Burgeoning Indian Organic Dairy Industry is Doing More Harm Than Good

In the dairy obsessed India, dairy industry is growing like anything. A study from Research and Markets pegged it at Rs. 5 lakh crore in 2016 i.e. an astonishing Rs. 50,00,00,00,000 or 50 billion rupees! And this is only for 160 million tonnes. In the coming years, it is expected to grow to 250 million tonnes.

Various government reports and surveys in recent years have revealed that about 66% to 85% of milk (depending upon the report you are referring to) in Indian market is being sold adulterated. Consuming milk has also been reported to be unhealthy and that it increases the risk of several dangerous lifestyle diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiac diseases, osteoporosis etc. Exploitation of innocent dairy animals is another reason to quit dairy. But in spite of all these, India has become the world's largest producer and consumer of dairy since 1997.

No doubt, new age entrepreneurs are looking at this industry as a great business opportunity. They are taking advantage of all these negative news being served to consumers and presenting their business in a way that apparently make it immune to all these problems and promises consumers to serve them a spotless, pure, real and that fabled holy amrit.

These new businesses have branded themselves with adorable names like Good Cow Company, Shudh Farms, Akshayakalpa, Ksheerdham, Satvik, Pride of Cows etc. to make themselves appear innocent.

These dairies project themselves as organic, having freely roaming grass-fed cows, with daisy cow breeds, having healthy A-2 milk, environmental friendly practices etc. marketing gimmicks.

A Bangalore based start up called Happy Cow is offering a farm-to-table model where consumers can track the entire journey of milk. It also offers its milk in environment-friendly packaging of glass bottles and clay pots to remind consumers of the good old days. Their product is available in well-known online stores like Big Basket Daily (BB Daily), Amazon.in, and Doodhwala along with popular nature friendly stores like Nature’s Basket, Food Hall, and Happy Healthy Me All these appeals to caring and concerned Indian dairy consumers.

No doubt these companies are doing a brisk business.

A couple of months back, when some of my friends objected to one such company, it uploaded an exclusive page to answer selective doubts raised by animal rights activists. It also promised to open its farms to anyone to visit and check their claims soon. However I haven't heard anything from it till today.

My friends have asked me to explain our stance to that farm. But as a principle, I normally don't put my time to convince a dairy business. I believe it's the consumers who need to be aware. These people are able to do business because customers want their products.

Even if what these farms claim is true, they can never entirely eliminate the practices of animal abuse, cruelty and violence.But unfortunately, most of the customers are not aware of the consequences of the dairy industry.

Here, I'm not elaborating on what harm these businesses are doing. But I'd like to know if you know the answer. Can you guess, why these new form of least cruel animal based businesses are not doing any good?