The Hindu reverence for cow is not shared by other people in world. It is even difficult to enforce laws that prevent cow slaughter in Bharat, let alone convincing that they should not kill cow for meat.
Hindus are reasonable people. They do not expect rest of humanity to worship or revere cow. All they hope, wish and pray for is some compassion from rest of humanity towards the Cow.
But the effort till date has been a losing one. All sensible reasons offered by Hindus for cow protection have fallen on deaf ears, even in Bharat, let alone the entire humanity.
Fortunately however, some sense is dawning on humanity. And this time the people who are arguing for some compassion towards cow, are not just Hindus, but Climate Scientists and the Scientific Community.
Studies show that Beef creates 5 times more carbon emissions than say chicken, pork, lamb or other forms of meat. And climate change is important for everybody to wake up to. It cannot be ignored and it is not a religious injunction, that people of other religions are free to ignore.
All of us – Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Buddhist share this planet and its climate. It is incumbent on us to make the best possible efforts to keep the climate healthy. And if there is scientific study that shows that beef contributes to 5 times Green House Gases than other forms of meat, it is reasonable to request Christians, Muslims and people of other religions to abstain from beef.
The finding in National Academy of Sciences recent paper published in June 2014, unambiguously finds Beef to be clear culprit in inflicting maximum damage on environment, at times when precarious climate conditions are making humanity’s existence unsustainable.
Beef production not only causes five times Green House Gas emission, but also requires, 28 times more land, 11 times more irrigation and 6 times more water. All in all it makes for bad economics and bad health choice. Indeed beef consumption threatens human existence on the planet earth.
In view of this the case against Beef, has strong scientific backing. It is not more a religious request from Hindus. Indeed Hindus have always had tolerance to people of other religious faith and their dietary habits. However, Hindus have found it difficult to not request a little bit more compassion, if not reverence towards cow.
Hindus do not seek to impose their religious ideas on others. ‘Ekam Sat, Vipram Bahuda Vadanti,” has been Hindu motto from age immemorial. Indeed Hindus would not even have enacted laws to prevent cow slaughter in Bharat, if other religionists would have been reasonable.
But now, the strongest argument against beef does not come from Hindu quarter but from the scientific community. It is at least now incumbent on people of other religions to pay heed to a wise request from Hindus. Let us all Hindus, Muslims, Christians, make sustainable life style choice by avoiding eating beef and thus saving our planet for our children and grand children.
World Hindu Economic Forum 