NOBLE COW: MUNCHING GRASS LOOKING CURIOUS AND JUST HANGING AROUND
2.
A Motherless Child
Finds A Mother
This is story of Tha Sophat, a 20-month-old boy living in Koak Roka village in Siem Reap province in northwest Cambodia.
He was left behind by his parents when he was only 18 months old. The parents traveled to Thailand in search of work and asked the grandfather, Um Oeung, to care for their son.
After the mother left and the boy stopped breast-feeding, he became ill and malnourished – until he noticed a calf nursing from its mother. The boy decided to try suckling and has done so ever since that day.
Grandfather Um Oeung pulled the boy away at first. He relented after his grandson cried piteously and the boy was allowed to continue suckling.
Villagers found it somewhat uncommon and tried to advice the grandfather but the grandfather expressed his inability to stop his grandson.
He feels that Tha Sophat’s health is fine, he is strong and seems to be better off than most other children in the village.
This child is practically surviving on the cow’s milk, hardly eating or drinking anything else. The cow doesn’t seem to mind it at all also.
A Motherless Child
Finds A Mother
This is story of Tha Sophat, a 20-month-old boy living in Koak Roka village in Siem Reap province in northwest Cambodia.
He was left behind by his parents when he was only 18 months old. The parents traveled to Thailand in search of work and asked the grandfather, Um Oeung, to care for their son.
After the mother left and the boy stopped breast-feeding, he became ill and malnourished – until he noticed a calf nursing from its mother. The boy decided to try suckling and has done so ever since that day.
Grandfather Um Oeung pulled the boy away at first. He relented after his grandson cried piteously and the boy was allowed to continue suckling.
Villagers found it somewhat uncommon and tried to advice the grandfather but the grandfather expressed his inability to stop his grandson.
He feels that Tha Sophat’s health is fine, he is strong and seems to be better off than most other children in the village.
This child is practically surviving on the cow’s milk, hardly eating or drinking anything else. The cow doesn’t seem to mind it at all also.
Boy Nursing From Cow - Beautiful or Disturbing?
The photos have been circulating around the Internet and many people have called them “disgusting,” “unprintable,” “unhygienic.” It is understandable why the photos might make some people uncomfortable because a child suckling from a cow is an unusual sight. But these photos are simply unusual, not disgusting. This is a beautiful story except for the people who are used to seeing cows as hamburgers and drinking industrialized milk. The poor boy was abandoned by his mother. He was starving and missed the comfort of suckling. He made an impressive cognitive leap from mother’s breast to cow’s udder and as a result he’s enjoying fresh, raw milk. His health is a testimonial that what he is doing is right.
Those who have never lived with a real cow or tasted real milk, for them it may be hard to understand this personal and intimate account. Milk from factory farms can only be described as white blood where cows are artificially inseminated and given hormones to produce 100 pounds of milk a day. This is several times more than they would produce naturally. As a result, a huge percentage of dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a bacterial infection of the udders. Since this milk is still considered drinkable, the blood and pus from their infections, along with massive quantities of antibiotics, ends up in the milk on supermarket shelves. Many times milk turns pink when blood gets mixed with the milk due to infections and over milking by machines. This milk is turned natural white by adding chemical whiteners.
The minute you start to process your milk, you destroy Mother Nature’s perfect food. You can live exclusively on raw milk, especially milk from nature’s sacred animal, the cow. We have no sense of the sacredness of our animals today. Instead, we have an industrial system of agriculture that puts our dairy cows inside on cement all their lives and gives them foods that cows are not designed to eat—grain, soy, citrus peel cake and bakery waste. These modern cows produce huge amounts of watery milk which is very low in fat.
Milk from these industrial cows is then shipped to a milk factory. Emily Green wrote an excellent article in the LA Times, August 2000 about milk processing. Milk processing plants are big, big factories where visitors are not allowed. Lots can go wrong in these factories. The largest milk poisoning in American history occurred in 1985 where more than 197,000 people across three states were sickened after a “pasteurization failure” at an Illinois bottling plant.
