No More Dairy For Me! (Milk, Cheese etc)
For a couple of days now I have been reading, watching videos and listening to people for hours and hours online and I’ve decided that not only am I a vegetarian again but I’m also ditching all dairy products!
The reason is strictly ethical because I have learned that there simply are no “happy cows” in the dairy industry.
This is what’s going on everywhere in the world, it doesn’t matter if the dairy farm is an “organic farm”, “humane farm”, whatever kind of farm it is; the procedure is the exact same:
1.) The cow is placed in a “rape rack” where a human being forcefully shovels their arm into the cow’s anus and with an instrument in their vagina inseminates the cow so that it can be pregnant.
Like human mothers, cows then carry their babies for nine months, and just like humans, cows only produce milk to feed their young, so naturally they then begin to lactate for the sole purpose of nourishing their baby when their baby is born.
But allowing the calves to drink it is a waste of profit for the farmers so the calf usually never gets to taste the milk even once.
2.) Instead cows and their baby’s are separated, the farmers steal the baby from their mother within a few hours to a few days and this separation is naturally (obviously!) devastating for both the mother and calf.
A mother is a mother and I have seen so many videos where they show the whole process and it’s just heartbreaking.
Usually the mother cow continue to cry and call frantically for their babies for many days (sometimes weeks) after their calves have been stolen from them, and the calf cries as well in the crate they have been shoveled into that are just slightly bigger than their body.
Boy calves are usually slaughtered to be sold as veal (but not all; Google all this yourself to learn more) and girl calves follow their mommy’s footsteps and become dairy cows themselves.
3.) Then the cow gets milked for a year where they are hooked by their udders to electronic milking machines, and then when she stops producing milk, then the human beings rape here again, have her baby torn away from her when it’s born and start the vicious cycle all over again.
There you have it. This is how we get our milk, cheese and other dairy products.
This is what dairy farming is about, they exploit cows and use them as moneymaking milk machine, and after 3-5 years of this cycle she’s worn out, exhausted emotionally, mentally, physically (sometimes they can’t even walk anymore) and then they send her away to the slaughterhouse to become ground beef and hamburgers.
In natural conditions, cows can live 20 to 25 years!
So whatever you call it, “humane, “organic”, blah blah blah, it’s all a lie.
You can’t get milk from a cow unless it’s pregnant first and since the milk is sold for human consumption only the calf will never see it.
It will be separated from their mother who does not want anything more than to nurture and love their baby, just like we do.
Instead the cow will live their whole life in confinement, social deprivation, gets raped repeatedly, gets their baby’s ripped away from them repeatedly, all this indignity – and people call it “humane” treatment?
You can’t justify that however you look at it, there’s nothing humane about it at all.
And there are so many other things that I could share that I have learned but you do your own homework, Google and see for yourself.
Not to mention all the other things that are linked to the dairy farming, health issues we humans get from consuming dairy for example, how it’s linked to world hunger, global warming and so on, but these things you have to research for yourself.
For me to know how the cows spend their whole lives is enough to not want to have any part in the abuse, so no more dairy products for me!
I will have to find other alternatives to cheese, ice-cream, chocolate and so on and I know they are out there even if it cost a little bit more, it’s just not an alternative for me to touch dairy again.
I trust that Life takes care of itself (me) and provides me with replacements for those kinds of foods because all in all the price is low compared to what the animals endure.
It’s just a new learning curve that begins for me and having read a little bit I think I will love the alternatives that exists and enjoy eating healthier food while at the same time knowing that I’m not hurting anyone.
Up until now I have only researched about what’s going on (factory farming, dairy farming etc) and now it’s time to start learning about what to eat instead! 🙂
Dear Maria – I want to thank you so much for this article, and for bringing awareness to this situation with factory farmed animals. This issue is very close to my heart, as are all issues that deal with mistreated animals. Off and on for years I’ve eaten vegetarian and as of lately, I’m trying to incorporate a vegan diet. As you wrote there is tons of information about this, and the good news is because of a growing public awareness, I’ve read that companies like McDonalds, Walmart, are starting to phase out using distributors where, for instance, chickens are caged in over crowded conditions and stacked up on each other.
