Silver Foils are not Vegetarian

Silver Foils are not Vegetarian

The silver foils are not very expensive. They are sold by weight.
Ordinarily, you can buy a packet of 160 foils for a price between Rs.100 to
200. That is, approximately one rupee per foil. Not only the sweets, now a
days it is also applied on fruits. Some Ayurvedic medicines also are wrapped
in silver foils.
They are made by hammering thin sheets of silver in middle of booklets made
of a bull’s intestines. In other words, after slaughtering a bull, quickly
his intestines are removed, and sold to the manufacturers of foils. The
skins made of old intestines are of no use. Even one-day-old intestines can
not be used, because within a few hours they stiffen.
The foil manufacturer removes blood and stools from the intestines, and cuts
them into pieces. Then he puts one piece over another, making a booklet out
of it. At his home, or in the factory, he puts one silver (or gold) sheet
in-between each page. Then he hammers it hard until those metal sheets turn
into thin wafers.
The intestines of bulls are so strong, that even repeated hammering do not
destroy them, or they do not let the foils move around inside. Because of
the hammering, some tissues of the intestine mix with the foils. After that
the foil manufacturer sells the bundle of foils to the sweets manufacturers.
Some small foil manufacturers sell the foils to the temples.
This foil is not only dirty, it also is non-vegetarian. Even the meat-eaters
do not eat intestines. Use of these foils turn even sweets into
non-vegetarian food. A few years ago the Indian Airlines learned about this,
and since then stopped using them on the sweets served in their planes.
Source of Silver Foil in Sweets
Indian Airlines, the domestic air-carrier of India had issued instructions
to its suppliers to supply sweet without silver foil called VARAKH. Do you
know why? Silver is widely used for various purposes in the market today.
Silver is considered precious and its utility is enormous. The reason behind
this is that silver reflects back 95% of the light energy that falls on it.
The silver foils used for edible purposes is called VARAKH So what’s so
special about VARAKH? If you keenly observe this VARAKH under a microscope
don be perturbed if you happen to see traces of blood, stools and saliva of
a cattle or ox.
VARAKH is a silver foil and we have no second questions on this, but to
prepare this VARAKH important parts of the CATTLE/OX is made use of.
Intestines of Cattle/OX are obtained from the slaughterhouse. This is
obtained after butchering to death the cattle/ox for beef and the part,
which cannot be consumed: the intestines are pulled out of the animal and
handed over to the manufacturers of VARAKH. Before handing over the
intestines, they are washed in the slaughterhouse to get rid of the blood
and other remains on these intestines in the limited facility that is
present in the slaughterhouse. We are not sure how neatly this job is
carried out. Intestines are cut into small pieces and then are bound
together as pages in a notebook.
A silver block is placed in the middle of these bound intestines, and the
whole thing is placed in a leather bag and sealed. Experts, who know how to
make VARAKH, pound the bag with wooden sticks, till the entire bag flattens
out. The silver block would by this time be turned into silver foil. This
Silver foil would now be separated from the intestine pack and will be
placed on paper.
This is VARAKH, which reaches the market ready for use. Even staunch
vegetarians, who shy away from egg, unknowingly consume this as a part of
sweet, pan and arecanut. Some unknowingly consume this because of the
additional taste that VARAKH provides.
Now the question is “Why the intestines of the cattle/ox? Why not something
else?” The reason behind using the intestines of the cattle/ox for preparing
the VARAKH is because of the elasticity of the intestines.
They do not get cut even after a severe pounding.
This aspect is brought out in the magazine “Beauty without cruelty” and the
Television show of Maneka Gandhi, “Heads and Tails”. In India, on an average
an estimate indicates that 2,75,000 kilos of “VARAKH” is consumed. Can you
estimate how many cattle/ox are sacrificed for just a bit of taste? If you
are surprised as I am, after reading this article please inform as many as
possible so as to ensure that we unknowingly don’t consume beef.
Pan
By now, a pan-lover vegetarian person may have eaten equivalent of many
miles of oxen intestines! For them, here is an another bad news – the Chuna
that they apply on pan, also is not vegetarian! That is made from the shells
of living insects. These insects are taken from the ocean, killed, and
removed from the shell. Then the shells are softened in water, dried, and
ground into white powder. When you put this Chuna in your mouth, you are
participating in killing of many insects. This is no different from taking
life of a goat or a pig. Everyone wants to live, no one likes the pain of
death.
Indian Sweets and Varakh
Silver foil, or varakh, as it is generally known in India, adds glitter to
Indian sweets, betel nut (Supari), Paan (betel-leaf), and fruits. It is also
used in Ayurvedic medicines. The silver-topped sweet is even served as
prashad in many temples and on auspicious and religious occasions. Varakh is
also used in flavoured syrups as in Kesar (saffron) syrup.
If one observes Varakh under a microscope one will find traces of blood,
stools and saliva of a cattle or an ox. Varakh is not derived from an animal
source. However, a crucial material of animal origin, ox-gut, is used in its
manufacture. This ox-gut is obtained from the slaughterhouse.
The intestine (ox-gut), smeared with blood and mucus, is pulled out from the
slaughtered animal by the butcher at the slaughterhouse, and sold for the
specific purpose. This is then taken away to be cleaned and used in the
manufacture of Varakh.
The gut of an average cow, measuring 540 inches in length and 3 inches in
diameter, is cut open into a piece measuring 540″ x 10″. From this, strips
of 9″ x 10″ are cut to give approximately 60 pieces of ox-gut, which are
then piled on top of each other and bound to form a book of 171 leaves.
Next, small thin strips of silver are placed between the sheets and the book
slipped into a leather pouch. These bundles are hammered continuously for a
day to produce extremely thin foils of silver of 3″ x 5″.
The leather and ox-gut, being supple, can withstand the intense manual
hammering for up to 8 hours a day till such time as the silver is beaten to
the desired thickness. When ready, the foil is carefully lifted from between
the leaves of ox-gut and placed between sheets of paper to be sold to the
sweet shops. A booklet of 160 foils weighs approximately 10 grams and costs
few hundred rupees.
To make a single booklet of 171 sheets, the guts of 3 cows are used. And the
yield per book is generally 160 foils of silver, the rest of which may be
damaged or unfit for use. Thus one book, used on an average of 300 days of
the year yields approximately 48,000 foils of silver which means that each
ox-gut yields an estimated 16,000 foils.
The leather used for the pouch to hold the book (made from ox-gut), is
cowhide or calf leather, and uses about 232 sq. inches of material. Assuming
the size of an average cowhide to be 18 sq. ft or 2,600 sq. Inches, the
yield per hide will be approximately 10 leather pouches.
Usually 4 foils are used per kilograms of sweets and the ox-gut of one cow
is used to produce foil for approximately 4,000 kilograms of sweets. It is
estimated that the average consumption of sweets by a middle class family of
four in India is about 100 kilograms per year.
Thus, an average middle class Indian family of four consuming approximately
100 kg of sweets per year for forty years consumes silver foil produced with
the gut of 3 cows and one-tenth of a cowhide!
In India 275 tons of silver is transformed into Varakh that utilises the
intestines of 516,000 cows and calf leather of 17,200 animals each year.
# – Prahladananda Swami – 27/7/09; 8:03:13 PM

