Reviving our lost relationship with cows & bulls
Disclaimer: The opinions stated in this article are my own, not those of my employer.
I heard sounds of cow mooing intermingled with the sounds from flute and drums as I entered a cow farm in California. A strong distinct smell with a mixture of cow waste filled the air as I was greeted by one of the volunteers “welcome to our gaushala”. Fast forward a few months, I became a frequent visitor, often visiting to help clean the farm, feed & bond with the cows. A few months into volunteering, I found myself looking for gaushalas or cow sanctuaries to visit during my travels. With time, I got the opportunity to not only visit but also stay onsite for several weeks at some farms across the country. This immersive experience helped me deeply learn about cows, people’s feelings towards cows, and why we should consider establishing closed-loop, sustainable & thriving ecosystems centered around cows. Contrary to the portrayal of gaushalas as spaces of exploitation that run short of money to care for the animals, I came across systems that considered cows as important partners in our ecosystem – where cows are viewed as beings that have the right to live their lives and freedom from hunger, thirst, discomfort, pain/injury, fear and distress.
Cows, also referred to as Kamadhenu or Surabhi in ancient Vedic civilization, are docile, compassionate living beings that are often attributed to unconditionally giving for the wellness of the environment. Cows are considered an embodiment of divinity In India. Historically, the Indian economy was centered around cattle, where they offered foundational support for agriculture, dairy farming, transportation, fuel, and medicine. While some ancient practices centered around cows continue to persist in some parts of the country, to a greater extent, they are forgotten or lost. Cattle is primarily seen as a source for extracting animal products, primarily dairy, meat, and hide. For instance, India is home to the highest number of milk cows in the world, is one of the top 5 leading producers of beef, and is the fourth largest exporter of leather goods worldwide.
Several households around the world look towards cows as a main source of dairy products and often begin their day with a warm beverage made with a dash of milk, a product procured from cows. Globally, many around the world consume beef and use products made from leather. The United States, for instance, is the largest producer of beef (second to Brazil), while Argentina eats the most beef and veal.
The recent invasive interactions with cows as commodities in the interests of milk, meat, and leather production have often involved viral, controversial climate debates. Media portrayals of cows walking the streets in India or pictures of cows grazing a pasture are possible encounters with cows for most people - that is, if people consciously think of cows at all. Not many stop to think about cattle’s existence, and their symbiotic relationship with humans, which can be harnessed to build a thriving planet.
This article briefly summarizes three reasons why you should care about reviving the lost relationship with cows:
1. Cow products can be used to address the impacts of climate change and produce affordable & clean energy
Ancient agricultural practices depended on bulls to pulverize the soil, even if it took longer to prepare the land for planting seeds. The footprints left by cattle acted as a micro catchment for conserving rain water besides helping plow and de-weed the fields where small-sized crops can be grown. The advent of tractors has forced farmers to lean on fast-paced, industrialized farming, which have made the substrate hard (due to its sheer weight) and the soil impenetrable.
One of the recent global movements for preserving and regenerating soil health is based on the claim that nearly 52% of agricultural soil has already been degraded. Soil comprises an ecosystem, filled with several microorganisms including bacteria & fungi, protozoa, nematodes, in addition to other visible organisms such as earthworms and insects that help with plant growth. The use of chemicals for increasing yield and removing pests have killed the organisms that are essential for the soil food web to function effectively.
Soil Food Web. Source: USDA & Soil Food Web School
Cow waste, when mixed with soil, can create a healthy environment for soil food web, increase water retention and soil resilience – attributes that are required for capturing carbon within the soil (reducing impacts resulting from climate change) and farming nutritious, organic food (creating an ecosystem for increased food security). Famously known as jīvāmṛta (the nectar of life), a mixture made from cow dung and urine has been one of the ancient practices that a few farmers in India continue to adopt as a cost-effective solution to support organic farming. Agricultural scientists from a company in Kuwait, for instance, have found from their research that the use of indigenous cow dung in the form of powder can increase not only the size of the fruit but also the overall production of the date crop. Following this research, this company has placed an order for importing nearly 192 metric tonnes of indigenous cow dung from Jaipur, India.
