Big Milk has taken over American schools
Big Milk has taken over American schools
How centuries of milk marketing warped the way we think about dairy and nutrition.
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Milk doesn’t have to be inhumane. We’ve just traded local small farms that cared for their animals and delivered locally with corporate conglomerates who want to maximize profit at the expense of their herd.
I used to think this too, but I learned that milk-producing cows are artificially inseminated every year to keep them producing milk. They only live 4-6 years because of the immense strain this puts on their bodies, after which they're eaten. Cows naturally live 15-20 years. Even the process of getting them pregnant involves shoving your whole arm up their rectum--it's really horrible to watch.
All dairy farms are inhumane. Some are worse than others. No cow gets a normal, full life.
Each time the doctor visits, they get the (w)hole treatment. It's just the best way to reach and feel all the essential organs.
getting them pregnant involves shoving your whole arm up their rectum
Someone needs the birds and bees talk
That's 2-3x longer than cows raised for meat from what I understand. That may sound inhumane either way depending on your perspective, but doesn't mean that they're treated poorly while alive.
In the end they are still killed when its not worth the time of the farmers. You're either killed for meat, or killed when you're done making milk.
It might be more humane, but the better option is "Don't breed animals just to kill them in a few years." It's better but the solution for ending the pain is preventing it ever happening in the first place.
No life is without pain. We may have fundamental differences in how we view inhumanity, and while I'm sure neither of us want anything to suffer, it's the end of life that we may disagree. Death doesn't have to be inhumane or painful though.
I agree no life is without pain, it's why I think breeding just to have milk or meat is immoral and unethical. I don't want an industrial scale level pain factory that increases global warming because I want a steak or a glass of milk.
A life is not born just to die as a song is not begun just to end, the life itself is the beauty of nature. I don't think a humane way of killing someone or something justifies a life trapped in a machine to be slaughtered when ripe.
I want to make it clear I eat animal products, due to my family wanting it more than I do. I had a meatloaf today of ground beef, I don't claim to be a moral high ground when I clearly am not.
But I don't think that even if the death is humane, the purpose of life is not be a product to be sold, for humans, cattle, pigs, dogs, cats, horses, fish, bears, etc. I would object if humans were in the same placement.
If you just let a cow do what it does all day it'd be the same.life as in most dairy farms. Graze chew cud get milked.
Dude if you have cows you're breeding them every year anyway to increase your herd.
Cows are big and fucking dumb go visit a dairy or beef farm some time. My buddy had a cow die from eating a bag of garbage on the side of the road.
They are not smart.
You are missing the point: breeding cows, whatever the purpose, is cruel.
Our breeding and use of cows doesn't give them any pressure to be smart. So their level of stupidity is at least partially the fault of humans.
Pretty sure humans didn't just decide that all herd grazing animals on earth should be dumb as rocks. We are powerful but we don't have the ability to time travel.
Yes, that's true, but all I'm saying is that animal husbandry changes what traits are selected for and intelligence isn't one of them that we're selecting for.
Hindus and Jainists probably are the only groups I can think of that have figured out the economics of murder-free dairy.
Leather and Footwear Industry in India: Invest India
The Leather industry in India accounts for around 13% of the world’s leather production of hides/skins and handles a robust annual production of about 3 Bn sq. ft. of leather.
The industry is known for its consistency in high export earnings and it is among the top ten foreign exchange earners for the country.
India has an abundance of raw materials with access to 21% of world’s cattle and buffalo and 11% of the world’s goat and sheep population.India Emerges as Second Largest Beef Exporter in the World
Look up "spółdzielnie mleczarskie" in Poland. https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spółdzielnia_mleczarska
Milk cooperative? Is this how it translates?
Sorry for not translating the whole Wikipedia article, but TLDR this is how high quality dairy is produced in Poland, where everyone from smallest to larger farms can cooperate and coexist.
30 years ago there was even this now non-existent elaborate network of milk collection and delivery (we have shops now :p) - every morning there was a transport organized through every small or large village where everyone farmer even with only one cow could sell the milk. As the number of such farmers went rapidly down this has stopped being done.
Of course you can still find big corp dairy products in the stores (Nestle? Danone?) but they have a hard time competing and I am not sure but they still might buy their supplies from polish cooperatives.