European Court Ruling spells an end to water fluoridation

European Court Ruling spells an end to water fluoridation

Doug Cross
UK Council Against Water Fluoridation
July 22, 2009

Fluoridated water must be treated as a medicine, and cannot be used to prepare foods. That is the decision of the European Court of Justice, in a landmark case dealing with the classification and regulation of ?functional drinks? in member states of the European Community. (HLH Warenvertriebs and Orthica (Joined Cases C-211/03, C-299/03, C-316/03 and C-318/03) 9 June 2005)

Functional drinks are those products that have two different purposes ? for example, nutrition and exerting a positive effect on some medical condition. They include ?near-water drinks with added minerals? and, in view of the properties claimed for fluoridated water by fluoride advocates, it must be classified as a ?funtional food?, and therefore falls within the scope of the relevant legislation.

Medicinal law takes precedent over food law.

The Court ruled that, where two different sets of rules appear to apply to a product, medicinal legislation must take precedent, and the product must be regulated as a medicine. It emphasised that medicines regulators in member states do not have the power to exercise discretion on the classification of such dual-function products. The repeated refusal of the British and Irish Regulators to recognise fluoridated water as a medicinal product is therefore an unlawful misuse of their powers, and one that requires immediate reversal.

ECJ rulings do not establish new laws, but clarify how existing ones should be applied, and are enforceable in the domestic legislation of all member states of the EC. In effect, this decision at last confirms the claim that I have made for many years ? that existing medicinal law has always required that fluoridated water be regulated as a medicine. Fluoridated water has no medicinal marketing authorization (?product licence?), and because of this it is ? and always has been ? illegal to supply it to the public, as the 1968 Medicines Act confirms.

