Cows Break Wind, Don’ They?

The sacred cow has the power to destroy our habitat. Not doing anything but eat, drink, and fart. Somewhat like Trumpians.

So do many of us do, some more, and some like Trump from other orifices too. But then, cows seem to emit methane. Methane, we are told, is far more destructive than carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in destroying the climate and the planet. Livestock emissions count for over 50% of greenhouse emissions. So, says Cowspiracy, an amazing must-watch documentary for any one non-judgementally interested in saving the patent. I cross checked several of its facts with sources such as the United Nations and scientific research papers, and they align.

?Guys and gals, all ye those who protest against fossil fuel emissions, and other god forbidden activities, you now have a more sacred emission to stop. Please do, for our grandchildren’s sake.

Cows are such lovely animals, with languid eyes, swaying walk, and soothing moo. But then humans aren’t. We are ugly, manipulative and grabbing. In the name of raising more cattle, mostly bovine, to make the fat fatter, ugly uglier, the meat and dairy industry are destroying forests in the Amazon and elsewhere. Water, already scarce, is being diverted to cattle, majority of water in the USA being used for raising cattle, more than for humans and industries. Livestock and livestock feed, not human, needs use the majority of the ice-free land on earth.

?The reason? Just two. Flesh and milk. Neither of these is healthy for humans. The myth that you will die without protein is just that, a fake news myth from the meat and dairy industry advertisement. Adults, except body building exceptions who are destroying themselves, need a maximum of one gram per kg of body weight, according to Mayo clinic. This, for most of us, can be obtained from plant food.

The myth of the wonders of milk is built by the dairy industry. A senior citizen friend recounted that an Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine) doctor laughed when he told him that he drank three glasses of milk every day in line with Indian tradition. The doctor told him that only children below 3 may need cow’s milk, and that too in moderation. Cow’s milk is good for its calves, not to humans. Any good doctor and nutritionist, would endorse that. With rampant lactose intolerance, and availability of plant-based alternatives to milk for protein, bovine milk is a dispensable toxin for adults. Good for business, not human health.

?For long, activists, environmental and health wise, have trained their guns for good reasons at fossil fuels and plastic products, tobacco and marijuana, alcohol and other such sought- after pleasures. As Otto Scharmer says in Theory U, they seem to have closed minds, hearts and will towards the subtler, more insidious and more real evils of the meat and dairy industry, which not only harm us as individuals, and in a worse manner the entire Earth. When, oh when, will they open their minds, hearts and will?

?What about the investors who boycott these evil industries? Why is meat and dairy an exception? Warren Buffet, are you listening, please?

?There is no industry that funds people like me, Cowspiracy and others, fossil fuel, tobacco, alcohol and such, to rebut the claims of meat and dairy industry. In fact, the people who made the documentary lived in danger of their lives. Greta Thunberg and others should wave flags against the animal agriculture industry more than against the fossil fuel industry. Do they know the facts about how animal agriculture is a greater danger to humanity than fossil fuel extraction and use? We, who speak out, are fed up. We are not in the payrolls.

?Even if today, we stop all fossil fuel extraction and usage, our climate will be destroyed within 50 years. Scouring beaches to clean plastic may be good for our soul, but not enough to save the planet.

?The undoubtable fact is that we do not need animal protein from meat or dairy. They are unhealthy except in small doses. I am no vegan, though brought up as a vegetarian as most Indian Hindus are. I do eat meat sparingly as a luxury to cater to my acquired decadent tastes, knowing I don’t need it.?Especially when I know that to produce every gram of meat I eat, three grams of plant feed is needed. This means that if all of us stopped eating meat, we have enough food to feed perhaps three times the Earth’s current population. By any cost benefit analysis, the raison d’etre for meat and dairy industries is far less than the fossil fuel industry.

When the sages of ancient India termed the cow sacred, perhaps they knew a thing or two more than their descendants globally. Moo to us Morons with closed minds, hearts and will.

?Check the facts yourself. Reflect. Then act in line with your conscience.

?I shall be expressing my views, unsolicited, on stuff that bug me at my existential state of 75 years, with no fear or favour. Please share your views, resonant or dissonant, and about stuff that bug you, which you and I can write and yell about. Raise your hands, please.

?Ram is co-founder and mentor at Coacharya?https://coacharya.com. Ram's focus is integrating Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably.

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