Question for Vegans?!
Question for Vegans?
I understand that you do not consume any animal products or by-products in observance of the vegan lifestyle. As I'm not vegan and I'm trying to understand this way of living, why do you not consume dairy? Yes, I know it's an animal by-product, but milking a cow does not kill it or induce pain of any type. Butter is actually so much better for you than margerine, since butter is made from fresh cream and margerine is 2 molecules away from plastic. I'm not trying to raise a huge discussion on this, I'm just curious about the thought process on dairy products. And by the way, I buy my dairy from an organic dairy where the cows are hormone free.
Answers:
It's the whole sordid business which goes on because of the dairy business that is the problem.
A cow must be impregnated to produce milk (just like a human). If her baby is drinking the natural amount of milk she produces there wouldn't be any for us so we:
a) take the baby away, much to the distress of mother and calf
b) give the calf a milk substitute before sending it off to slaughter (or the veal crates)
c) breed the cows and give them hormones so that they produce much much more milk than they would naturally. This leads to lameness (imagine you having two breasts full of milk that unnaturally go down past your stomach and the pain and discomfort that would cause)
d) the cows are hooked up to milking machines which cause painful inflammation. Along with this there's also the boredom and foot problems associated with standing on dirty concrete all day.
e) the cows are often malnutritioned from being so intensively milked
f) at the end of her maximum producing years (around 6 years I think) she's also thanklessly carted off to be slaughtered.
I'm not saying all dairy farmers treat their cows badly, but to meet the demand of entire nations, cruel intensive farming must, and does take place.
Well...
firstly, we are not baby cows. Milk is meant for baby cows, not people. Other animals don't drink mother's milk their whole life, let alone milk from a whole other species' mother! It just does not seem natural to me.
Animal products contribute to high cholesterol. Don't consume animal products and you won't have high cholesterol (which can kill!). Digesting milk overworks your pancreas because we're not MEANT to drink milk our whole lives. Skim milk is awful because there's no butterfat and you need that butterfat to help with absorbing the vitamins and minerals that are in milk. But butterfat is FAT and you're not supposed to have a lot of fat in your diet if you are trying to be healthy! There's nasty stuff added to milk like synthetic vitamin d that can hurt your liver. Ugh - this isn't a hard question to find a billion answers to - everyone who has done any research knows that milk is just not good for you. Do some googling on it!
Besides the health reasons (which are abundant) and the whole "going against nature" thing, there's the fact that dairy cows ARE abused - baby cows are taken away (the veal industry was only created because of dairies!) - their udders get all infected and that pus and blood goes into the milk, the cows die early because they're forced to have babies over and over and they don't even let them get a good bonking - they artificially inseminate them. And just because you're drinking organic milk doesn't mean you're not contributing to the misery of cows. I know it's easier to tell yourself otherwise, but that's just not the case.
I'm an omnivore too, and yes, butter is way better. But it seems that some vegans don't really get the point and defeat themselves in eating funky chemical substitutes that are pretty bad for the environment.
But the reason vegans don't consume dairy is because the cows are often kept in incredibly small pens and force-fed to achieve maximum milk capacity. These battery farms, as they're known, don't allow the cow room to turn around, let alone go outside. It's pretty messed up.
EDIT: to jenasaurous: there are a lot of unnatural things, such as computers and plumbing, but that doesn't stop us from using them. The "unnatural" argument is pretty weak, just fyi.
The living conditions for dairy cows is terrible. Most live in small spaces, in their own excriment. They are impregnated and then have thier babies ripped from them in order for thier milk to be taken for human consumption.
When they are no longer able to produce enough milk they are sent to be slaughtered.
Dairy cows are milked several times a day and injected with hormones in order to produce more milk then they would naturally. The excessive milking causes painful inflamation in the udders.
The calves that are taken from their mothers are treated just as inhumane. Male calves are stuffed into tiny crates, and fed a liquid diet. This heinous treatment makes the calves ill, and they frequently suffer from anemia, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Frightened, sick, and alone, these calves are killed after only a few months of life.
Female calves are destined to the same fate as thier mother, and the cycle continues.
That is the cruelty part of not consuming milk. There is also health reasons.
MILK SUCKS ...
FOR ANIMALS:
Corporate-owned factories where cows are warehoused in huge sheds and treated like milk machines have replaced most small family farms. With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common for modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a day― 10 times more than they would produce in nature. To keep milk production as high as possible, farmers artificially inseminate cows every year. Growth hormones and unnatural milking schedules cause dairy cows' udders to become painful and so heavy that they sometimes drag on the ground, resulting in frequent infections and overuse of antibiotics. Cows― like all mammals― make milk to feed their own babies― not humans.
Male calves, the "byproducts" of the dairy industry, endure 14 to 17 weeks of torment in veal crates so small that they can't even turn around. Female calves often replace their old, worn-out mothers, or are slaughtered soon after birth for the rennet in their stomachs (an ingredient of most commercial cheeses). They are often kept in tiny crates or tethered in stalls for the first few months of their lives, only to grow up to become "milk machines" like their mothers.
