Going Green with Tai Chi - Dairy Farmers Practice Tai Chi for Organic Cows to Raise Milk Yields
 
April 1, 2008 - April 22nd is Earth Day, an annual world-wide event to promote environment awareness. With “going green” becoming such a hot topic nowadays, have you ever wondered how Tai Chi may play a role in this trend?
 
Well, coincidently, this month, a 44-year old British diary farmer, Rob Taverner, caught the attention of many media in the U.K. and around the world – every morning, he performs Tai Chi in front of his 100 organic cows to get them in the right mood to produce lots of milk.
 
While most media got attracted by the fun part of this story, there is more significance in it – like Rob Taverner, many organic diary farmers in Britain have taken up Tai Chi as one of the natural means to increase the productitvity of their cows.
 
Some studies have shown organic milk production to be a relatively low user of energy. The organic system encourages healthy and natural methods, such as using healthy soil, replacing essential nutrients like nitrates without the use of synthetic nutrients. For those British diary farmers, Tai Chi is one such healthy way that, as The Federation of Organic Milk Groups of (FOMG) puts it, “can bring an additional spiritual uplift to their herds, fields and farmyards”.
 
FOMG is made up of organic dairy farmers from across Britain to promote organic milk. They enlisted the services of a Tai Chi Master to help teach their farmers a series of seven special Tai Chi moves. They believe that if the farmer is at peace with himself, then it is positive vibes for the cows, then the cows will be more content and more productive.
 
Watch the Video Clips of the Tai Chi Moves Named After Farmyard Actions
To help their farmers to learn these customized Tai Chi moves, FOMG named the moves after farmyard actions and video-recorded the demonstrations by volunteers on the real-life organic diary farmlands. You can watch these interesting video clips on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0uDEHu5rk8