Several arguments exist to describe the harmful effects of greenhouse gasses produced by cows. These arguments are mostly based on the lens that livestock supply chains have a very large carbon footprint. While it is true that cows produce greenhouse gasses such as methane, the overall carbon footprint of a cow can be managed effectively using several strategies applied to their living environment, feeding, and manure collection. These when combined with changes in consumer behavior, forestation, government subsidies for farmers etc. can help mitigate the impact of greenhouse gasses. This however requires a huge shift and a systems thinking approach by multiple players involved in the ecosystem.
Data presented by Carbon Brief
The methane from cow waste, for instance, can be trapped to serve as an affordable source of fuel for everyday use. Being a renewable resource, biogas does not generate net carbon dioxide. That is, as much carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere in the growth of the primary bio-resource as is released, when the material is ultimately converted to energy. There are several examples of ongoing efforts that attempt to achieve this. For instance, Chevron, an American multinational energy corporation is currently working with several cow farm owners to tap methane from cow waste to produce biogas for use in heavy-duty vehicles.
Hingonia gaushala, located about 30km from Jaipur city, houses over 25,000 cows and employs several hundreds of people from the local community to regularly care for the cows. Run by Shri Krishna Balaram Seva Trust, this cow shelter has an ongoing collaboration with Indian Oil corporation and the government of Rajasthan to effectively convert massive amounts of cow waste into CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) that can be consumed by the public to support everyday needs.
2. Cows can help support our physical & mental wellbeing
“Cows are equivalent to mothers,” is a very common belief within the Vedic civilization. Per this belief system, cows are engineered to use sunshine to convert the fresh grass they consume into a liquid we call milk, which is considered an important source of nutrition. Cows’ milk generally contains two major types of beta-casein: A1 and A2. The structure of A2 cow’s milk protein is more comparable to human breast milk and is reportedly easier to digest and absorb than A1 or other types of milk.
Cows produce milk after they have given birth to a calf. The quality of milk produced by a cow dips after 5 years, which is when it becomes more expensive for the farmer to care for her in comparison to the revenue generated from the milk that she is producing. This often leads to the cow being sold for slaughter. In addition, several inhumane practices exist today that exploit and violently extract milk from cows in business interests. Fortunately, compassionate dairy farming practices are up and coming, advocating for calves to stay with the cows, where calves get their fair share of milk before a human approaches the cow to seek permission to milk her. Farms such as Gita Nagari Creamery and Ethical Dairy have redefined dairy farming to be more kinder & ethical by raising calves with their mothers and pledging to care for cows even after they have stopped producing milk. They have found that this has led to healthier & happier cows that are able to not only feed their babies but also give plenty of milk for the humans to consume.
In addition, some organizations have been actively advocating for the shift in consumer mindset when it comes to consuming dairy. For instance, Gopala Goshala, a non-profit organization in Pennsylvania, US have been hosting seminars & workshops to raise awareness for choosing to consume compassionate, cruel-free dairy products.
“We are not taking care of cows to extract milk from them. We are working on a model where the farmer thinks of cows as dependents. 100 yrs ago, American farmers saw cows as a member in their family, just as was the case in India, i.e., cows were part of a traditional family unit. When you grow up seeing a cow that is constantly giving, you also become that way — your paradigm shifts to contributing to the world in a benevolent as opposed to extractive way. At this farm, the cows have a special relationship with the people who participate in the milking process.”
Cowpathy is a new approach from ancient medicine literature, which offers a promising venue for drug formulation. For instance, panchagavya is produced from cow products and is rich in amino acids, proteins, vitamins, minerals and hormones. Panchagavya is currently being strongly used in Ayurvedic practices to cure several human diseases and enhance immune power.
More recently, care-farming is increasingly being adopted as well-established therapeutic interventions, embedding therapeutic processes within an agricultural landscape. In this system, cows have been identified to have the ability to support healing and the overall mental wellbeing of human beings. Cows are being used as therapists in some places in the world to offer mental health treatment. The Gentle Barn, for instance, engages visitors in cow hug therapy, an activity that encourages people to meditate, hug, brush, pet & talk with cows as a means to cope and heal. Supervised by an equine therapist, a local bed-n-breakfast farm in New York offers cow cuddling therapy to help people feel calm while also ensuring a positive experience for cows.