The photos have been circulating around the Internet and many people have called them “disgusting,” “unprintable,” “unhygienic.” It is understandable why the photos might make some people uncomfortable because a child suckling from a cow is an unusual sight. But these photos are simply unusual, not disgusting. This is a beautiful story except for the people who are used to seeing cows as hamburgers and drinking industrialized milk. The poor boy was abandoned by his mother. He was starving and missed the comfort of suckling. He made an impressive cognitive leap from mother’s breast to cow’s udder and as a result he’s enjoying fresh, raw milk. His health is a testimonial that what he is doing is right.
Those who have never lived with a real cow or tasted real milk, for them it may be hard to understand this personal and intimate account. Milk from factory farms can only be described as white blood where cows are artificially inseminated and given hormones to produce 100 pounds of milk a day. This is several times more than they would produce naturally. As a result, a huge percentage of dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a bacterial infection of the udders. Since this milk is still considered drinkable, the blood and pus from their infections, along with massive quantities of antibiotics, ends up in the milk on supermarket shelves. Many times milk turns pink when blood gets mixed with the milk due to infections and over milking by machines. This milk is turned natural white by adding chemical whiteners.
The minute you start to process your milk, you destroy Mother Nature’s perfect food. You can live exclusively on raw milk, especially milk from nature’s sacred animal, the cow. We have no sense of the sacredness of our animals today. Instead, we have an industrial system of agriculture that puts our dairy cows inside on cement all their lives and gives them foods that cows are not designed to eat—grain, soy, citrus peel cake and bakery waste. These modern cows produce huge amounts of watery milk which is very low in fat.
Milk from these industrial cows is then shipped to a milk factory. Emily Green wrote an excellent article in the LA Times, August 2000 about milk processing. Milk processing plants are big, big factories where visitors are not allowed. Lots can go wrong in these factories. The largest milk poisoning in American history occurred in 1985 where more than 197,000 people across three states were sickened after a “pasteurization failure” at an Illinois bottling plant.
“Who was the first guy that look at a cow and said,” I think that I’ll drink whatever comes out of those things when I squeeze them?”
—Calvin & Hobbes
Inside the plants all you can see is stainless steel. Inside that machinery, milk shipped from the farm is completely remade. First it is separated in centrifuges into fat, protein and various other solids and liquids. Once segregated, these are reconstituted to set levels for whole, low-fat and no-fat milks; in other words, the milk is reconstituted to be completely uniform. The butterfat left over will go into butter, cream, cheese, toppings and ice cream. The dairy industry loves to sell low fat milk and skim milk because they can make a lot more money from the butterfat when consumers buy it as ice cream. When they remove the fat to make reduced fat milks, they replace the fat with powdered milk concentrate, which is formed by high temperature spray drying. All reduced-fat milks have dried skim milk added to give them body, although this ingredient is not usually on the labels. The result is a very high-protein, low fat product. Because the body uses up many nutrients to assimilate protein—especially the nutrients contained in animal fat— such doctored milk can quickly lead to nutrient deficiencies.
The milk is then pasteurized at 161 degrees F by rushing it past superheated stainless steel plates. If the temperature is 200 degrees the milk is called ultra-pasteurized. This will have a distinct cooked milk taste but it is sterile and can be sold on the grocery shelf. In other words, they don’t even have to keep it cool. The bugs won’t touch it. It does not require refrigeration. As it is cooked, the milk is also homogenized by a pressure treatment that breaks down the fat globules so the milk won’t separate. Once processed, the milk will last for weeks and months, not just days.
The milk is then pasteurized at 161 degrees F by rushing it past superheated stainless steel plates. If the temperature is 200 degrees the milk is called ultra-pasteurized. This will have a distinct cooked milk taste but it is sterile and can be sold on the grocery shelf. In other words, they don’t even have to keep it cool. The bugs won’t touch it. It does not require refrigeration. As it is cooked, the milk is also homogenized by a pressure treatment that breaks down the fat globules so the milk won’t separate. Once processed, the milk will last for weeks and months, not just days.
Milk Allergies
Many people, particularly our children, cannot tolerate the stuff that we are calling milk that is sold in the grocery shelves. And you can see why. It starts with cows in confinement, cows fed feed that cows are not designed to digest, and then it goes into these factories for dismantlement and reconfiguration. The protein compounds in milk have many important roles, including protection against pathogens, enhancement of the immune system and carrier systems for nutrients. However, like the proteins in grains, the proteins in milk are complex, three dimensional molecules that are very fragile. The pasteurization process deforms and denatures these proteins. When we drink pasteurized milk, the body mounts an immune response instead of deriving instant nourishment.
