Dairy Farms and Gursikhs

Vaheguru ji ka khalsa Vaheguru ji ki fatheh!

Khalsa ji,

I would really appreciate your reply with thoughts about this:

In India, particularly Punjab, it is considered a paap to send any milk-giving cow (or generally any cows) to a slaughterhouse.

In puratan times, Gursikhs used to take very much care of the horses, cows, and other animals on their land. Everyone in different pinds had their own farms.

In Canada, cows in dairy farms are artificially inseminated, given hormones to produce more milk, they are milked with uncomfortable machines, they are put in harsh conditions and endure so much suffering, then when they become old and unable to give milk, they are sent to slaughterhouses. Also the calves are kept away from mothers and the males are slaughtered because they cannot give milk. The slaughterhouses are a pure hell.

When I think about the suffering that cows endure here, it reminds me of Gurbani descriptions of rasaathal / narak.

How can we drink that milk? How can we serve that milk in Gurdwaras?
How can we put that butter into our degh? Will that degh really be parvaan by Guru Sahib?

I am confused why more Gursikhs don't have farms here in Canada.

Every Gurdwara Sahib has enough money to buy farmland and Punjabis have always been known for their farming heritage.

Is there something we can do to improve this situation? What actions can we take?

Vaheguru ji ka khalsa Vaheguru ji ki fatheh!

don't buy from large commercial dairies. the cows aren't allowed to wander freely, they aren't allowed to eat grass. they're fed a diet of corn and soy and hormones and forced to stand in one place all day. often their feet rot from standing in their own filth. it's horrible.

buy from small local farms. always buy organic, because organic standards demand that the cow can roam freely and eat grass that grows in the ground. they're not given hormones or antibiotics. their live is about a hundred times better.

one step up from that, buy raw milk from a local farmer. raw milk dairies have extremely strict hygiene standards and most raw farmers realize the great blessing the cows bring and treat them like gold. raw milk doesn't contain any added artificial vitamins and can boost your immune system, as well has simply tasting better.

the best situation of course would be to have your own cow... but that's not possible for most people in the west. so if you can find a local dairy, check it out. feel free to take a day and drive by and see how the animals are treated. it's night and day difference.

(note about cows in india: while they're not slaughtered when they stop giving milk, most are simply left to wander the streets, diseased and hungry. is that really the best alternative?)

Bhainji thank you for your reply. I agree with you that allowing cows to wander diseased and hungry in India is not good. However, in many pinds across Punjab, the cows are not sent onto the streets, they are kept on the farm even in old age until they die. Things may have changed now, but the puratan Sikhs example was usually to treat the cows on their farm with love and keep them until death.

I agree with you that there are less hormones and chemicals in organic and raw farms, but the males are still sent for slaughter, the calves are still separated from the mother, and the old cows that stop giving milk are still sent to slaughter - even from family farms.

Essentially, we purchase milk for langar, or butter for degh, and we are putting money into the pockets of the meat industry. The only way to take ownership back is for Gursikhs to have dairy-farms within Canada. How can we make this a reality?

Guru Sahib says:
ਕਬੀਰ ਜੋਰੁ ਕੀਆ ਸੋ ਜੁਲਮੁ ਹੈ ਲੇਇ ਜਬਾਬੁ ਖੁਦਾਇ ॥
ਦਫਤਰਿ ਲੇਖਾ ਨੀਕਸੈ ਮਾਰ ਮੁਹੈ ਮੁਹਿ ਖਾਇ ॥੨੦੦॥

Those Gurmukhs who believe in bibek - it is known that the bhaavnaa of the person cooking food goes into the food. The bhaavnaa of a human mother goes into the breastmilk given to her baby. Then we must also admit that the suffering, fear, torture of the cows may be reflected in the milk that we drink and it goes into our langar, degh, kheer. What can we do to create cruelty-free dairy?

