I grew up in a Punjabi family where every farming family had their own buffalo and the ultimate sign of love, health and prosperity was being able to afford to drink milk. We lived in a village surrounded by farm land in the State of Punjab which has a lot of similarities to Fresno. It's an agricultural society and it provides half the food for the entire country of India just like California is the major grower in the United States. Punjabi vegetarians don't eat eggs but they do eat dairy in the form of paneer cheese, milk, yogourt and they cook with butter. I found it hard then to understand why there was such a big hullabaloo about people being vegan and avoiding dairy in California. I have since then learned the vast difference between the dairy I consumed as a Punjabi and what is provided here.
The one thing that is most memorable to me about Punjab is the scent of country air. When I was 16 and we returned to India for a visit, we got off the plane in Delhi and it stunk so bad of pollution that I asked my mom if we could just go back to Canada right then. Boy was my mom upset. When we drove into Punjab though, the bad smells totally dissipated. Every day for four months, I walked to our farm from the village and the scent of vegetation hung heavy in the air mixed with dew in the early mornings. In Canada, my husband grew up in the country, in Callander, Ontario and when we visited, we smelled the difference in the country air. Our eldest daughter lives in upstate New York in Wallkill, which is in the country and the air there smells far different from Brooklyn or the other cities. The closest description I can give you to the scent of India is when you are camping in the true back woods and you wake up early in the morning and there is a slight smell of the camp fire mingled with dew and greens. It's an intoxicating smell that you can envelop yourself in.
Fresno is pretty far in the country. I understand we live in the city, but we own a 20 acre farm and we lived in the small town of Kerman before moving to Fresno. On Friday, I drove down to L.A. to pick up supplies for the cafe and my senses were continually assailed by the country smell. Unfortunately, it wasn't the pleasant aroma of India, it was the stench of dairies. I left at 5:00 a.m. in the morning and this should have been the time for the air smelling the sweetest. Instead, I could barely breathe because of the manure scent at the Costco Gas station in bakersfield at 7:00 a.m. with not a dairy in sight. It reminded me of Kerman where we sometimes could not step outside our house because the putrid stink from the dairy was so bad. You've heard the commercials of happy california cows and you see the posters that say, "meet us, meet our cows". Now, the first time I drove to Kerman from San Diego, I was shocked at the first dairy I drove by. The cows were ankle high in their own manure and I nicknamed them mud cows. I lamented that dairy cows who gave milk every day were never allowed to leave the mud and were confined in such disgustingly filthy close quarters. I asked why some cows were pastured in fields that weren't a dairy and I was told they were beef cattle. How intelligent is that? Animals that are only used for food when they are dead are allowed to have a happy life, but animals that daily give us milk are treated worse than human slaves. After watching Food Inc. I realized that most feed lots are just as bad as dairies, the cattle I had seen were organic, free range cattle.
Well, I have to say that the farms in India, Canada or New York don't smell like the dairies here. I don't even know if they would envision degrading animals to such a degree that their entire life is spent in mud and manure. No wonder they have to pasteurize the milk, it is so contaminated you'd have to ultra pasteurize it to kill the germs, along with any nutritional value of course. My husband visited Organic Pastures and my son goes out there weekly and they say there is no stench from their farm. Their farm smells like the ones in Canada and India. My 3 year old and 4 year old both drink their raw milk. Megan brings me goats yogourt and cheese which is also nutritious and delicious. I have to say though folks, nobody anywhere in India consumes dairy like Americans do. Our one buffalo provided the dairy for our entire family. At $6.50 for a half gallon of whole milk, my children drink it conservatively too. My eldest son swears by raw colostrum to beat a cold and many say it helps with asthma and a host of other diseases. Organic Raw milk is high in Omega 3s and is good for you. Organic or regular Pasteurized milk is detrimental as shown in the movie "Forks over Knives".
If my noise bothers my neighbors they can call the police and get the situation corrected. The stink from dairies is not just bothering their neighbors, it's bothering tourists, travellers and people miles away and yet we all put up with it. Driving down the highway, they get to poison my air and we accept that because they are the all powerful dairies. I can't work at my farm some days because of the stink of cow manure but no police officer will respond to my complaint because they're allowed to infect my air. Well I know a way to stop them, become vegan. If everyone became vegan, there would be no reason to treat cows like the manure they stand in. Or if people only purchased Organic, Raw milk we would indeed be surrounded by happy california cows. You pick. To breathe, or not to breathe seems more the appropriate question. I choose to breathe and let breathe.
Yours in food and health,
Tara Hamilton
Revive Cafe - facebook.com/revivecafe
organicfresno.com
559.4920.raw
tarahamilton@me.com
No comments:
Post a Comment