51–60 of 72 posts
I appreciate the raw milk warning in there. Raw milk kills people ever year. It gets lost in the flood of dairy marketing.
If you were breast-fed, you drank raw milk as a child. And pasteurization removes/diminishes nutrients in milk. It’s much more nuanced than ‘raw milk is bad’.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They didn't say during pregnancy. Cows only produce milk after giving birth to a calf, so they're regularly inseminated. I think a lot of people don't realize we're hijacking their reproductive systems, instead assuming cows constantly produce milk. One could argue there's more suffering in a glass of milk than a steak, which makes ethical vegetarianism flawed despite its good intentions.
> One could argue there's more suffering in a glass of milk than a steak What I find quite bizarre that in India (where I am from) milk is considered ethically vegetarian whereas unfertilized chicken eggs are not. But the weirdest experience I have ever had was at the main Google cafeteria. One gentleman with a steak on his fresh plate was quizzing the attendant at length to be sure that the mashed potato was vegan.…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They didn't say during pregnancy. Cows only produce milk after giving birth to a calf, so they're regularly inseminated. I think a lot of people don't realize we're hijacking their reproductive systems, instead assuming cows constantly produce milk. One could argue there's more suffering in a glass of milk than a steak, which makes ethical vegetarianism flawed despite its good intentions.
> One could argue there's more suffering in a glass of milk than a steak What I find quite bizarre that in India (where I am from) milk is considered ethically vegetarian whereas unfertilized chicken eggs are not. But the weirdest experience I have ever had was at the main Google cafeteria. One gentleman with a steak on his fresh plate was quizzing the attendant at length to be sure that the mashed potato was vegan.…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there's a linguistically-driven temporal misunderstanding happening here. A cow couldn't have a calf if it hadn't become pregnant. But there's so much to the linguistics of animal husbandry and dairy that many folks don't know. It goes way deeper than just the milk-oriented terms in the article: Heifer versus cow, freshening and calving, steer versus ox versus bull, AI (not the LLM kind) versus natural servic…
> A cow couldn't have a calf if it hadn't become pregnant. Not just that. A cow couldn't be a cow if she hadn't become pregnant.
I appreciate the raw milk warning in there. Raw milk kills people ever year. It gets lost in the flood of dairy marketing.
If you were breast-fed, you drank raw milk as a child. And pasteurization removes/diminishes nutrients in milk. It’s much more nuanced than ‘raw milk is bad’.
If people were drinking raw milk directly out of the udder, in a clean environment and blessed with a baby cow's immune system and microbiome, that would be pertinent, but they aren't. Even human breast milk extracted in a clean environment with sanitized tools gets risky very quickly when stored.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, you're misinterpreting me. Breeding involves making calves, obviously. But once you get the hypothetical continuously-milk-producing cows, they don't have to make calves. Making more cows can be delegated to cows specialized to making more cows, so cows producing milk for humans can do that without inconvenient pregnancies. But that's not how it works. Every single milk-producing cow must have been pregnant at l…
> they don't have to make calves. Where else are you going to get them from? A calf factory? > And the calves are an unwanted byproduct Am I misinterpreting you again? Heifer calves are the prized possession that ensures that your dairy continues into the future. Cows don't last forever (or even all that long). You maybe had a stronger case for bull calves, but now that modern breeding can select for heifers with ~90…
May you expend on this? I know we kinda have selection techniques for eggs to crush them before hatch but I guess that’s not what’s happening with milk caws as the diary is the main target and the cow need to give birth to start lactation. Or perhaps it’s the impregnating technique or some hormone therapy that tricks the odds?
> in this day of age of high-priced beef, even if you get the occasional bull you're not exactly complaining either.
I depends on the breed: in this days of high volume diary and meat consumption, most of what people eat comes from specialised breeds that hare very good at producing milk OR muscle. The non-desired sexed are not so valuable. Switzerland (and others countries I can’t remembers) recently passed a calves handling low to require farmers caring them for a minimum days in response to industrial sloped into unethical territories.
That documentary shows another practice in India : some invaluable calve are just roped to a fence and forget until dehydration. https://christspiracy.com
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think people are kept abreast of the realities of animal farming in general. Cows simply produce milk like chickens lay eggs. Consider how imagery of a farmer inseminating a cow with his arm disappearing up some tract or fitting a spike to the baby so it can't drink its mom's milk -- or farm conditions in general -- are basically shock footage that people are insulated from until they maybe chance upon a movi…
? No, you need to educate yourself. The gestation period of a cow is approximately 9 months, similar to humans, by coincidence. Only a cow that has given birth to a calf will produce milk. The normal lactation period is 305 days before the cow is "dried up" before giving birth again. 10,000 pounds of milk is considered a good lactation total. Typically, cows are bred to calve once per year. Typically going through 10…
e.g. "[They might assume] cows simply produce milk like chickens lay eggs."
It's normal to never really think about it -- our society is set up so that you never have to. The secretion comes in a jug, the meat comes in cellophane, and that's it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> One could argue there's more suffering in a glass of milk than a steak What I find quite bizarre that in India (where I am from) milk is considered ethically vegetarian whereas unfertilized chicken eggs are not. But the weirdest experience I have ever had was at the main Google cafeteria. One gentleman with a steak on his fresh plate was quizzing the attendant at length to be sure that the mashed potato was vegan.…
I know a number of people who have allergies to some animal products (notably eggs or dairy). Given the growing familiarity with (and catering to) vegan diets, they find it much easier to use "is it vegan" as a shortcut to "can I eat this" rather than interrogate food workers about specific ingredients.
I appreciate the raw milk warning in there. Raw milk kills people ever year. It gets lost in the flood of dairy marketing.
I'm pretty sure people who drink raw milk are aware of the risks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A cow couldn't have a calf if it hadn't become pregnant. Not just that. A cow couldn't be a cow if she hadn't become pregnant.
I’m curious curious, what’s the English term for a female calf that lived more that two years and didn’t experience pregnancy? Never heard such a term in any language.