Let Them Eat Their Sacred Cows

Indian cow and calf, late 7th century

I used to think that an obvious solution to India's food problem would be to have them stop pampering their cows and start butchering them.

Never mind the fact that, as sacred cows go, theirs are often quite useful. Many feed along roadsides and waste areas and help earn their keep as work animals. They are also a source of milk and produce dung used for fuel and fertilizer.

So I suggest we begin asking ourselves what golden calves or sacred cows we should be sacrificing in order to help feed the hungry.

In contrast to Hindus, we have become addicted to having an inordinate amount of our food production involve the fattening, slaughtering and importing of beef and other flesh, a system that requires the inefficient use of far more protein than is consumed by all of India, with a much larger population. So it is we who have too many mouths to feed, including too many beef cattle, chickens and other animals that require megatons of a protein-rich diet to prepare them for market.

And while I am not against having pets, we have a pet industry in which we invest $72 billion a year. It goes without saying we would never, ever consider eating any of our beloved animals, which should help us understand our Indian friends who feel the same way about their cows.

Another near sacred industry thrives on our love affair with motor vehicles. There are more licensed sedans, SUV's, pickups, vans, RV's, trucks, motorcycles and other means of transportation in the US than there are licensed drivers. These all guzzle greedily from the world's limited supply of energy, all the while contributing to an alarming acceleration of climate change.

But by far the most ravenous and destructive of sacred cows is the sacred bull of the military-industrial complex. The US alone spends more for military purposes each day than the entire annual budget of the U.N. Food Program. Yet to even question this wanton use of the world's limited resources is to risk being labeled unpatriotic and un-American.

We could add the names of many more sacred idols, our obsession with sports, our appetite for wall-to-wall entertainment and our slavery to the fashion industry, to mention only a few. 

Kyrie eleison. Lord have mercy.