The idea of setting up Khalsa Eco-farms was discussed on this forum before. Some individuals started to formulate plans to get that started, but I'm not sure what became of that.

It would definitely be preferable to buy our products from farms run by Gursikhs. There are are few scattered around the West. Perhaps our best solution is to support those farmers, so that they can continue to work their farms.

Really? There are some farms in the West owned by Gursikhs?

Could someone please provide addresses for those farms? Maybe I can visit them and find out if they are pure, organic and don't send the cows to slaughter - or maybe I can convince them to have better farming practices.

If we were able to find a farm that was organic, no hormones, no cruelty, I would do as much promotion of it as I could because that is the best kind of farm. The milk that we drink these days has a lot of suffering behind it.

Does anyone else have any insight into this?

Why are so many Punjabi Sikhs negligent of this issue? I feel it is a big problem - we are the highest consumers of dairy, and the money (hundreds of millions of dollars a year in North America) that our community puts into the dairy farming industry HELPS the meat industry as well (because the same companies own slaughterhouses and because dairy cows are always sent for slaughter).

By "West" I meant "Western countries" but I assume you thought I was talking about the West coast - BC. Sorry veerjee. I've heard of farms run by gursikhs / amritdharis, but I've only heard of them and don't know their addresses. If Guru Sahib does kirpa in the next while I will be able to find out more information.

Could anyone please share locations of any family-owned slaughter-free farms in North America?

wanted to ask how about if u can get raw milk but it is milked by machine not hand milked

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wanted to ask how about if u can get raw milk but it is milked by machine not hand milked

It is fine to do so as long as the milk is then boiled in Sarbloh utensils before consumption. In these countries it's not possible to milk the cows yourself. Using milk that is milked by machine seems to be fine because firstly it is raw milk we are dealing with and secondly because there is no human contact directly with milk. We ourselves get milk directly from the machine into our buckets.

Kulbir Singh

Thank you bhai sahib for answering my question

just wondering...

why do you have to boil the milk in sarbloh? did puratan singhs used to do that?

milk that we get from the stores has already been boiled.....why do you have to do it again, your just denaturing the proteins in the milk even more?

bhai is correct - pointless exercise.

simmal tree your questions are very very valid., i use oat milk,soya ,rice milk, soya orgnanic taste is wicked. - loads of choice without the cow. If we know the cow is being treated inhumanley why use that milk?

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why do you have to boil the milk in sarbloh? did puratan singhs used to do that?

milk that we get from the stores has already been boiled.....why do you have to do it again, your just denaturing the proteins in the milk even more?

If you follow Sarbloh Bibek, then you must cook only in Sarbloh. Bibek is to buy raw milk only and then boil it in Sarbloh before consuming but in Western countries, some Gursikhs don't have access to raw milk; so they buy milk from stores but before consuming they boil in Sarbloh in order to get the Mohar (stamp) of Sarbloh.

As for denaturing proteins, Sarbloh Bibek is more important to Bibekis than proteins.

Bibek is not binding on individuals who don't want to follow it. There is no Zabardasti. This thread is only relevant to ones who keep Sarbloh Bibek.

Kulbir Singh

ns44 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bhai is correct - pointless exercise.
>
> simmal tree your questions are very very valid., i
> use oat milk,soya ,rice milk, soya orgnanic taste
> is wicked. - loads of choice without the cow. If
> we know the cow is being treated inhumanley why
> use that milk?


Ns44 jee

What about those mistreated labourers who work in bad conditions and long hours to plant and look after crops, such as tomatoes, bannas, apples etc etc. You should also consider taken a stance on that too. Also when you step on grass you should be careful as you are hurting the grass roots.

No bodh jeeo - there No End to it pyareoo - but at least those farmers arent' being killed/butchered and kept as worse as cows.

Oh when i was 17 I worked on a farm too for 17 hours on the trot picking peas and strawberries in the UK every year for 3 months - and I thorougly enjoyed it even though it was hard graft - mehnat.