I have it on good authority that they opened a big, wonderful, green oak cowshed complex this summer. Any mention about the project in the mainstream media is “far out”: “The event is a glimpse of the colourful taste of mystic India with a magnificent shrine, live stage shows, colourful costumes, enchanting music, meditation and exotic food set in a picturesque setting.” (link) or talks about the cows being pampered in lazy comparisons “Monks pledge lush new life for ‘the Paris Hilton of cows’” (link)

“Cow Sanctuary?” “New Gokul?” and, wtf, “Paris Hilton of Cows???” Where is the on-point reporting? Who is telling you that this project is the first fully working cruelty-free organic dairy farm in the UK, complete with a proven business model? Who is talking about the cows that have been defying science and giving wonderful milk for up to 15 years after calving, and some of them giving milk without ever having calved at all?

Stuart Coyle, who has been part of the Manor temple since 1982 and has managed the farm since 1993 when there were 10 animals, has figured out the economics to such an extent that the Soil Association has become interested in working with him on creating a new, Karma-Free standard of milk for the ca. 1 million Hindus in Great Britain. He wrote a handbook outlining the basics, “Protecting Cows,” back in 1998 which was not widely published.

Some of us are vegans on the grounds of cows’ milk being bad for humans or not meant for human consumption, and that’s fine. However we might consider the possibility that many of the qualities that make milk heavy or, for some of us, impossible to digest are created by the processes that are supposed to make it fit into complicated supply chains – homogenization, pasteurization, etc. That’s worth some research.

The farm was started when the Hare Krishnas were gifted the Manor in Letchmore Heath by George Harrison in the early 70s. The founder was keen for all centres of his growing new religion around the world to grow their own food and take care of their own cows, in order to be able to source milk untainted by the meat industry to offer on the altar and to eat and distribute as Prasad, as well as grow organic vegetables. For the time that sort of thinking was very progressive – considering many of the evils of “modern” food production weren’t generally known yet, and large scale factory farming was still hailed as the cure for world hunger.

A diet of grains, vegetables and milk products is part of Hindu culture. There is an age-old set of ahimsa-based farming skills still surviving in parts of today’s India and Pakistan. Combining crop rotation, working oxen, soil renewal using manure, and milking cows has helped thousands of villages be completely self-sustaining for thousands of years. “Holy Cows” are a slightly skewered vision of remnants of this culture. To try and transplant Hindu culture into the West was always an ambitions project; this side of it has really been worth watching, if mostly disregarded.

Nowadays, the farm at Letchmore Heath is one of the few that survived changing management styles and priorities of the Hare Krishna organization. Others include a fully self-sustaining Krishna Valley in Hungary, and a few projects in Central and South America.

Future Food – In November, there will be a meeting with Hindu community leaders at a UN-funded conference in Windsor. Cruelty-free milk is part of Hindu religion, so the UN is trying to find ways to make Hindus use their principles to influence the future of food production for all of us.

Visiting: Open every day. On Sundays the Manor is very popular with the Hindu families in Greater London for their Sunday excursions. Any other day is quiet.

Contact: Central Manor reception.

For more information: the Manor website, the Goodmilk blog.

Contact us through the blog or on http://twitter.com/goodmilkblog

The four basic principles the farm operates:
Cows are never killed
Cows are milked by hand
Calves suckle from their mothers
Bulls (oxen) are given work

Numbers:
77 acres of farmland
46 cows
120 litres of milk per day
5 people looking after the cows
1 breeding bull
£3 price per litre if they sold the milk in shops

I have it on good authority that they opened a big new cowshed complex this summer. Any mention about the project in the mainstream media is “far out” “The event is a glimpse of the colourful taste of mystic India with a magnificent shrine, live stage shows, colourful costumes, enchanting music, meditation and exotic food set in a picturesque setting.” or talks about the cows being pampered in lazy comparisons “
Monks pledge lush new life for ‘the Paris Hilton of cows’”

But who is telling you about this project being the first fully working cruelty-free organic dairy farm in the UK? Who is talking about the cows responding to being treated like living entities by defying science and giving wonderful mil for up to 15 years after calving, and some of them giving milk without ever having calved at all?

The manager, Stuart Coyle, has figured out the economics to such an extend that the Soil Association has become interested in working with him on creating a new, Karma-Free standard of milk for the 1 million Hindus in Great Britain.

