Trevor Jones 5/11/14
T&R on Mother Cow
Source: Marvin Harris
Cow Love in India
The cow has a very sensitive history in India. In most places, the cow is tabooed and regarded as a sacred animal. In some places, cow slaughtering is forbidden and has a worse punishment than murder. The cow is not just useful for being sacred though, the cow serves multiple purposes to Indians. The cow is used as a primary milk source, other than oxen and water buffalo, for the people of India and also serves as a farm tool. Even though these cows only produce around 500 pounds of milk a year, compared to American cow's 5,000-20,000, they are very useful for breeding male traction animals. Indians also use cow manure as a fertilizer or burn it in order to provide heat for cooking. The author of 'Mother Cow' believes that the real reason cows are sacred to india is because of their ability to breed oxen and water buffaloes. Water buffaloes are used primarily for milking but are also superior animals for plowing in flooded rice patties. On the other hand, oxen are much more useful for for dried field farming and road transport. The main reason why cows are bred and not slaughtered is to produce more water buffalo and oxen because Indians believed the more cows they had, the more water buffaloes and oxen they would have too.
In America, cows are used as our primary milk source, so naturally, we would need another way to produce the services that cows give in India. This is why we have tractors and other farm equipment. There are advantages and disadvantages to using farm equipment in America rather than cows. First of all, farm equipment is far more expensive than cows. You have to buy a new piece of equipment for every job on the farm where as cows breed other animals to do those functions for them. Now it is true that you have to take care of cows, milk them, water them, feed them, etc., but it is seen in some parts of India,that cows are mistreated and have to scavenge for food. In fact, only 20% of the food eaten by cows is safe to eat by human standards which means most of the 'food' they eat are very harmful and can cause disease. After hearing about both of these ways, I believe that America's wag of using farm equipment rather than cows is far more environmentally friendly because it is perfectly humane to animals and there is not as much waste product as what you would have with a cow, ox, or water buffalo. The Americans might have the more environmentally friendly substitution but there is no arguing that the Indian's way is far more efficient. With so many people in the cities in India in poverty, India cannot afford these industrialized farm machines that we have in the U.S. so with cows, you get a lot more out of it for only a little bit of money put in. Indians might misuse these animals but they are far more efficient with farming and other things they use cows for.
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