I feel we as people have a long way to go, but the awareness and changes in attitudes towards animals seems to be evolving, and I’m really grateful for that.
Great article!
Glad to hear it resonated with your heart 🙂
I became a vegetarian six years ago or so (read article here: https://mariaerving.com/ive-become-a-vegetarian/) and it was really an easy choice to make once I learned about factory farming etc.
During those six years I never craved or missed meat but then some time ago I felt drawn to eat meat again and started to have some now and then and it felt okay/good.
I don’t have an issue with animals being killed for food-purposes but I don’t want to take any part in how the animals suffer throughout their whole existence as they do with the factory farming going on all over the world.
If I would eat meat again I would have to literally see the animal, see how it lives, what it eats and so on and preferably that it got killed at the farm (and not in a slaughterhouse), away from the herd and the other animals so that they didn’t have to see it.
I don’t see that happening to be honest, but that would be the only way I would eat meat again.
I’m also open to buy meat from hunters for example, where I know the animal have had a good life in freedom.
Obviously you have to be very selective and check people up before you buy anything, and it would be a very rare thing for me to do since I don’t even feel drawn to eat meat at this point, but my point is that I’m open to it, I’m not against eating meat.
Anyways,
Life showed me stuff again, for example how the dairy industry works, and I refreshed my memory about the factory farming by watching some docs and videos.
And I read stuff as well, listened to people etc etc for a couple of intense days and then decided to become a vegetarian again.
I did a lot of research six years ago (I educated myself day and night for a very intense period of time) so I only needed a reminder now in order to make the decision again.
But that’s pretty much all anyone gets from me when it comes to this topic since I’m not a animals right activist nor am I interested in writing excessively about what I have learned.
I simply educated myself enough to not be ignorant anymore, made a choice, and then moved on and started to look into how to eat better and so on (nutrition, exercise etc).
When it comes to McDonalds, I boycotted them years ago because of how they treat the animals and also because I think their ‘food’ makes people sick and not very intelligent (it’s not good for brain development and mental growth to be eating junk food).
I wouldn’t trust their promises about phasing out distributors at all, but that’s just my two cents.
There’s a lot I’ve learned about the labeling of food too so if you haven’t looked into that yet it’s very interesting.
Whatever they label it; “organic”, “cage-free” “free-range” and other common terms, it’s deliberately misleading (all for the sake of profit) and they are literally lying to the consumer.
But I won’t get into that – it’s for everyone to check out for themselves and maybe you have already done that.
Lastly, ..
Regarding all this, with food I mean, it’s important to listen ourselves and our own body and make choices based on what feels most right to you.
I don’t like calling myself anything but when talking with people and in social interactions etc I occasionally mention that I’m a vegetarian but only if someone asks me why then I let them know.
I’m just not into debating with people and the truth is that not all want to listen even if they have asked so it’s sometimes difficult to share with someone who comes from beliefs (ignorance) when you have facts to present because you’ve educated yourself.
If it goes in the direction of a mindless argumentative discussion then I’m not interested in talking with them anymore for obvious reasons.
And I’m not really a vegetarian either since I eat fish and seafood, but anyway, it’s just a description of my (current) food choices.
Veganism is more than that, it’s more like a statement of being a person who stands up for animals right to live etc.
Which is fine, I have no problems at all with that, but that’s not for me.
Even if I would implement a vegan diet some day I would not want to call myself that because I don’t like labeling myself as this or that.
And especially not a vegan I must say because it gives you a community type of label and I’m not into belonging to any kind of groups.
This is what I choose to eat now based on what my body and intuition tells me but I don’t know what my body and intuition will tell me a year from now for example.
I like living undefined, that way I’m always free.
But again; I will not support the suffering of animals, so other alternatives will have to show up that would make me eat meat or dairy again, but as long as the world demand cheap meat the factory farming will continue.
Awareness is key of course so we need the activists and vegans for that and thanks to them I could learn what I have to learn.
And now I have moved on from that phase and are instead focusing on other things that are more enjoyable for me 🙂