Shiva Chapter 4 12/12
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Indian agriculture has built its sustainability on the integrity of the cow
Cattle provide organic fertilizer for fields and thus enhance food productivity
Indian cattle provide more food than they consume unlike US cattle
Two-thirds of the power requirements of Indian villages are met by cattle-dung fuel, to replace
animal power in agriculture, India would have to spend about$1 billion annually on gas
The Green Revolution shifted agriculture’s fertilizer base from renewable organic inputs to nonrenewable chemical ones
The White Revolution is destroying the world’s most evolved dairy culture
Trade-liberalization policies in India are leading to the slaughter of cattle for meat exports
After the UK’s BSE outbreak, India’s “sacred cows” were being sent to slaughterhouses to “catch
up” with the beef exports.  mass slaughter of 4.7 million British cattle.
biotech industries are promoting new miracles of genetic engineering to increase milk
production, BST diverts energy to milk production
A demand for milk labeling was opposed by the biotech industry.
Industrial-farming techniques would deprive these diverse species of food sources and instead
assault them with chemicals, destroying the rich biodiversity in the soil and with it the basis for
the renewal of soil fertility.
“shadow acres” seven times the area of Europe in other countries for the production of cattle
feed.
It takes two kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of poultry, four kilograms of grain to
produce one kilogram of pork, and eight kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef.
Robbing cattle of the roughage they need does not merely treat them unethically; it also does
not reduce the acreage needed to feed the cows, since the concentrate comes from grain that
could have fed people.
India’s trade-liberalization program is trying to convert a predominantly vegetarian society into
a beef-eating one.
Cancer, stroke, and heart disease—are linked conclusively to consumption of beef
Meat exports are leading to a decline not only in livestock numbers, but also in the rich diversity
of cattle breeds known for their hardiness, milk production, and draught power.
animal exports are earning the country Rs. 10 million, the destruction of animal wealth is costing
the country Rs. 150 million.
Rs. 9.1 billion to import nitrogren, phosphorus, and potash previously provided by livestock
In 1993, when India was forced to remove export restrictions on cotton, 2 million weavers lost
their livelihoods.
Venky’s chicken has not employed one extra person after getting the contract for chicken supply
from KFC and Pizza Hut.
construction of “mammalian bioreactors” is the ultimate step in the reduction of cows to
machines.