From: traub@rtf.bt.co.uk (Michael Traub)
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: India (was Re: Dairy farming (Was: Ben & Jerry's ice cream))
Date: 16 Apr 92 09:14:15 GMT
Organization: BT Customer Systems, Brighton, UK

In article <m0lb9A9-00000dC@bootes.cus.cam.ac.uk> RCJ@AUTOMATION.UNIVERSITY-LIBRARY.CAMBRIDGE.AC.UK writes:
>
>With regard  to where  the calves go to make way for the ice
>cream guzzlers, I wonder what happens in India?
>
>India has  a dairy  industry. Indians  are not  renowned for
>widespread veal  consumption. Anyone  KNOW what  happens  to
>surplus calves there?

This  is  a  complex question and the answer varies wildly depending on the
region  of  India  you are talking about. I personally only have experience
with  Southern  India,  particularly  Bombay  and Goa. The information I am
providing is therefore often second hand and may be inaccurate.

India  is  a  vast  and  diverse country. Many people think it is a country
full  of  Hindus  but  this  is  far from the case. India probably has more
different  religions  within  her  borders  than  any  other  country. As a
result it also has more public holidays than any other country:->

The  dietary  restrictions  of  the  religions  in  India  range  from near
fruitarian   (the   Pharsees)   to  those  that  would  eat  anything  (the
Catholics).  The  diet  also  seems  to  change  depending  on  the region.
Generally  the  further  south  you  travel  the  higher  the  incidence of
vegetarianism.

Within  the  Hindu  religion there are many who consume cows without qualm.
Generally  it  is  only  the  lowest castes (through lack of money) and the
highest  caste,  the  Brahmins (or priest caste) who practice vegetarianism
exclusively.   The  other  castes  mostly  refrain  from  eating  cows  but
Hinduism  is  a  very tolerant religion so many people ignore the religious
edicts.

The  Muslims  on the other hand are a much stronger religion so the dietary
rules  are  obeyed  more  strictly. Their dietary restrictions are based on
the Hebrew Kosher rules so for them pigs are a big no-no.

The  Christians  in India (and there are quite a few) take great delight in
the  "foolishness"  of  the  other religions and eat whatever is going. All
the  Catholics  I  met  in  India considered we were insane to not eat meat
and  they  ate  meat at every meal, much like a backward western diet. They
have  some  really  foolish  dietary  habits, for example when we went to a
relations  house  to have afternoon tea they were quite happy for us not to
have  milk  (I'll  explain why later) but were up in arms when we suggested
that  we  would prefer our tea without sugar. In the end we ended up having
tea  with  one  sugar  even  though  we asked for none. To them sugar was a
necessary ingredient for health.

India  has  a  large  shoe  making industry. As many of the hindus will not
kill  cows  the  muslims  do  the  "dirty"  work. This alone accounts for a
large  number  of  cows  every  year,  though  I have no idea of the actual
numbers.  Most  of  the  Hindus have no qualms about wearing leather shoes.
Also many of the Indian musical instruments are made using animal skins.

Cows  in  India  are  not  forced  to give birth regularly like they are in
westernised  dairy  farms. Many of the cows are poor suppliers of milk. One
would  have  though  with  so many cows around in India it would be easy to
get  milk  but  this  is  not  the  case. According to a cousin in Goa even
though  the  demand  for  milk in india is quite low there is rarely enough
milk  to  go  round.  Most Indians do not consume milk, only those addicted
to  tea  are  milk  drinkers.  The majority of the milk is used for cheese.
The  cheese  is  almost  all  suitable for vegetarians, though I personally
thought  it  tasted  revolting.  The  rest  of  the milk is used for Indian
desserts.  Because  there  is  not  enough  milk  to  go  round,  my cousin
explained  that  the  milk  was watered down (usually by 50%) and soya milk
was  added  to  produce  the required quantity. Because the milk is watered
down  it  is  generally not safe for a westerner to consume it, I ate Raita
with  yoghurt  in it while I was in India and I came back home with a nasty
bug  (though  it  could have been the salads we ate, as the ingredients are
washed in tap water).

So  in  conclusion  I found the dairy industry was not as big as in western
countries,  the  cows were not forced to calve as regularly, and there were
more  than  enough  meat  eaters  and  leather  consumers  to  keep the cow
population down.



-- 
Michael Traub
BT Customer Systems, Brighton Systems Centre. traub@rtf.bt.co.uk