Krishna's Adventures With Dairy

In a town, not very far from here... there lived a poor farmer named Krishna. He had a large family to feed but a small patch of field which he used to plough himself with support from other family members. All of his family members were very co-operative, loving and supportive. But he had a tough time making his ends meet. He had several young kids too and about half of his household budget was being spent on purchasing cow’s milk from his neighbourhood dairy farm.

Last season it didn’t rain enough so this year’s kharif crop yield was insufficient for his household needs. He had already exhausted his credit limit from the local co-operative bank. Now he needs to pay a hefty interest also on his outstandings every month. So now he was very worried as there weren’t enough budgets left to feed his family regularly until the next crop harvest season. He didn’t know what to do.

Being a religious person, he used to offer prayers daily in the local temple. Out of anxiety, his prayers had grown more vocal and all his prayers were now reduced to begging of life for his family in this difficult time.

One fine day, a wealthy person Seth Ratanmal was passing through this town and stopped to take some rest at the temple premises. While taking rest he overheard Krishna crying in front of Lord’s idol. With tears overflowing through his eyes he was asking God for some mercy for his family and was constantly telling Him that without His help every one of them would soon die. Seth Ratanmal wasn’t a very religious man but he was very kind at heart. He approached Krishna and said, “How can you expect any help from this idol made of stone?” Krishna told him that he is a very hard working man and strongly believe in himself. But in the current circumstances he doesn’t know any way out. So he is asking help from this idol as a last resort. We aren’t going to survive for long anyway. Then he told everything about his current situation.

Listening to Krishna’s story, Seth Ratanmal too got a little emotional. But he wisely analyzed Krishna's budget and asked him to get rid of his dairy expenses altogether. But Krishna thought his kids would die without any milk. Seth Ratanmal had a big farm with a large herd of bovine animals in the nearby town. He said to Krishna if his family can take care of a cow, he can gift one to him so that he would not have to spend on milk again. Krishna was very happy for this offer and readily agreed. So Seth Ratanmal immediately made arrangements to deliver a young and healthy milch cow to Krishna.

Krishna was now a happy man. All his milk requirements were met by this cow. Sometimes he even used to get extra milk which he used to offer to the temple idol. He had enough fodder on his farm to feed his cow after she returned from the common grazing land. Months passed by quite happily. But because of the increasing pressure of land prices, common grazing land was encroached upon by powerful land mafia and they came up with a huge construction project there. In summers, Krishna was already facing a shortage of fodder and now this pasture-land takeover by land mafia has necessitated the provision for more fodder for the cow. So he started to purchase some fodder from the market.

Around autumn, cow gave birth to a beautiful male calf. Krishna was happy to see this adorable wee one. All his family was in love with him and used to caress him. Cow was also happy to see this and used to give her milk happily. But Krishna observed that this little calf used to suckle up all his mother’s milk. Thus Krishna’s family wasn’t getting any milk these days, so he had to buy it from market again. Krishna was also thinking of ways to make provisions of fodder for the calf as he was growing up fast. And will need a lot of fodder soon. But he wasn’t sure how he will do that with his limited income source. His own family expenses were also rising with time. So he visited his neighbourhood dairy farm to seek their advice.

Listening Krishna’s story, dairyman at that farm laughed out loud. He was amused to know Krishna’s worries to feed a male calf. He said, “Are you crazy to feed a male calf who is never going to give you any milk? We don’t even allow to suckle up all the milk of their mothers. We forcibly pull them off their mothers and milk cows for us. This we do with female calves. But these male calves are absolutely useless to us. We make some money by selling them to slaughterhouses. You should do the same.” Hearing this, Krishna was shocked. "How can I sell that lovely, innocent kid to a slaughterhouse? Won’t it be like murdering him? My whole family love him a lot”, asked Krishna.
“But they give you money for it. Don’t you want money?”
“I do want money but I can’t hand over a newborn to killers! Why do you do it to all these innocent children of God? Sorry, I can’t”
“If you really have such ethics then why do you consume dairy in first place? It’s no secret that cattle are slaughtered because of the dairy industry. For higher dairy production, higher numbers of cattle are produced through artificially inseminating bull-semen into them. But our country doesn’t have enough resources for feeding fodder to all, throughout their lives of 25 years. So we need to slaughter them as soon as their productive life is over which is generally within 5-7 years into their life.”

A video filmed at a dairy farm in Indore (M.P., India) by Dharmada Kerstin Knupfer & Manish Jain

Whole of Krishna’s family was shocked to learn this dark truth of dairy industry. All of them turned vegan overnight and pledged to never consume any dairy. It was clear to them that dairy doesn't grow on plants. Thus it's not vegetarian. And they lived happily ever after.

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