Some of us are vegans on the grounds of milk being bad for you, and that’s fine. However there is the fact that many of the qualities that make milk bad for you are created by the processes of homogenisation etc. That’s worth some research and would go beyond this little intro. There is also the fact that cheese and ghee provide great nutrition to the body if well combined (ghee, if it’s not the industrial stuff, actually is free from cholesterol and one of the greatest cell foods of all.)

Continued when I’m less angry about their PR fail. How many people would love great milk products, and would love to know there’s efforts in sustainable, cruelty free, organic farming right on their doorstep? Grrr.

What’s happening around the cows this year is really amazing. The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies is going to have a hand in organising things and getting everyone to the table, so if I can keep up my habit of going to Oxford once a week and volunteering, I’ll still be very much involved! And now I can prove how much value I can add, thanks to the guys at #measurementcamp. Note to self: Google Advanced Segments. Facebook Insights. Twitter Grader, Qdos, Samepoint Google Analytics. Flickr Stats.

Anyways… back to the cows. It’s all go. The big idea is for the many Hindu temples around the UK, and their congregations, to unite and make their voice heard re. animal cruelty in food production – the motto is don’t leave out the politicians as they have their place, but make them listen to the philosophers first, as per our culture.

Imagine the millions of Hindus in Britain uniting for a new cruelty-free standard of milk production. Add the non-Hindus who care about where their milk comes from… it would be a revolution. And the Soil Association is already primed for it and loving it, plus the UN has a program (and funding!) to encourage world religions with an opinion about food to voice their concerns and make their influence felt on a world-wide scale. The kick-off of a Seven Year planning program around this will be announced at a conference arranged by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation in November (ARC link November conference).

It’s amazing how much sitting around in meetings, at conferences and in workgroups is needed to make a change!

The inspiring 35-year history of this unassuming cruelty-free dairy farm will be relevant in ways we probably can’t imagine right now. Stuart, the farm manager, is hoping to help other farms go cruelty-free according to this model. He has done a lot of work on the financial feasibility of cruelty-free farming, and the results are very encouraging. Of course the product will be more expensive because it’s less exploitative, but even if we take less milk products, we could still live a very happy and probably healthier life.

Gangotri is the calf born of a sacred cow given as an apology for an unholy row. She takes her name from a 13-year-old Belgian blue-jersey cross given a lethal injection by the RSPCA in December 2007 because it was judged cruel to keep the animal alive. It had been injured during a vigorous mating session and had developed bedsores, but the monks insisted it was recovering. The killing triggered protests at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Krishna temple in Hertfordshire and in the wider Hindu community.

Reconciliation was only achieved last month when the RSPCA admitted it had offended religious sensibilities and gave a pregnant cow, named Aditi, to the monks at the temple by way of apology.

Full article

How quaint. The luckiest cow alive….

But when it comes to cows, organic standards are not enough for a karma-free lacto-vegetarian diet as aspired to by Hindus and anyone who watches what they eat, for the sake of their own health as much as for the planet. Let’s compare:

Organic standards mean better animal welfare. The cows are generally happier and more comfortable – they get to eat what they are meant to eat, and aren’t confined to small spaces as much. (makes you wonder how cows would be treated in a conventional dairy doesn’t it?) But: They are still killed for meat at the end of their short lives as dairy cow.

At a cruelty-free farm however, cows are not killed. Bull calves are being trained to work. The way the cows are treated, and the way they respond, shows that many of the standard truths the modern dairy industry operates under aren’t givens at all – examples abound of cows how have never calved but given milk for 10 years plus, at steadily rising quantities.

Check the page “Standards” for the details.

We hope to be hearing from you as we complete these pages.

Full Article

However, the founder and spiritual master of the devotee community, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, had a different idea. He guided them towards building a self-sufficient farming community, following the concept of non-violence, or ahimsa. Non-violence is an important part of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain world-views.

So began an experiment to transplant the age-old principles of cow protection from Hindu India to the modern western world. Along the way the Krishna devotees had to learn how to look after cows, oxen and bulls from cradle to grave, which included things as handling oxen, hand-milking and caring for dying animals…

Now, in 2008, the farm has expanded to a thriving cruelty-free dairy on 80 acres of organically farmed land. A superb set of low-tech green English Oak farm buildings is being constructed to house 60 cows.