New Zealand's main outreach centers have implemented a policy of only using milk from protected cows. In practice this has translated into a vegan menu at Auckland's The Loft, and Wellington's Gaura Yoga.
Since there are no protected cows giving milk within the movement in New Zealand there is no milk to use.
This is an interesting strategic move. A concession made 30 years ago, that of using milk from unprotected cows, has become the baseline in the Hare Krishna movement today. Using milk from unprotected cows is not seen as unusual by many of the members. (It's common that a concession becomes a new baseline over time).
However, persons outside the movement increasingly view this as hypocritical, as environmental awareness grows and movements promoting compassionate treatment of animals, such as veganism, become more prominent among the youth.
By changing the policy to only use milk from protected cows the NZ devotees have done three things simultaneously. They have:
- honored the relationship between humans and cows
- removed a source of accusations of hypocrisy
- created "at the coal face" awareness of the lack of cow protection in New Zealand
New Zealand is a country at the cutting edge. Even Hell Pizza, now branching out into Australia, demonstrates a cutting edge environmental awareness:
Believe it or not we actually give a sh*t about the environment and are taking steps to reduce our carbon cloven hoof prints... While we are not 666% perfect in terms of our own environmental and social performance, we are committed to a process of ongoing review and improvement of our practices.
- "Hell on Earth" section of www.hellpizza.com.au
Leadership means going first.
Implementing this policy to create awareness is not the end of the matter, however. They are also working to implement cow protection to get some milk back on the table! In the meantime, enforced veganism is the austerity that they are accepting while they work on this piece of Srila Prabhupada's strategy.
Veganism is the way
Earlier today I was boasting to a friend that the Wellington Hare Krishnas and my Guru are all vegan and that I am heading that way myself.
I do have a problem tho. My cooking skills have been largely based around dairy products and now I'm a bit of a savage in the kitchen.
Some resources for kick ass vegan dishes like what they serve up in Wellington would be awesome
As I recently pointed out
As I recently pointed out elsewhere, "veganism" is a different ideology from "only milk from protected cows".