What -- No Cheese???
OR -
For a number of years after I became a vegetarian I thought of vegans as being over the top and excessive. Taking her milk didn’t kill the cow, right? Eating eggs doesn't kill a chicken, does it? But I became intrigued with the notion of letting my head decide what I eat, rather than my taste buds, and when I learned that a good friend was vegan, I decided to give it a try. Just to see what would happen; if it turned out to be too hard, I could always stop.
Milk was easy; I never liked it, even as a kid. Neither was I crazy about eggs. But cheese – now that was a different matter. French brie, Greek feta, Italian gorgonzola, Swiss cheese, Dutch edam – a life without seemed impossible, but I meant to explore this craziness nevertheless.
What happened next was surprising. Within a few days without cheese I felt much lighter (not that I had lost any weight) and my energy level had gone up significantly. I felt as if some rubbery, sluggish substance had been coursing through my body before, and now it was gone. I didn’t WANT to eat any cheese because I didn’t want to lose this energetic feeling. This was over 20 years ago, and I don’t experience this any more – it became the new normal. However, another no-cheese-no-dairy effect has stayed on, and I would not want to miss it: my body was and remains to be free of mucus. No more stuffed-up sinuses, no more snotty nose. When I have a cold, my nose drips, like a water faucet. Really.
It was only AFTER I became vegan that I learned what enormous suffering and misery goes along with the dairy industry. Cows don’t just give milk for years and years but need to be artificially inseminated so they can give birth to a calf for whom the milk is intended. Just like with all other mammals, including humans: no baby, no milk. But the cow's milk intended for her calf is earmarked for human consumption, which means that the young calf is taken away from its mother. Right after birth. The poor cow’s feelings, instincts, hormones etc. all tell her that she must nurture her new baby which she loves just like all mothers love their newborn. But there is no baby. She can’t find it because it is gone. And what happened to the calf? It gets fed and fattened in a terribly cruel manner, with no space to move, so that the meat stays as white as possible. And a few months later it gets killed.
The mother cow remains a milk producing machine until her milk production begins to decline, usually when she is 4 to 5 years old. And then she will be slaughtered. Under natural conditions a cow can become 20 to 25 years old.
As long as they produce milk (up to 12 times as much as they naturally would to feed their calf, due to extensive biological manipulation; they’re being given growth hormones for example), over 90% of US dairy cows are kept indoors, on cement floors, often tethered by the neck to barren stalls. Because they have to live under such crammed, unsanitary conditions they have to suffer from a number of diseases. Mastitis, a bacterial infection of their udders, is caused by being constantly milked. Other diseases such as Bovine Leukemia Virus, Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus, and Johne’s disease, are also rampant in U.S. dairy cow herds. And then there is “milk fever”, caused by calcium deficiency. These debilitating illnesses often go unnoticed because there are just too many animals on one industrial dairy farm to be seen individually by a vet. 49% of all cows in the US live on farms of 1000 or more cows.
I leave the many other disturbing facts about the cruel dairy industry for another article. But as far as my conversion from vegetarian to vegan goes, no desire for ice cream, the most delicious cheeses, or any other tasty dairy product could EVER outweigh the knowledge of such enormous suffering.
Maybe you now think of a small family farm which produces organic and free-range foods. You only buy organic milk, you say. Surely one would find happy cows there? Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but milk that’s labeled organic doesn’t mean it’s cruelty-free. Organic dairy accounts for 2.3% of U.S. milk production, 3.6% of U.S. milk cows, and 9.1% of U.S. dairy farms.1 According to USDA Guidelines for Organic Certification of Dairy Livestock animals must receive 100% organic feed, and they may not be given antibiotics and/or hormones. They have to graze on organic pasture for at least 120 days/year. Sounds acceptable, right? However, large corporations are squeezing small family-operated farms off the land. And the large corporations often don’t comply with the USDA guidelines which means that the cows are kept in crowded sheds and DON’T have access to outside space and green meadows. 2
Besides that, the same cruel practices apply: cows are constantly kept pregnant, so they can give milk, and more often than not by artificial insemination which is a painful procedure the cow has to endure. When they give birth, their babies are immediately taken away. Animal agriculture has some puzzling arguments to justify this, for example they claim that mother cows prefer to be with their herd mates, soon forget about their babies, and would sit or step on them and could possibly kill them.3 My own observations have not confirmed that at all, on the contrary.
I live in a tiny village in northern New Mexico, where most traditional families are cattle ranchers. In the summer the cows fend for themselves and wander around in the forests up in the mountains, grazing.
There are always calves of various ages with them. In the winter the ranchers bring them down to accessible pastures so they can feed them with hay when snow covers the ground. One such pasture is just below my house, and every year from the end of November on I witness 12 - 18 pregnant cows who eventually give birth, starting from January all through February. The babies happily stay with their moms, the cows feed and nurture their calves, and I’ve never ever heard of any calves being accidentally crushed or stepped on by their mothers. These are not dairy cows, of course, but it’s hard to believe that the personalities of these two kinds of cattle would be so different.
Oh, and one doesn’t have to live without cheese any more. Unlike 20 years ago when vegan cheese tasted like shoe leather, today’s offerings include smoked gouda, cheddar, cream cheese with chives, and other tasty varieties. You can have your cake and eat it too!
The following links offer more detail, corroborating numbers, and a diverging perspective to the issues above.
The Emotional Lives of Dairy Cows
10 Dairy Facts the Industry Doesn't Want You to Know
Male Dairy Cows Don't Get to Live More Than Two Years
The Truth Behind Humane Labels
Thanks for making me more aware of the harm our dairy industry is doing to cows & the environment.
Thanks for making me more aware of the harm our dairy industry is doing to cows & the environment.