As a ?medicinal water?, the protection afforded by the water quality regulations that shield consumers from hazardous substances in drinking water does not apply. Its use in the processing of foodstuffs is also prohibited, under the food safety legislation. Aa a direct result of this ruling, all English and Irish legislation providing for water fluoridation are at last exposed as having been in violation of that fundamental prohibition, and must now be repealed.

Prohibition of use of fluoridated water in foods

But the Court also ruled that such functional food products must not be used in the preparation of foods. As a ?medicinal water? the fluoridated product cannot be regarded as equivalent to the mandatory ?water for human consumption? specified for drinking and food preparation. So now every food wholesale and retail outlet in fluoridated areas of the UK and Ireland, from the corner chip-shop to the largest brewery, from the small high-street bakery to the largest supermarket retailers ? all will now have to either cease production or install an alternative water supply.

Implications for international trade in food products

But the ruling also has an equally profound implication for export trade in processed foods and drinks. The Court stated that even if a functional food product (or a food containing it) is legally marketed as a food in one member state, it cannot be exported to any other member state unless it has a medicinal licence. So any company making a consumable product using fluoridated water in its preparation or as an ingredient cannot now export that product to any other state in the EC, even if their product is permitted in their home state.

The economic implications are enormous. Not only does the ruling ban the use of fluoridated water for all retail catering and wholesale food processing in the UK and Ireland, it also prohibits such trade from these states to other member states of the EC. But it goes much further than even this, because if British and Irish processed foods from fluoridated areas cannot be exported to the EC, this prohibition must also apply to the importing of such products into EC member states from any other country that practices water fluoridation. The decision effectively bans all processed food products from countries such as the USA, Australia and New Zealand, unless they can be positively proven to have been prepared using only water that was not fluoridated.

What does this mean for water undertakers who fluoridate their product?

Before British water undertakers allow Strategic Health Authorities to order them to start fluoridating their water they need to be fully aware of the implications to them and their shareholders should they agree to do so. Not only are medical damages compensation claims likely to be far higher, with charges of negligently supplying an unlawful product forming the basis of class actions, food processers who lose their markets will certainly hold their water undertaker accountable in law for their losses. This ruling means that Courts in other member states of the EC must support demands from competing food processors that an embargo be placed on British and Irish products unless they can be proven to have been manufactured using only non-fluoridated water.

I have previously warned that this illegal product substitution cannot be permitted to continue, and that members of the public are entirely entitled to demand to be supplied with water that complies with, and is regulated under, the drinking water quality standards that are enforceable under both EC and UK (and Irish) law. Since the ruling must be enforced in all EC member states, water companies will now have to come off the fence and accept that fluoridated water is not an acceptable alternative drinking water.

The only way out ? repeal all fluoridation laws and ban the product.

This decision completely supports the challenge that I have issued repeatedly to the UK Regulator, the MHRA ? identify the case law that justifies your perverse claim that this product is not a medicine. Ironically, it was the MHRA itself that finally gave the game away, in a formal response to another Regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). In what I can only assume was a deliberate attempt to mislead the ASA, the MHRA actually cited this case in support of its continued perverse refusal to implement the medicines legislation that it is obliged to enforce!

The beginning of the end ? fluoridation must now be banned, worldwide.

This ECJ ruling effectively puts the final nail in the coffin of water fluoridation, not only within the EC but worldwide. It establishes a very substantial but entirely justified obstacle to trade in food products that are prepared without proper regard to the protection of the public that is enshrined in law. The ruling must be recognised and enforced not only in every memebr state, but also in any external state that wishes to trade with the EC in processed foods. So just what can be done to resolve the present unacceptable situation?

One solution would be to grant a medicinal licence to fluoridated water. But the Court ruled that any evaluation of a functional drink may only be done under the rigorous procedures required to scrutinise any pharmaceutical product. In the present state of scientific concern over the evidence of its lack of efficacy and safety it is impossible to imagine that such a licence could ever be granted. If it were, it would immediately result in a world-wide denunciation from the scientific community that is fully aware of the improper commercial influence that is at the heart of the international promotion of fluoridated products.

The only acceptable response is to call a halt to this controversial practice now. The experience of the past half century has shown that it is completely unjustified ? indeed, it is responsible for what may reasonably be described as a pandemic of avoidable chronic fluoride poisoning. In ruling that this type of product must be regulated under medicinal law, the Court has taken the final step towards bringing this disreputable practice to a long-delayed end. Let us hope that national Governments all over the world will heed this decision ? the economic consequences will be dire for those who continue to attempt to continue this discredited and illegal practice.

# – Prahladananda Swami – 23/7/09; 5:51:43 PM

Ghee or Animal Fat?

