- Terrified of his food, filmmaker Anand Ramayya (Cosmic Current) embarks on a journey that reveals shocking connections between the Mad Cow crisis, Farm crisis and Global Food crisis. Ramayya realizes that the cow is not only his favourite meal but also the God of his Hindu ancestors and the livelihood of his Canadian in-laws, who are small farmers. With a sense of humor and curiosity, Ramayya embarks on a journey to learn more about the modern Mad Cow and ancient Sacred Cow in hopes that their stories will reveal a solution to his fear of food. The journey takes him from his in-laws' family farm all the way back to India, land of the Sacred Cow. Ironically, modern India is also home to a burgeoning meat export industry that threatens to destroy an agricultural economy centered around the Sacred Cow and critical to the livelihood of 65% of India's population. Globalization emerges as a re-occurring character in this journey, revealing a world gone mad, an ecological crisis, religious fundamentalism, a farmer suicide epidemic and record breaking economic growth contrasted by staggering disparity. Is the way we eat connected to all this? Mad Cow Sacred Cow is a universal story that connects the food we eat to the environmental, cultural, economic and health crises we are currently facing on a global level.—A.Ramayya
- Anand Ramayya is caught between two worlds as a Canadian born Hindu. On the one hand, the cow is a sacred animal to his cultural ancestors. On the other hand, he was brought up eating beef - which is his favorite food - and he has married into a family of cattle farmers, whose livelihood depends on that continued want of beef consumption. Upon the birth of his first offspring Owen Ramayya and his want for Owen to have a safe supply of food, Anand views critically the state of the cow in society, most specifically the disconnect that seems to be happening between the traditional role that cow used to play in different parts of the world, and the current global crisis in the safety of food, beef most specifically with regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease. In Canada, Anand talks to cattle farmers - including his in-laws - and research scientists to see what has changed in farming and processing practices over the past half century that has led to mad cow and other issues with safety in consuming and processing beef. In India, he speaks to people involved with the role of cow in Hindu society. There seems to be global pressures for India to get into the beef export business with the economic benefits to the few at the greater societal cost. Although the discussion about what is happening in Canada and India are different, the path to which they are leading and the source of the problem seems to be the same.—Huggo
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