I recently received a three volume book titled "Make Vrndavana", which is 1300 pages of instructions taken from transcripts of conversations where Srila Prabhupada gives instructions about the ideal lifestyle for devotees. One interesting comment was that Srila Prabhupada said that it is a good idea to have a good storage of food grains for an emergency. He goes into great detail about the importance of living locally, something which is practically never practiced in the United States today, even for devotees. He particularly stresses the importance of growing our own food. Although these conversations took place 40 years ago, we now see that the food available is unhealthy having been produced using callous farming methods and using seeds which have been genetically modified, and so are not foods which have been designed by Krsna. I am interested in discussing any subjects related to living locally. We now grow most of our food, keep bees, have a dairy cow and little bull who is being trained to work, make medicine using local plants (with great results--our neighbors come and request medicine quite often), and are learning alternative building styles that make living more comfortable without relying on the infrastructure.
Here in Washington State in the United States it is illegal to sell milk from a family cow, and also illegal to even just give it away. The government has made diabolical arrangements that only allow dairies which have thousands of cows which are treated like machines and discarded to the slaughter house when they are only about 6 years old. In our area almost all of the family dairies are gone due to artificially low prices for milk as a result of the government subsidizing only the huge factory dairies.
So keeping a family cow is a challenge and can only be done out of love rather than for financial reasons. We're hoping that Krsna gives us more land so that we can increase our little cow herd.
Replies
LIVING IN VRNDAVANA.
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/to...
THE DEVOTEES OF VRNDAVANA.
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/to...
VRNDAVANA IS AS GOOD AS LORD KRISHNA.
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/to...
Here in Washington State in the United States it is illegal to sell milk from a family cow, and also illegal to even just give it away. The government has made diabolical arrangements that only allow dairies which have thousands of cows which are treated like machines and discarded to the slaughter house when they are only about 6 years old. In our area almost all of the family dairies are gone due to artificially low prices for milk as a result of the government subsidizing only the huge factory dairies.
So keeping a family cow is a challenge and can only be done out of love rather than for financial reasons. We're hoping that Krsna gives us more land so that we can increase our little cow herd.