There is Another Way…! – Posted in: Uncategorized
The Bhaktivedanta Manor is the first and only farm in the UK to run entirely without slaughter or fossil fuels. It is a unique experiment into what happens when dairy cows and their offspring are allowed to live productive lives instead of being exploited and sacrificed in the name of cheap milk. It is currently the only farm to produce Ahimsa standard slaughter-free milk.
It all started in 1973, when George Harrison donated a Hertfordshire manor house and twenty acres of land to a blossoming religious community. The first thing they did was buy a cow.
Thirty-six years later, Bhaktivedanta Manor, near Watford, is a home, working farm and community centre visited by thousands of Hindus from all walks of life. The farm houses 50 cows and oxen in simple English oak barns. No animal has ever been killed and Hindu principles of cow protection and compassion to all living creatures are neatly transplanted into the modern Western world to successfully run a dairy farm entirely without slaughter or fossil fuels.
The animals are treated with care and respect, and not seen merely as machines of milk-production. They are free to live full and fulfilled lives. Calves suckle directly from their mothers, cows are milked by hand and trained bulls plough the land. Every animal has its place in the community.
35,000 litres of cruelty-free milk are produced every year from this exceptional farm, proving that farming does not need to be exploitative to be productive and bountiful.