Fuel for Cooking

Cow Dung Fuel

In India, one of the alternate fuel sources used for cooking is simple dried cow dung. With the abundance of cows in India, there should be no problem finding enough cow dung to dry. This photo, taken during one of my trips to India, particularly in the Vrindavan/Mathura area, where Lord Krishna was born, shows a pile of cow dung being dried just outside a typical middle class home. Apparently, this practice enjoys widespread adoption not only in lower income households.

As for spiritual uses, dried cow dung is also used by Hindus to purge their homes of “unclean” things, used for example, to clean homes and cooking implements. The Vaishnavas believe in the purifying properties of cow dung, tracing them back to ancient vedic texts.

In the Philippines, I have not come across households using cow dung as fuel for cooking yet, but I am pretty sure that if this practice is taught here, it would lead to more cost savings for our countrymen. Another practice we can borrow from our Indian brothers to help decrease our dependence on fossil fuels.

In fact, there are other practices, albeit more complicated to implement, that are also less dependent on fossil fuels that we can use. One of them is the use of “Ipa” or rice husks as fuel. In fact, most by-products of farming may be used as cooking fuel. I was told, however, that since Ipa is commonly discarded, this is the best use for them. Better than charcoal, I would think, since no trees need to be cut to make fuel. Raw, dried tree trimmings can be used as fuel, though.

Another option is to use a bio-digester that harvests methane gas from decomposing matter. The best and most common source is farm animal dung, although you will require the discharges from at least 10 hogs to be able to meet a typical family’s cooking needs. Since I do not exactly agree with commercial farming, I still prefer the Ipa, tree trimmings or Cow Dung options. Cows may be kept for land cultivation, for milk, or even as a pet.

Interestingly though, potent multivitamins can be extraced from Ipa and burning tree trimmings cause some air pollution.

For the environmentally conscious, funny as it may seem, cow dung may be your best choice as cooking fuel.