soothing music add to the calming atmosphere.
No animals are ever slaughtered, and elderly cows are given retirement to a sanctuary at approximately 13 years old, safe in the knowledge a pension scheme, derived from milk sales, will support them into their later years.
Approximately 65p from every litre sold goes towards the animal's retirement fund, which covers hospice and vet costs.
Sita Rama das, director of the Lotus Trust, said: "It has been a lot of effort to get here and we're happy to provide this service to the public. We are very excited about how this project will develop in the future.
"The Lotus Trust has been campaigning for better treatment of cows, and all money gained from this venture will be invested to promote care and better welfare for the animals."
For more information visit www.ahimsamilk.org.
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Oh Brother! @Dusyanta Dasa:
Oh Brother!
@Dusyanta Dasa: With all due respect, prabhuji, are you serious? Here is an article about a dynamic and creative project that devotees are working hard on to support cow protection and provide milk from protected cows to people in a professional and sustainable way. It is helping to raise so much awareness about the need to protect Mother Cow and engaging other people (nondevotee) in supporting cow protection. And it is allowing devotees to offer and drink milk from cows that are not being slaughtered, but rather cared for lovingly. And the only thing you can say about it is that the term "ahimsa" is not accurate as per Srila Prabhupada's instruction that all food in the material world involves violence? This seems like to me an example of devotees being so attached to the letter of the law and technicalities of word choice that they neglect the spirit of the law. I hope for your sake, Dusyanta Prabhu, that you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed when you wrote this.
Hare Krsna. Having been
Hare Krsna.
Having been involved with Cow protection at Chaitanya College in the early 1980's and then at Bhaktivedanta Manor for 10years as well its very interesting to note the direction the Cow protection project is going today.
I believe that the idea of applying the term "ahimsa" to the production of Cow protected Milk is superficial and certainly a misunderstanding of what violence is in the material world and thereby a misleading understanding of the commodity.
In the articles that i have read there has not been any scriptual evidence for using such a claim as "ahimsa Milk".It seems to me that the basis for this claim is just based upon the fact that the Cows are protected and no other reason.
How ever this does come across as a speculative way of marketing a commodity in the uk with consumers expecting Milk that has no violence associated with it.Unfortunately this would be a pseudo claim as there is no basis for this claim in Scripture,Sadhu and Guru.
It may be a very fanciful way to wrap up a product for marketing to help the perception of the commodity but at least as Iskcon devotees there needs to be more accuracy applied to the marketing as guided by the official legal requirements of the uk in advertising.
Let me explain the scriptural application in the sense of food production as propounded by Srila Prabhupada's Srimad Bhagavatam.In iskcon our barometer for all projects foundations and spiritual standards are liberally supplied by our Founder Acharya Srila Prabhupada. He left a library of instructions,knowledge and standards so as to guide the Iskcon organisation for after His departure so we would not have to argue standard values as in this case of applying the word,definition and nature of "Ahimsa" to the commodity of Milk produced from Cow protected Herds.
In a very convienient format for our upliftment Srila Prabhupada translated Srimad Bhagavatam into English.When we need to reference a particular subject we can find all the relevant details,its easy for us to research this way.
In Canto 3 Chapter 29 Text 15 we find the relevant and significant scriptual evidence and facts.In His purport Srila Prabhupada significantly refers to the food process in terms of violence.This being the subject at hand.
"The answer is that eating vegetables is violence and vegetarians are also commiting violence."
"We have to commit violence;that is natural law."
"We cannot avoid violence,for we are put into conditional life in which we have to commit violence,but we should not commit more violence than necessary or than ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
"But here significantly ,it is stated that every living entity has to live by killing another living entity;that is the law of nature,one living entity is the life for another living entity...."
And so on.The purport is suitably comprehensive and simply defeats the notion that the application of the term "ahimsa"non-violence , can be applied to any foodstuffs whatsoever.Just simple by picking a carrot and feeding this to a protected cow that is producing milk means that violence has entered in to the chain of events.Simply by cutting down a tree and constructing a Goshalla means violence has entered into the chain of events for the Cow to be housed to produce milk and on every multi-layered level there is violence entering into the chain of events for the production of Cow protected Milk.
Violence is something that is not avoidable by philosophical and practical experience.The most we can hope to achieve is what Srila Prabhupada calls minimum-violence;natihimsrena.Otherwise if we stick to the practice of marketing a commodity with an inappropriate false label we run the risk of losing individual dignity,integrity and truthfulness which is something misrepresentative at the very least.
your servant dusyanta dasa.
Does the dairy they're
Does the dairy they're partnering with provide milk from their own cows or process / deliver the milk from the Ahimsa Milk cows? Or does the Dairy now protect it's cows also and is now part of the initiative?
What about male calves? I'm
What about male calves? I'm wondering how this system can sustain, given the fact that cows, like women, need to give birth, to lactate.