Domestic Cows on the Road in
India

Surrounded by family I begin a new month, August. Family is around because my oldest grandson is showing cows in the Wisconsin State Fair. Tomorrow the cow will be judged and Saturday his showmanship with the cow will be judged. Thus begins the new month. It ends with all three of my grandchildren showing cows at the Shawano County Fair at the end of the month. Living across the road from a family dairy farm and being in a 4-H club leads to showing cows at county and state fairs.

My personal interest in cows goes through India, home of the ‘wild cows’ that can roam free wherever they want and the domestic cows on farms. In India the main product produced by cows, at least with Hindu’s and followers of Gandhi, is not milk or other dairy products but cow manure or poop. Manure is used primarily as fertilizer, and after worms eat it, it becomes an even better organic fertilizer; manure is also used at times to produce methane gas as fuel for generators and of course, for milk and yogurt. Cow poop and manure has many other uses, like for medicine, tiles or applying to concrete floors. Gandhi wrote a lot about ‘Mother Cow’, a sacred animal because it enriches life in so many ways.

Speaking of cow poop our friend who is living with us temporarily did sifting of compost soil from the worm box to produce castings, worm poop or some would say ‘black gold.’ It is one of the riches natural, organic fertilizers in the world. When put in a ‘paint bag’ in a bucket or rain barrel it produced something call ‘tea’, a healthy water fertilizer for plants.

Darwin was fascinated with worms who every seven years renew the soil of the earth. Worms are from the age of dinosaurs but survive not because they are the fittest but because of their adaptability. Our Milwaukee museum is now featuring a special exhibit called the “Scoop on Poop” which shows the many ways poop is part of human life and evolution.

From the nature of cows, worms and of nonviolence we have the Diary of the Worm and www.nonviolentcow.org the name of this web page. Cows, worms and nonviolence have in common the fact they can turn waste into powerful items. The power of cows, lowly worms and nonviolence can outlast any form of violent power and thrive in the right environment. Maybe to turn Marquette University from a school teaching war and killing to a university teaching nonviolence and peace we need to have some cows on campus and use their manure to feed to worms to produce castings to grow peaceful gardens of flowers and plants around campus.

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