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Working with Oxen calls to humanities’ ancient roots …As a by-product of the conventional dairy industry more than 100,000 male calves are killed in Britain every year soon after birth … |
India Rejects Monsanto Plant PatentMonsanto’s Climate resilient plant patent rejected by India’s Patent Office, Rejection upheld by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board … |
Seymour moves to Spitafields City FarmAfter 7 bovine-less years, Spitalfields Farm is pleased to welcome cows back to Shoreditch by fostering Seymour, a 7 month old, dairy steer calf … |
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The US-EU trade deal could take Monsanto’s GM crops off the tableProtestors against genetically modified crops have had more success against Monsanto and BASF outside the US than in it … |
Vandna Shiva on MonsantoIndian scientist and environmentalist Vandana Shiva addresses the recent U.S. Supreme Court case pitting an Indiana farmer against Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company….. |
A cow can power a home!Although cow dung has been used for thousands of years to create fertile soils, it also has another use as a fuel. In many countries from China to Kenya, Guatemala to India, cow dung is often dried and burnt as fuel for cooking …. |
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Registered charity number 1114304The Lotus Trust’s
8 London Bridges Cow ChallengeWalk – Run – Cycle |
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Season’s Greetings and a very Happy New Year from your friends at Ahimsa Dairy Foundation! Beginning with a batch a month, we aim to provide ahimsa products to those customers all over the UK (via mail) who are out of our delivery area for milk. See online shop for ordering
Tilly is expecting … Watch out over the next week or so, we have a new calf being born. Tilly, our five-year old black and white cow, is about to deliver.
Fridge Van The Ahimsa Team wish to thank all those who made efforts to help raise funds for a vehicle earlier in the year; in November finally purchased a fridge vehicle to enable us to transport milk between Kent and various drop points around London, and to our doorstep customers. We are in the process of putting our logo on the side of the van. December 2012 – Other Selected News
(Slaughter-free milk at InSpiral Lounge, continued from above) InSpiral: ‘We recently had a milk free period at inSpiral Lounge but it was immediately clear that many of our valued customers were unhappy about the lack of ‘ordinary’ milk which prompted us to look into alternatives to traditional dairy milk so that we can provide a service that our customers demand, whilst remaining true to our aspirations to be an ethical company’ InSpiral can be found just beside the canal bridge at Camden Lock – 250 High Street, Camden, London NW1 8QS. |
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Ahimsa slaughter-free milk celebrates its first birthdayThe Ahimsa Dairy Foundation, which sells entirely slaughter-free milk, is celebrating its first birthday this week and to mark the event has released a video of its sanctuary in Wales.
Ahimsa Milk: A Story of a Remarkable DairyAll great journeys begin not just with the first step, but with a great vision too. This is the story so far of our journey to realise the vision of Ahimsa slaughter-free milk. The Beginning: 2007
The First Step
The Struggle: 2009-11
The Struggle Continues
Adding Value
Where We Are Today
Full version of the above article here
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Dear Friends and Supporters,  Thank you to all who supported the Eight London Bridges Cow Challenge. It was a lovely sunny day with about 100 participants. Our fastest runners made it in 48mins, but the real successes were Jude (7yrs old) who suddenly turned up on the morning and cycled the full distance; Gopi (9yrs) who ended up walking and running 12km and Neera who raised £2,500. Through The Lotus Trust, the total raised to date is £8,500; we hope to reach £10,000 to purchase a fridge van for the project.Ahimsa Open Day – 19th May  A number of supporters have been asking to go and see our milking cows at Commonwork Organic Farm in Kent. As part of Vegetarian Week, we have arranged an Ahimsa Open Day on Saturday 19th May, 11.30am to 3pm. Mike Cottrell, Farm Director will take us on a tour of the Commonwork project, the dairy and introduce us to the ahimsa herd. We will also have a presentation on the project and an opportunity to taste some of the latest products on offer. Pencil this date in your diary.For details of how to get there, click on the following link: (Note: Commonwork is also known as Bore Place): http://www.commonwork.org/map.htmCheese coming soon  After some trials, we have finally established a partnership with two separate parties to produce various handmade dairy products. Rachna Jhala, who works closely with Commonwork, will take on making yoghurts, cottage cheese and a specialist paneer, and we have partnered with a traditional Kent based vegetarian cheesemaker to make vacuum packed paneer and haloumi. We hope to be able to mail this to all those people who have been waiting around the country. As of today, we begin to set the ball in motion, soon you will see and receive updates on each product as it becomes available, either on the website or via facebook and twitter. |
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Dear walkers, runners and cyclists,CONGRATULATIONS on completing the 6km across London’s 8 Bridges.A huge THANK YOU to you all!Sunday turned out to be a perfect sunny day and a great success. It was a pleasure to be amongst such sporting participants. We had just over one hundred people and they were all determined and dedicated to the welfare of cows – quality, not necessarily quantity.There were a number of queries along the route and those of you in cow suits will no doubt have had attracted bystanders, and even had a few photos taken, as I did. There is nothing quite like a herd of cows loose in the middle of the city.Though we did not have much press coverage yesterday, we will be putting a youtube video together and which will really get the message out into various forums. We will let you know once it is up on www.ahimsamilk.orgAs yet, we don’t have a final figure on funds raised, but present donations which have come in over JustGiving and on Sunday come to approximately £8,500. Our target is for £10,000. Please remind your friends that, if they haven’t already, they can still donate either to your page or directly to you. Remember that around 20% of donations come in after the event….so if you haven’t met your target, there is time yet.