Many people, particularly our children, cannot tolerate the stuff that we are calling milk that is sold in the grocery shelves. And you can see why. It starts with cows in confinement, cows fed feed that cows are not designed to digest, and then it goes into these factories for dismantlement and reconfiguration. The protein compounds in milk have many important roles, including protection against pathogens, enhancement of the immune system and carrier systems for nutrients. However, like the proteins in grains, the proteins in milk are complex, three dimensional molecules that are very fragile. The pasteurization process deforms and denatures these proteins. When we drink pasteurized milk, the body mounts an immune response instead of deriving instant nourishment.
Real Milk
Real milk is nature’s perfect life-giving food which builds strong bone, healthy organs and a strong nervous system. But it is illegal in many countries to sell fresh milk, called raw milk. Many farmers are languishing in jails for selling fresh, raw milk.
Humans consumed raw milk exclusively prior to the industrial revolution and the invention of the pasteurization process in 1864. During the industrial revolution large populations congregated into urban areas detached from the agricultural lifestyle. Up until that point, individuals and families owned their own cows, goats and other livestock and milked them on a daily basis.
Pasteurization was first used in the United States in the 1890s after the discovery of germ theory to control the hazards of contagious bacterial diseases. Initially after the scientific discovery of bacteria, no product testing was available to determine if a farmer's milk was safe or infected, so all milk was treated as potentially contagious.
Regulation of the commercial distribution of packaged raw milk varies across the world. Some countries like Canada, Australia and most parts of US have complete bans, but many have partial bans that do not restrict the purchase of raw milk bought directly from the farmer.
For example, Food and Drug Regulations Act, 1991 of Canada says, “No person shall sell the normal lacteal secretion obtained from the mammary gland of
Real milk is nature’s perfect life-giving food which builds strong bone, healthy organs and a strong nervous system. But it is illegal in many countries to sell fresh milk, called raw milk. Many farmers are languishing in jails for selling fresh, raw milk.
Humans consumed raw milk exclusively prior to the industrial revolution and the invention of the pasteurization process in 1864. During the industrial revolution large populations congregated into urban areas detached from the agricultural lifestyle. Up until that point, individuals and families owned their own cows, goats and other livestock and milked them on a daily basis.
Pasteurization was first used in the United States in the 1890s after the discovery of germ theory to control the hazards of contagious bacterial diseases. Initially after the scientific discovery of bacteria, no product testing was available to determine if a farmer's milk was safe or infected, so all milk was treated as potentially contagious.
Regulation of the commercial distribution of packaged raw milk varies across the world. Some countries like Canada, Australia and most parts of US have complete bans, but many have partial bans that do not restrict the purchase of raw milk bought directly from the farmer.
For example, Food and Drug Regulations Act, 1991 of Canada says, “No person shall sell the normal lacteal secretion obtained from the mammary gland of
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pita-mata mari’ khao——eba kon dharma |
the cow, genus Bos, or of any other animal, or sell a dairy product made with any such secretion, unless the secretion or dairy product has been pasteurized by being held at a temperature and for a period that ensure the reduction of the alkaline phosphatase activity so as to meet the tolerances specified in official method MFO-3, Determination of Phosphatase Activity in Dairy Products, dated November 30, 1981.”
Lucky for us, the boy Tha Sophat was born in Cambodia and not in Canada, US or Australia. Otherwise state would have taken him away for indulging in this despicable illegal activity.
Lucky for us, the boy Tha Sophat was born in Cambodia and not in Canada, US or Australia. Otherwise state would have taken him away for indulging in this despicable illegal activity.
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125 years ago, W.D. Hoard, founder of one of the oldest and well known dairy magazines, penned a tribute to the dairy cow and recognized the dairy cow as being the foster mother of the human race when he wrote: “The cow is the foster mother of the human race. From the time of the ancient Hindoo to this time have the thoughts of men turned to this kindly and beneficent creature as one of the chief sustaining forces of the human race” |