One Billion Cows on Earth

By Syamasundara Dasa - 12.5 2021

Often times we read or hear media reporting about cows contributing to the climate change with a negative slant inferring that we have too many cows. Please check yourself from repeating anything that resembles a plan to reduce cows on the earth. There are not too many. Let me state my simplified case.

If you assess a gorakshya relationship with humans we find a numerical context. For example if the whole UK was following gorakshya and you gave each person half a pint of milk per day you would have a UK herd of about 10 million with a human population of about 60 million. In other words there is one cow for every 6 people. That statistic is not even based on super high yielding cows but gorakshya cows with extended lactations, milked by hand and allowed to live out their full lives.

If we were to make a similar calculation using Zebu type cows and we added 50% to take account of virgin milkers/miracle lactations etc we would get about 1 cow per 2 persons. The total world herd has about 1 billion cows of which 50% are of the Zebu type and the rest are the Bos Taurus type.

Taking an average of the two ratios 1 cow to 6 people (Bos Taurus type) and 1 cow to 2 people (zebu type), we get an average of 1 cow to 4 people.

The current World Population is stated as 7.8 Billion and if we are to supply each member of the population with Gorakshya Milk we would need a total world Herd of about 2 billion cows, calves, oxen and bulls. We currently only have 1 billion.

About 30% of the total Gorakshya herd are workable oxen and thus in our Global analysis we would have 600 million working oxen. These oxen would massage the earth with their hooves and also reduce the total oil dependency and help with agricultural production and transportation, give more local livelihoods and increase the quality of work and life. Somehow we don’t find animal traction in the reports or initiatives of sustainability, interestingly we don’t find it prominent in our own ISKCON sustainability initiatives.

Well what about the CO2 issues. Hmm. I must admit I have not spent much time analysing this issue as it is not my expertise however I found the following video extremely interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIMpjh_7-bw What it reveals is that CO2 is good for plants and the Earth is more green now than it was before due to the increase in CO2. I won’t say any more on that but have a look at the link. The issues it raises are related to our discussion about whether there are too many cows on earth and somehow we should follow the propaganda of the vegan animal abolitionists and reduce the number of cows on the Earth and eat plant based food and not eat dairy or eat less dairy.

Beltching and flatulating cows is not a problem because that is what they do as cows however feed them right and their beltches and other ommisions will be more right also. Interestingly you can have a lot of painful hours searching for the evidence that cow gases are actually detrimental to the earth and us. For me cows represent the earth and must be good for us but it takes a non paid for by invested corporation scientists to present the truth on this.

Eat less Dairy? If you have noted my figures above you will see I am calculating a daily milk consumption for each person of half a pound (pint) a day (0.284 litres) for all products. This figure comes from Srila Prabhupada in a conversation in New Vrindavana June 24 1976

Prabhupāda: So everyone is getting milk? How much?

Kīrtanānanda: As much as they want.

Prabhupāda: As much as they want, then jaundice. (laughter) Too much is not good. They may take minimum half pound per head.

Kīrtanānanda: Minimum.

Prabhupāda: Minimum. And maximum one pound. Not more than that. But “Because there is enough, let us eat,” no. That is not good. But children must get at least one pound milk. If they drink more milk they become stout and strong.

Kīrtanānanda: They get more than one pound. They get at least two pounds.

Prabhupāda: Then their life is built up strong, and nice brain to understand. Do they not see the benefit of the society, that we are not killing children, we are maintaining them with sufficient milk? Is it not better civilization? And they are, for fear of overpopulation, they are killing. The mother is killing the child. Is that civilization?

From the above quote we can say we agree that there could be a reduction of dairy consumption individually if that meant there was more milk to share out to those who don’t have. Yet we see the total global herd means there is not too much milk being produced and neither are there too many cows it is just that the milk is not distributed well and the cows that are kept are not kept ideally and certainly not Gorakshya.

We find in the story of the Pracetas that you can reduce forests to make room for agriculture, however it all must be done responsibly. Any farmer knows there are stocking limits on the land and local resources otherwise you have to buy in and bring in food etc from further afield. Similarly although manure is fantastic for the soil it has to be administered considerately or there will be nutrient overload and it will not be very helpful. If you put a large pile of manure on a field the plants immediately around it are going to get a saturation of nutrients that they can’t work with and they will relocate, however, soon the manure will compost down and will provide nutrients in a readily useable way. What I am saying here is that the manure from cows is fantastic for the soil however it must be managed carefully. Nothing wrong with cows producing manure but manage it better and spread it around better. It does not belong in the water but on the land. There are not too many cows but their manures and urine must be managed for the benefit of the land and not treated as a waste.

Often times we find our devotees repeating anti cow arguments that they think are anti cow slaughter arguments we must be able to separate the issues and vigilantly support Gorakshya and show the world another way that does not need to kill the cows.

By the way Srila Prabhupada gave the meat eaters an outlet that does not compromise Gorakshya….Just wait a while and the cow will die and you can eat it then. If you have a world herd of say 1 billion cows then you will have about 62 million 500 thousand cows dying naturally each year so even the meat eaters won’t have to go without but have a bit less.

Quick summary of my points.

There are not too many cows on the earth in fact for Gorakshya there should be more. We want to provide at least half a pound (0.284) of milk per person per day. There are not too many cows, the society would benefit from having 500 million working oxen providing local transport solutions, oil dependency reduction and quality of life increase. There are not too many cows producing dung and urine it just needs to be put in the right place. Similarly the cows gases are benefitting the earth. There is also Gorakshya meat for those who want to keep that diet

Final Point

Please be cautious about repeating the anti-cow propaganda that you think is anti-slaughter propaganda but is actually anti-cow propaganda. The above points are somethings to consider