Ghee or Animal Fat?

By Maneka Gandhi for The Bihar Times [1] on 18 Jul 2009
(Bihar, India) Some years ago it was discovered that owners of Vanaspathi
oils were putting cow and pig lard into the oil. There was a furor which
died down after a few months and no one knows till today what happened to
the Jains who owned the enterprise ? but I have little doubt that they got
off and a few bureaucrats and policemen are richer.
Ghee (from Sanskrit gh?ta meaning “sprinkled”) is clarified butter, sacred
to the gods. On June 13, a ghee manufacturing unit was raided by the health
officers and police of Agra . Hundreds of tins of ghee were found in the
Jharna nullah locality . The so called ghee was being manufactured from
animal fat boiled in huge iron pans. “25 big drums, 150 tins and four
furnaces, knives and country pistols were recovered from the site” a police
official said. “Animal hides of cows, monkeys, donkeys, horses and dogs
hanging by the trees and bones littered showed the scale of manufacturing
being carried out clandestinely for years.”
Now comes the standard Indian part ? “Police said at least 50 people must
have been working there in the sheds but none could be caught, probably
because the information about the raid was leaked to them.”
Agra Municipal corporation?s animal husbandry department Chief B.S. Verma
said that residents of the locality had complained for years about the
spurious manufacturing unit but the department could not find the unit.
TV channels aired footage filmed at ghee manufacturing plants. The footage
confirmed that across India animals were being rendered and their fat added
to ghee. The ghee plants had dead animals all around, animal fat boiling in
big drums and slabs of fat hanging from the ceilings.
Members of ISKCON collected samples of commercial ghee in Pune and sent them
to be tested at the Anatech Laboratory and research centre in Bangalore. The
tests based on the Fancier-Transbraned Infrared spectrum Replication showed
beyond a doubt that the ghee contained animal fat. This laboratory which has
analyzed hundreds of ghees said that of all the brands in India, Amul was
the best brand for ghee and butter, with even Nestle adulterated with about
5% vegetable oil fats. They said that most ghee, including Amul, was a
mixture of cow and buffalo milk
Unfortunately most labs in India do not have the equipment to test. They can
simply say that the ghee is adulterated. Why is ghee being adulterated?
Firstly, because there is no milk. India prides itself on being the world?s
largest producer of leather so all the cows are being killed off rapidly to
service the hundreds of leather units in Chennai, Kanpur and Kolkata ? which
kill lakhs of cows and calves. Recent raids have found that only 30% of the
“milk” we drink, is milk. The rest is a mixture of soap, urea, earthworm
fat, oil and whiteners. So if there is no milk, how does one get the ghee?
450,000 tonnes of ghee are supposedly made every year, 80% of which is eaten
and the rest offered to the gods in rituals that include marriage and death.
This is an impossible figure ? the actual ghee would be less than a quarter.
The second reason is that milk products like ghee only have a 5% profit
margin so the only way to be profitable is to use animal fat.
If you insist on ghee make your own. Boil milk. Keep taking the cream off.
When the cream is cold, take a wooden stick and churn it. The water
separates and the rest becomes unsalted butter. Melt the butter over low
heat gradually in a heavy-bottomed pot. Do not stir. Cook until it is a
clear golden liquid. It may bubble and foam may form on top which you?ll
need to skim off and discard. Remove from heat while the liquid is a clear
gold. Any darker and it?s overcooked. Take a large sieve and line it with 4
sheets of cheesecloth or muslin. Place it over a clean dry pot. While still
hot, carefully strain the ghee through the cheesecloth-lined sieve into the
pot. Transfer the strained ghee carefully into a clean glass jar and shut
tightly. Ghee at room temperature looks semi-solid. Ghee can be stored for
extended periods without refrigeration, provided it is kept in an airtight
container to prevent oxidation. Always use a clean utensil to scoop out
ghee. # – Prahladananda Swami – 22/7/09; 7:04:38 PM

Prahladananda Maharaja’s Vyasa Puja Celebration

On Monday Prahladananda Maharaja’s disciples and well wishers celebrated Vyasa Puja in his honour.
PrahladanandaVP.jpg

Maharaja’s disciples: Sarva Mangala, Tim, and other aspirants glorified Maharaja’s ability to share Krishna consciousness with others and to inspire them to apply bhakti yoga in their lives.
Acintya Rupa, Prabhu, Sita-Rama-Laksmana, and Gopa Vrndesh shared their devotional insights into Maharaja’s sustained and exemplary service to Srila Prabhupada’s preaching mission.
You can see a slide show here.