http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Articles/holy-cow.html
Above is a reading, called The Srimad Bhagavad-Gita and the Sacredness of All Cows, in which Swami Bhakti Vedanta Varaha writes about the sacredness of the cow in India.
Above is a reading, called The Srimad Bhagavad-Gita and the Sacredness of All Cows, in which Swami Bhakti Vedanta Varaha writes about the sacredness of the cow in India.
I would highly encourage everyone to read literature on the holiness of cows in India. I had the privilege of traveling to India in 2015 and spending a few weeks learning more about the culture and religious practices. One of the first things I noticed were the abundance of cows on the roads, in front of stores, in peoples homes, by the Ganges river... basically everywhere you turned. I learned when I was young that Indian's did not traditionally kill cows because they were considered sacred. I did not understand the extent of their commitment until I spent time in the country. During my trip I asked a lot of questions and tried to absorb as much information as a could. When I asked one man why they do not kill cows in India and value their lives at the same level as a human life, he simply replied that cows were a gift from God. I prompted him further and asked why some people were okay with killing goats or chickens. He told me that cows were representative of of all living creatures and the earth. He explained that many of their products come from cows milk and it would be wrong to kill the source of so much of their food and income. I thought all of this sounded beautiful and romantic, but I couldn't help but question their tactics. I was stuck in traffic jams because of cows on two separate occasions. Some of them looked very dirty and malnourished. Some people valued feeding cows in the streets as highly as they valued feeding themselves.
According to a 2006 study, 31 percent of Indian's eat a strictly vegetarian diet. The majority of them do this on the basis of religious and spiritual beliefs. While this is difficult to grasp for many American's, including myself, it is beautiful that Indian's value cows for what they are- sentient beings that are products of the earth just like human beings.
Vegetarianism and veganism are growing trends all around the world because meat is produced all around the world. The beef industry is global, and is harmful to each country it operates in. There is no question that this issue should be a global concern for everyone. As the environmental impacts tab has proven, beef production is increasingly harmful to earth. If consumers do not make a conscious effort to cut down their consumption of beef, industrial farms will continue to produce a supply to meet people's demands.
According to a 2006 study, 31 percent of Indian's eat a strictly vegetarian diet. The majority of them do this on the basis of religious and spiritual beliefs. While this is difficult to grasp for many American's, including myself, it is beautiful that Indian's value cows for what they are- sentient beings that are products of the earth just like human beings.
Vegetarianism and veganism are growing trends all around the world because meat is produced all around the world. The beef industry is global, and is harmful to each country it operates in. There is no question that this issue should be a global concern for everyone. As the environmental impacts tab has proven, beef production is increasingly harmful to earth. If consumers do not make a conscious effort to cut down their consumption of beef, industrial farms will continue to produce a supply to meet people's demands.
World Watch article on Factory Farming in the Developing World
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/534
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/534