Prahladananda Swami

Hare Krishna!
All Glories to Radha Shyamsundar.
All Glories to Krishna Balaram.
All Glories to Gaur Nitai
All glories to Sri Sri Panchatattva                 3rd August 2007
Respectful  Prabhuji ,
Please accept my most humble obeisance at  your lotus feet.
All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga; All glories to Srila Pabhupada.
This has reference to the  sample of one tin of unopened ghee sent  to us
at Bangalore to testing for adulteration with animal fat.
There had been some reports of adulteration of popular brands of ghee with
animal fat in the news network. In this connection my wife Devaki Madhavi
Devi Dasi  at Vrindavan  had requested me to test the sample of one popular
ghee used by the temple kitchen and the same sample was sent to us, last
week through Archak Prabhu , who as kind enough to deliver the same to us.
The sample has been of Dynamix Cow Ghee, M/s.Schreider Dynamix Dairies Ltd,
Pune.
We have got the sample tested and it has proved positive , that is it
contains animal fat beyond any doubt, as per the said testing house.
We give below the following observations and information gathered for your
kind reference in relation to ghee etc in India.
1.We contacted several testing lab with this request and finally zeroed on
one testing house M/s.Anatech Laboratory and research center. This decision
was based on the fact that whereas most others had outdated testing
facility which could only  tell of adulteration with other fats and were
not  able to specifically and categorically state that animal fat has ben
mixed.
2.We have been told that the  test is based on the Fancier-Transbraned
Infra -red spectrum Replication test.  and is an accurate test.
3.Our sample: Even the physical observation of the sample shows very
clearly that there is adulteration. There is no homogeneity. Any ghee would
be uniformly homogenous, and not half semi-solid and the other bottom half
fully caked hard.
This most likely contains about 15% animal fat . The quantitative analysis
can be done but this needs further testing and higher cost.
4. Incidentally the said labarotary tests several milk and milks products
for private and government agencies. In his experience they have tested
several products and national brands.
Their observation is as follows:
i.Of all the brand in India Amul is the best brand for ghee and butter and
all milks products.
ii.Even Nestle is adulterated with about 5% vegetable oil fats.
iii.Most ghee is a mixture of Cows and Buffolo milk in the branded segment.
iv.Nilgiris of Bangalore which is famous for its ‘pure’ Cows ghee brand as
per this laboratory was initially pure cows ghee but now is mixed with
buffolo milk.  However Nilgiris and Nandidni of Bangalore does not have any
adulteration with vegetable oil fat.
v.The ghee constituents of leading brands contains 65% cows milk and the
rest buffalo milk.
5.Incidentally it is possible to test if a given sample  of milk contains
pure cows milk . There is a particular harmone which is contained only in
cows milk and this can be detected by a sophisticated  test , with a
certain accuracy.
Remarks:As most milk products like ghee has only about 5% margin as Amul
maintains a strict price factor which the other competitor find hard to
beat. Hence  their way to profitability is adulteration with vegetable oil
and for larger profits they adulterate with animal fat.
The remark of the testing house with  his large experience is that if one
needs to  have pure Cow’s Ghee the only way is to make  inhouse as even the
best brand like Amul though pure milk contains buffalo milk.
For your kind information and reference.
We hope the above is in order.
Your  humble servant,
Hari Purushotam Das
(Hari Babu. K.)
Our E Mail Address: supriyae@vsnl.com
haribabu@vsnl.com # – Prahladananda Swami – 4/8/07; 2

by HG Kripamoya prabhu
Srila Prabhupada consistently stressed how important it is to
understand the gifts of nature and of God’s plan for humans – who
would think that cow-dung is an important part of it all?
Today I learned of how a small amount of traditional guidance saved
the lives of many children in Africa. It was a fascinating story told
to me by a visiting old friend and I thought I’d share it with you.
Vidura das, an Irish devotee of Krishna, lived in Kisumu, Kenya for
many years. He and his African wife Esther set up a large-scale food
distribution programme for needy people. And in northern Kenya there
were plenty of needy people. What concerned him most was that there
were many children who died young. “We discovered that the very area
where we were living had the highest infant mortality rate in the
world,” he explained.
To distribute food as a religious act, and yet to watch parents grieve
over their dead children was an intolerable situation for a
compassionate devotee like Vidura, so he started to ask questions
around the area. Dirty drinking water was the obvious culprit, but
when he enquired of the mothers why they did not boil the water they
replied that they did not have the money to buy charcoal, the commonly
used fuel.
Remembering that the guru of the Hare Krishna movement had always
praised the cow for providing, amongst many other gifts, the
sustainable fuel of dung, he explained to the women that Indians have
for centuries mixed dung with straw and dried it to create an
everlasting supply of good quality fuel. But the local Africans needed
to be encouraged to refrain from slaughtering their cows if they were
going to create a sustainable fuel source. They also had to overcome
the prejudice – given to their tribe decades ago by Christian
missionaries – that dung was dirty and never to be touched.
After some period of encouragement, mainly to women who already
trusted him as ‘Father Vidura,’ some families complied followed by
many more. “Eventually health workers were coming up from Nairobi to
see why children in our area were living longer than children
throughout Kenya,” Vidura said. The project was an overwhelming
success, and received endorsement by the tribal patriarchs, who, as
children, remembered their mothers talking of cow-dung as fuel in
their village but who had switched to the more expensive wood after
the missionaries had persuaded them to change. It was only a small
change to revert back to a more traditional fuel – and dung has to be
the cheapest and most abundant thing in the world – but it made a
world of difference.
Vidura went on to introduce the spinning wheel and the loom, and is
now in dialogue with President Musoveni of Uganda to introduce hemp as
a major crop for the villagers who live around Lake Victoria.
# – Prahladananda Swami – 22/7/07