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:
Cow's milk is an inefficient food source. Cows, like humans, expend the majority of their food intake simply leading their lives. It takes a great deal of grain and other foodstuffs cycled through cows to produce a small amount of milk. And not only is milk a waste of energy and water, the production of milk is also a disastrous source of water pollution. A dairy cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day -- equal to that of two dozen people, but with no toilets, sewers, or treatment plants.
In Lancaster County, Pa., manure from dairy cows is destroying the Chesapeake Bay, and in California, which produces one-fifth of the country's total supply of milk, the manure from dairy farms has poisoned vast expanses of underground water, rivers, and streams. In the Central Valley of California, the cows produce as much excrement as a city of 21 million people, and even a smallish farm of 200 cows will produce as much nitrogen as in the sewage from a community of 5,000 to 10,000 people, according to a U.S. Senate report on animal waste.
FOR YOUR HEALTH:
Dairy products are a health hazard. They contain no fiber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol. They are contaminated with cow's blood and pus and are frequently contaminated with pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Dairy products are linked to allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.
The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it can cause anemia, allergies, and insulin-dependent diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease, America's number one cause of death.
And dairy products may actually cause osteoporosis, not prevent it, since their high-protein content leaches calcium from the body. Population studies, backed up by a groundbreaking Harvard study of more than 75,000 nurses, suggest that drinking milk can actually cause osteoporosis. Find out more by visiting our links page.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes more than 550 pounds of dairy products annually, which is 40 percent of the bulk of the food we eat.
Give the bottle the boot! Instead, try delicious soy or rice milk, soy cheese, Tofutti ice cream, and tofu sour cream and cream cheese. All are widely available at health food stores and many supermarkets.
***
UPDATE: Rev. Gottisttot, you're missing the point (as you often do, I noticed). We vegans know we are not perfect- There are alternatives for cows milk, but no alternatives for computers. When they invent a cruelty free computer be sure that vegans will be first to buy it. We do as much as we can, as much possible at present. Who can do more than that? Making mistakes I cant help but make, as a result of living in this modern society of ours, does not justify doing wrong ALL the time. There are alternatives to meat, leather, milk, gelatine... As a vegan I will naturally pick those alternatives in order to reduce the suffering of animals. That is all I can do. Hopefully with more vegans in future, more alternatives will be available.
Organic dairy is still dairy, it is still meant for the calf not human. Looking only from the health perspective, (in case you dont give a damn about animals) is still nourishment meant to feed a young calf that grows much faster and bigger than human babies. This is one of the most unnutural practices among humans and you wont see other mammals sucking milk from other species. And never when they're fully grown. It is a good argument, since humans are animals and mammals, but it's another thing to refuse to see it because you're, well,,,, too lazy to change.
Of course natural is always the best choice, I choose so whenever possible. Milk aint natural.
Read the china study. All of you.
Butter is nearly poisonous for humans. It is not better for you than the only margarine i eat, earth balance, which is made out of cold pressed, minimally refined veggie oil you probably don't even use at home. I seriously think that you imbeciles need to reflect more. I am far from ostentatious here: you're spreading lies and others are swayed incorrectly.
im an ominivore and i think that by the responses that u r getting from vegitarians and vegians is that not having meat or dairy can make u a little moody at times and mayb a little boring eg. the pages and pages of info they have on why meat eaters are evil, they r like mormons
and really if u live in a house, travel a high way, work in an office youve lead to the death of animals, i once dated a know it all vegitarian yet she had a down quilt, wore leather shoes, had a swede couch, had a big oak table that was proably home to many animals and her and her vegi friends were anemic told me i was wrong 4 eatin meat but they were always hungry
LOL! You have been conned by the dairy industry!
Dairy products kill you by causing heart disease and cancer. The most abused and mistreated animals on the Earth are dairy animals (see video below). You have this dream that cows and chickens sit in a green field and give their eggs and milk freely, but you are mistaken. The dairy products you consume are filled with steroids and hormones; that is why people are becoming obese, children are reaching puberty way too early, and we are finding heart disease in younger people.
Eating dairy kills you, that is why people on diets who can't live without it eat such tiny amounts. It is like being addicted to rat poison and eating a little bit because you can't stop. No other animal in the world drinks another animal's milk except for humans; LOL! It is like a squrriel drinking from the tit of a dog.
LOL! Americans be so easily conned! Man, TV sure is killing our society; stick a milk moustache on Paris Hilton and everyone will buy milk! LOL!
There are margarines that do not contain Hydrogenated oils....you have to look for them! There are milks that do not make your body form mucous so to protect your insides, ie Almond milk, Hazlenut milk, Sesame Seed milk, pretty much any nut or seed can make "milk". And actually in my family, the only thing we refer to as milk is my breastmilk. The rest we just say are almond juices or whatever else I buy.
"milking a cow not kill it or induce pain of any type"
eeemmm, i think you might want to educate your self
The dairy industry kill s half its off-spring within a week of birth. So, drinking milk makes you directly responsible for paying for the death of the bull calves.
Dairy cattle are AI'd to make then calf every 9 months ( naturally this would be 3 years ). They are fed hormones to produces 60 litres of milk rather than the natural 15 litres. They are killed at 8 years old rather than the natural 15-20 years. They are often fed using the "bribe and reward" carousel system.
how do i know ? I own an arable farm in the midddle of the dairy community so see all this production first hand - no scare mongering from me.