“I would like to offer America the best of ancient India — ethical milk, Vedic education and wellness.” Sahana Singh Follow Jan 14 · 10 min read

If Abhinav Goswami has his way, America will soon experience the amazing gifts of ancient India — extraordinary health, ethical A2 dairy products, Vedic education and more.

“I had achieved what many would regard as the ultimate dream — a job as a data scientist in Apple,” recounts Abhinav Goswami. “My kids were going to top-rated schools and we were living in one of the most beautiful homes of San Ramon, California.” But destiny was calling. One day in 2017, when Abhinav sat in his 8'X8' cubicle after a two-hour commute which he would need to retrace when he went back home in the evening, he suddenly realized with a jolt that this was not the dream he had dreamed. “We were drinking milk that came from genetically-modified, obese cows that were not allowed to graze freely; we were worried about the linkages between dairy products and cancer; we were anxious about all the harmful pesticides and fertilizers in our food; there was no connection between us and the communities around us or with nature; this was not the world I wanted to live in!”

He wondered why the modern education system was turning out hordes of youngsters who felt no bond with nature and only focussed on material desires. His whole life flashed before him; his family name Goswami (meaning both “protector of cows” and “one who had conquered the senses”) beckoned to him with a deep significance. In ancient India, indigenous cows were the centre of the economy; they were wealth; and in fact, they even played an important part in maintaining the educational system. Their milk was used to make delicious curds, butter, buttermilk, ghee and other dairy products which kept the population nourished and happy. For students, it was extra important to have enough quantities of milk and curds. Cow dung was used as fuel, fertilizer, plastering material (which kept houses cool in summer and warm in winter), anti-bacterial cleaner and more. The cow’s urine was used in myriad health-giving Ayurvedic products. In addition to all the material gifts they bestow, cows also have a deeply spiritual presence, which has been acknowledged by many. The deep bonds between cows and their owner’s families was a given.

Over the years, India has been steadily losing its indigenous breeds such as Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Gir, Red Sindhi and Rathi to mindless cross-breeding with European breeds. Native Indian breeds with their unique genetics are hardy because they have evolved over thousands of years. However, the crossbreeds are not only less adapted to Indian climatic conditions, but their milk is also being linked to many diseases. Many people today are waking up to the benefits of drinking A2 milk which is produced by native Indian cows rather than A1 milk produced by European breeds. The National Dairy Research Institute in India published a peer-reviewed study in 2013 which set alarm bells ringing. The researchers found that the consumption of milk containing A1 beta-casein produced far more inflammatory compounds in the gut (linked to heart disease, eczema, and asthma) than A2 beta-casein. This was corroborated by more studies in other parts of the world. In fact, in Australia A2 milk is available in almost every grocery supermarket.

Abhinav decided to take the big leap from America to India. His wife Pratibha completely supported him. His son initially wept at the prospect of moving, but later agreed to give it a try. His daughter agreed readily. In March 2017, Abhinav sold his house and all his possessions in the US at a pittance. After 11 years in the US, he was going to start life all over again in the village of Khair near Aligarh where he had grown up. People thought he had gone crazy.

People thought Abhinav had gone crazy

For the next three years, Abhinav worked like a maniac on a mission with his family members including his younger brother Jagdeesh. His aim was to prove that indigenous Indian cows could be the centre of the economy again and that they could be the starting point for a holistic education system. He formed an organization called Vedic Tree. He bought a large piece of land in Khair, bought eight cows and began tending to them in the gaushala he had created. He purchased machines to package the milk; he invested in a biodigestor to convert the cow dung into biomethane, bioelectricity, bioslurry and biofertilizer.

Pratibha Goswami, Abhinav’s wife recalls that the first year of the move was the toughest. “My children’s bodies were covered with mosquito bites,” she says. She wondered if they did the right thing by snatching them from a comfortable life in America. “Then one day, I looked out of my bedroom and saw a peacock dancing in its full glory,” she says with a laugh.

The day would start at the crack of dawn with ablutions and chanting of shlokas followed by plunging into hard, relentless labour. The children went to local schools but spent all the rest of their time playing with calves, watching birds and marvelling at the mysteries of nature.

Bit by bit, Abhinav advanced to close the loop. The output from biodigestor in the form of slurry was used as feed for earthworms in order to produce vermicompost, a very healthy form of organic fertilizer. Vegetables, pulses and grains could easily be grown on soil fertilized by vermicompost and a part of this was used as fodder for cows. The healthy organic milk became a hit with the surrounding towns and would be sold out in no time. A side business of bee-keeping began to grow and cruelty-free raw honey became one of the suite of products alongside the dairy products (ghee, butter, curds, cheese), organic vegetable products, biofertilizers and biopesticides. It was as if the earth was yielding its choicest gifts.

The challenges came in strong and thick. Many people who were earlier eyeing the land that Abhinav had bought began to create obstacles in his path. Local milk suppliers resented the outsider who was threatening their business model. Jealousy reared its ugly head. Many locals assumed that Abhinav was stealing electricity off the grid when they found his grounds well-illuminated with 400 lights at night. They even filed a complaint but when the police arrived, they found that all the electricity came from biogas generated within the farmland itself. The villagers often refused to help out in Abhinav’s farm and showed their displeasure at various public places.