Please bring in all your outstanding donations by no later than Saturday 28th April, and thank all those who helped or supported you. Forward cheques to: Sita Rama das, The Lotus Trust, Hilfield Lane, Aldenham, Herts WD25 8AZ. A special thanks to Neera Shah for her outstanding efforts. She has raised £1,500 and has got match-funding from her workplace of £1000. Also, special thanks to Gopi Tanna (9yrs) and his friend Raam (8yrs) who together have raised £850+ and hope to get to £1,000 by the end of the month. A last minute participant Jude (7yrs) also rode his bicycle across the eight bridges – well done. I will send you an update of the final outcome at the end of the month. On behalf of the Ahimsa Team, our best wishes, Sita Rama das
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The 8 London Bridges Cow Challenge is only 2 weeks away.We’d like to announce our youngest cyclist GopiPlease Sponsor Gopi  Gopi’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9tXTqt1r9M Gopi’s sponsorship page: http://www.justgiving.com/Gopi1Please share Gopi’s video with all your Facebook friends or email to your address book. Thank you!Gopi is our mascot for the 2012 bike ride!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1M6AhjaUH4So please come and join us ….8 London Bridges Cow Challenge Walk – Run – Cycle Sunday 15 April Registration at 10am – 12pm Tanner Street Park, SE1 3LE (5 mins from London Bridge tube station)See you there!More information at http://www.thelotustrust.org/8_london_bridges_cow_challenge.php |
March 2012 Newsletter
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Dear Friends and Supporters,We have recently had two new additions to our Ahimsa herd, Horatio and Primrose. They are happy little calves and are looking forward to playing in the fields once spring arrives. Eventually Primrose will become a milking cow. Horatio will start training as a working ox when he gets to around three.
One of our primary challenges to introducing new products is all directly linked to transport and delivery. Little did we know the huge costs and margins needed for transport companies to get food to our door – on time. The impact is much greater when you do not have volume and your customers are scattered across the country or around London. We have therefore committed ourselves to a small van which allows us to save costs on hire and enables us to control our deliveries. With the help of The Lotus Trust and Nu Radio, we are looking to raise £10,000 towards a vehicle for Ahimsa Dairy Foundation. So, please join us for the 8 London Bridges Cow Challenge: Walk – Run – Cycle on Sunday 15th April. And if you can’t come, than please sponsor Neera or Kofi. Click here to register http://www.thelotustrust.org/8_london_bridges_cow_challenge.php
If you are outside London and wish to run or cycle on behalf of The Lotus Trust in your local area, please email [email protected], you can even set up your own fundraising page |
Feb 2012 Newsletter
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| Dear Friends and Supporters,Wales Sanctuary A number of you have been asking about our retired animals and where they are presently. A big and gentle herdsman by the name of Grahame Barritt rents a smallholding of 11 acres in a beautiful part of West Wales called Mydroilyn, just a little way from Lampeter. Grahame has four of his own cows and is looking after one cow and five calves of our Ahimsa herd. The initial three calves Gautam, Dharma and Padma went there in October and they were joined by one cow Draupadi and two males calves Nimai and Nitai in late December. They have all settled in well.  Whilst the weather was mild, the animals could go in and out of their sheltered barn, now that it is colder, they remain inside, though they do have a courtyard to wander onto. In a report last week, Grahame explained that of the two younger calves, Nitai occasionally suckles Draupadi (who has a very loving and kind nature) for comfort. ‘Quite often, the bigger calves seem to look after the smaller ones; if a small calf is lying by itself, a big one will come and lay beside it, to give it company.’It is a very close-knit social group and the animals create a nice small family. Grahame often plays some music whilst the cows are kept indoors over the winter period. Traditional Ghee ProductionAnother important part of the Ahimsa approach is the traditional production of ghee – a cultured butter which has been clarified, removing all solids to yield pure golden milk fat. Not all ghee is equal in its nutritional and healing