On cow’s milk

On cow’s milk

Now, why should we go through these benefits and facts about other products that we receive from cow if our simple doubt is ‘is drinking cow’s milk good or bad?’

People who propagate against drinking cow’s milk (and its by-products like panneer, yogurt, ghee etc) do so with a single reason that the milk that the calf is supposed to drink is taken away as there is demand for cow’s milk in the market. Though, it is true that the cow produces milk for its calf, it does not produce ONLY for its calf. That’s how it is programmed by nature and hence cow’s milk has been used by men and cow is revered by our Sages as it occupies the place of ‘our mother’ in feeding us with its milk right from our birth. Not all children have access to their mother’s milk for various reasons and the safest and total replacement is that of cow’s milk. So are we to let the child suffer for this reason and dump his system with canned powder milk or such supplements?

Next calf is allowed to drink milk after the cow is milked and it has enough for it. The cowherds want a healthy cow growing for their prosperous tomorrow. So they can’t be stupid enough to make it starve as that would mean their future is bleak with weak cows. Like in all trades greed and mechanisation (thanks again to western influence) has entered this industry too. That means, milking of cows especially in large numbers is done by machines which may not know when to stop and yes it can hurt the udder of cow too sometimes. That part of argument is right. 

But still most parts of India, cow is still raised by individuals and the milk collected from all individuals pooled in a place and then it is packaged. This way, people are still connected to their cattle and here the relationship is of that of love rather than greed based. So the question of said torture doesn’t arise.

contd....