Picture of a mother and daughter bonding with a cow at a cow sanctuary in Houston, TX. Gauri (cow’s name) gave birth to a calf within the next 3 months.
A cow’s body heat is higher and her heart rate is lower in comparison to humans, making the act of cuddling beneficial both for the human and the cow - while the human body lowers cortisol generation with a calming effect, the cow generates oxytocin, a hormone that can stimulate milk release. Further, through the activity of bonding with cows, people are handed a mechanism for compassionate practice in recognizing & integrating the trauma histories of the cows in their own grief. This has been reported to motivate people to contribute care for the animal. For instance, a more recent research has identified that animals with loss and trauma biographies may provide unique and unexpected psychological benefits to humans facing grief and trauma, which is not to suggest that animals with traumatic past have the inherent capacity to support healing, but to emphasize the importance of shared narratives and its role in offering a healing mechanism. The act of bonding with cows can be further harnessed for the social good. For instance, Cow Cuddling Co, a social enterprise from Australia charges a fee for cow cuddling sessions where people living with mental illness and intellectual disabilities can bond with cows for an hour. A portion of profit raised from this effort is donated to the local Cancer Wellness Center.
3. Cows can foster rural development and empower women to become business owners
Cow-based economies are still untapped and unexplored. A cow-based economy has tremendous potential for establishing closed-loop ecosystems that are affordable, financially viable & profitable, where cow products generate revenue to support sustainable agricultural practices.
Animal husbandry in India contributes to the rural economy in the form of milk, draught power, and manure. The government of India has long promoted rural development schemes & subsidized employment opportunities centered around dairy farming as a mechanism to support national health. Aside from this, several public private partnerships exist to establish better livelihoods, employment opportunities, and protection against malnutrition for marginalized, rural populations. These partnerships help strengthen the government's mandate while supporting the private sector to innovate and empower the rural community to successfully prosper. For instance, companies such as Dvara E-Dairy and Stellapps have been innovating in this space to provide dairy farmers access to data that informs financial and cattle management.
Aside from dairy farming, several ongoing efforts demonstrate the benefits for establishing cow-based economies beyond dairy products. For instance, Beejom Dung Ho, an initiative from an animal sanctuary in Noida, utilizes cow dung to make and sell pots for nurseries (to use non-plastic materials for seedlings) and cow dung logs as substitute for traditional wood (for use in crematoriums or bonfires). Thozhuvom, a Madurai-based Farmer Producer Organization in India, engages the pastoralist community to manufacture and market eco-products made from cow dung. Their intent is to not only safeguard the traditional Pulikulam and Theni hill cattle breed, but also to empower pastoralists, particularly women, to become small-business owners.
Eco- and agri-products created by the pastoral community with guidance from Tozhuvom, a Marudai-based Farmer Producer Organization in India.
TexasGaushala, a non-profit organization in a suburban region in the US not only produces and sells eco-products made from cow dung, but also engages the community through skill transfer and active participation.
“With access to the right resources, people can become empowered with their abilities and gain the confidence to fulfill their potential. At TexasGaushala, we not only generate revenue from selling eco-products but also work with student volunteers to transfer knowledge and promote skills for building a cow-based ecosystem grounded in Vedic concepts. All the eco-products we have produced are women-led initiatives. We have had the opportunity to interact with people from the community having some of the most innovative and persistent minds, often leading to interesting experiments.”
Although some ongoing efforts exist, there is a need for establishing sustainable and integrated development programs offering financially viable solutions to empower the rural population to proactively participate in the ecosystem. Establishing a simplified, validation process that rewards regenerative practices as carbon credits coupled with easy access to manageable data that assists with effective decision-making can potentially motivate and nudge the rural community to think out-of-the-box and rise as cowpreneurs.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I did writing it. In the future articles, I will attempt to surface more ongoing efforts worldwide, which tap into building a partnership with cows for establishing sustainable ecosystems. Leaning on excerpts from my conversations with subject matter experts and reflections on my journeys from volunteering at farm sanctuaries, I will describe my firsthand experience navigating the world of understanding cows and their role in our ecosystem. Please reach out if you have any follow-up thoughts on this article or if you are interested in collaborating on future articles.