value. Only ghee made from organic milk, from pasture fed herds, is regarded as an outstanding elixir of health in the Ayurvedic health tradition. Ahimsa Ghee is made from cows grazing on pristine clover rich pastures almost all year round to produce rich creamy milk that results in pure healthy ghee.Although modern medicine does not hold the virtues of ghee in high esteem – primarily due to the effects of processed ghee, traditional methods keep intact its pure and wholesome aspects. Ghee is sattvic food (it has a positive settling influence on the mind and body) which promotes good health, vitality and longevity.In the upcoming months, we aim to have our artisan ghee-maker Rachna Jhalla extol the virtues of ghee and what makes it beneficial and also share with us how she makes our ghee in her home kitchen.Eight London Bridges Cow Challenge Being the Olympic year, our partner charity the Lotus Trust has decided to hold a walk, run or cycle event across the eight bridges criss-crossing the Thames for the Slaughter-free Milk campaign. They ran a successful rickshaw cycle ride two years ago, put aside a moment and take a look at this …  Come and join them on Sunday 15th April – click here for full detailsIf you can’t take part then you might sponsor one of our cow champion athletes …
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Dec 2011 Newsletter
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Dear Friends and Supporters,We have had a very busy four months since we launched deliveries of Ahimsa milk in July and the word is spreading. We have been actively setting up drops around London and dealing with the challenges which come with starting any new initiative.
We have also been receiving messages of support from all around the world praising the project. Letters from far afield as America, Canada and Australia have been asking when Ahimsa organic milk will be coming to their part of the world and reminding us of the real story of ill-treatment of cows enslaved on factory farms. Every year, millions of cows and calves are slaughtered worldwide as a result of the modern dairy industry. However, we now have an opportunity to bring about a revolution in milk production by supporting farms and projects which offer a real alternative. We understand that not many of you are in an area where Ahimsa milk is delivered but would very much like to show your support. Well, now you can, we have just launched our Sponsor a Cow programme.
Please Sponsor Our Cows Our cows’ retirement fund is built into the price of Ahimsa Slaughter-free Milk, but we are a not-for-profit company and would like to put a little more aside for those rainy days. For example vets bills, or a rise in the price of hay – which has seen bad harvest for the last few years. We also guarantee that no male calves will ever be slaughtered on our watch, and we need funds to explore innovative and productive ways of working with bulls. Transportation for our young calves and retired cows to our Welsh sanctuary is also expensive.
Please help us by sponsoring one of our cows by direct debit. You can choose from a whole list of girls all of whom are named after English and Indian flowers. Sponsorship starts from as little as £3 or £5 a month for which we will send you a certificate of sponsorship, updates about your cow, a sticker and our monthly newsletter.
Donations of £15, £25 or £50 are also welcome or an amount of your choice. Click here to sponsor/donate, or simply for more information Our best wishes, |
July Newsletter
May 2013 Newsletter
Ahimsa Soft Cheese: November also saw the launch of our first soft cheese. A delightful soft cheese with a hint of Himalayan salt has received many positive responses. Working in partnership with the award winning Traditional Cheese Dairy in East Sussex which produces non-GMO vegetarian raw cheeses, we have started to make available our first Ahimsa cheese.
Tilly
Summer fundraisers
Horatio with mother Iris
Primrose
March has also brought us our first opportunity to test other milk products such as paneer, cottage cheese, and cream cheese. Yoghurt is something else to be trialled soon. With help of a Lebanese organic cheese-maker, we hope to have these products on offer shortly.
Singer and passionate advocate for animal welfare Chrisse Hynde said of the project:
For £10 a month with your welcome pack you will also receive a fridge magnet and a copy of Ranchor Prime’s ground-breaking book “Cows and the Earth”, which explains why cow protection embodies the principles of sustainable and ethical living.