Krish Ashok (@_masalalab) made a video in 2022 about how there is very little difference between the milk of native cows and non-native cows. TLDW : there is no scientific proof that A1 beta casein, the protein found in the milk of cows cross bred between indigenous and exotic breeds, has any adverse impact on health. A2 beta casein is the protein found in milk of indigenous cow breeds and also exotic breeds, but to a much lesser extent. The conclusion that Krish wants viewers to arrive at is : Both cross bred (A1) and native cows (A2) milk are as good as same and it doesn’t matter what choice we make.
I do agree with the content of the video because that seems to be the scientific consensus for now, but I don’t agree with the conclusion. While the health benefits of A2 milk by many sellers are exaggerated and A1 milk is unnecesaarily demonized, it would be a stretch to say that there is zero difference. The problem with the short format of such content is that it fails to provide the complete perspective of a problem or situation. Your choice between A1 and A2 milk does make a difference.
Let me start of on a tangent and i will return to the crux of the matter soon.
While the intentions of Verghese Kurien were noble, I am sure he didn’t quite imagine the long term consequential effects of his decisions. The crossing of bos taurus viz. Exotic breeds with bos indicus viz. Indigenous Indian breeds leapfrogged India to be the world leader in milk production. But it has come at a huge cost to the future sustenance of agricultural systems. From a mixed crop+ livestock and pastoral system of raising cattle, we have been slowly transitioning to a industrial large-scale livestock system. This is because the higher milk yielding bos taurus genes yield even higher profits because of economies of scale. Larger herds can be managed with lower cost per head because feed can be grown / procured in larger quantities.
But in today’s economic system, a lot of the costs are hidden costs. The environmental cost and social costs are simply not factored in a neo-liberal economic system. To maintain large herds at low cost, it is simply more convenient for large livestock owners to buy or grow feed which are a mix of grains such as rice, corn, millets, and crop waste from pulse milling etc. Most of the ingredients are resource intensive to grow esp. Rice. At least in the surrounding areas of my farm in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, even small holding livestock farmers feed rice from PDS to cows to boost milk production. This puts tremendous pressure on sources such as groundwater, energy, land and sinks such as air and soil – this is because cultivation of human food crops is industrially intensive and very damaging.
The damage caused by industrial agriculture being reflected in groundwater levels depleting across the country, soil health depletion, climate change and biodiversity collapse. While these impacts are not directly felt by most people, they are going to be felt by future generations because of exponential growing exploitation the conventional agricultural systems are causing. Climate change is no longer a fringe issue; it is a situation that we have dragged ourselves into because of choices we have made as a global civilization and policies that we have framed post colonization and during neo-colonization.
The Global North doesn’t want to and suddenly can’t change its diets to less meat-based and more plant-based one. But it is okay with somehow having changed the diets of cows from grass to grains within a period of just one century.
Operation Flood has been a genetic bottleneck event for bos indicus. Because most breeds of bos indicus have not been able to compete with bos taurus w.r.t. milk productivity, slowly but surely, farmers, large and small have resorted to artificial insemination by semen of a few highly productive bulls imported from Europe and US. Bos indicus is more tolerant to heat, drought, local diseases because it has evolved in tropical conditions. But bos taurus produces signiticantly higher milk than most Bos indicus breeds. Instead of framing policies to select for more breeds of bos indicus, almost all five year plans other than first couple chose to give impetus to cross breeding rather than local gene pool improvement. After the economic liberalization in 1991, there wasn’t any looking back.
While more exotic genes have been introduced to the Indian population, the native gene pool has been reducing because of short-term profit-maximizing selection pressures. With extreme weather events slated to continue to increase in frequency, we will be needing more indigenous genes in our cattle population than exotic ones, because desi cows will be able to battle the higher temperatures and sporadic monsoons more than the exotic ones.
The actual crux of the A1 vs A2 debate is not whether one is less or more harmful than the other or it isn’t about nationalism or patriotism either. The crux of the matter is how do we create a better future for future generations given the situation of multiple environmental problems we find ourselves in the midst of. The path ahead is to create breeding programmes to improve more productive native breeds and make it popular amongst farmers & consumers alike. It isn’t an easy path of course – several economic, cultural, nutritional, social aspects need to be considered by policy makers and other stakeholders.
Having said all of this, we all need to reduce the amount of dairy products in our diet. Our bodies do not need such amounts of saturated fats. Lower consumption of ghee, paneer, cheese is the answer more than transitioning to any particular kind of milk.
For someone who is an advocate of the scientific method, it is unfortunate that Krish Ashok seems to be quite selective while forming his opinion on important choices about diet.
To Krish, I want to say this : it is easy to answer such question in binaries. A debate like this needs more nuance than the attention seeking Instagram reels format can deliver. If you are reading this, please do consider giving voice to the matters mentioned in the post. They might not be ‘masala’daar or can’t be analyzed in a ‘lab’; but, they will help the Indian farming community which needs more support than reductionist framing of issues.
Regards
Sudhakar
P.S. This was actually the first of three posts i have made as a response to Krish Ashok’s reels. I have no vendetta against Krish Ashok. I have a lot of respect for Masala Lab and most of myths he tries to bust. But in case of intersections between food and agriculture, his content is woefully short on perspective.
This is the reel i am responding to in this post
The quality of A2 cow ghee is clearly visible in its golden color, smooth texture, and authentic flavor that enhances both simple and festive meals
This is an incredible story.!!☺️
Good analysis of how the milk industry affects the farmers and ultimately the environment however your criticism of Krish Ashok is tangential for the lack of a better word. While we should definitely be focusing on a solution that supports the farmers and environment better, the reel or his argument is just on the outright nutritional benefit of A1 vs A2 as marketed by A2 milk sellers and nothing else. Because of the format, it was restricted to only this narrow perspective. In case you reach out to him, I am sure he will consider creating a long form video which covers the perspective you have covered.