What a week! Oprah hosts a show on food with bestselling author Michael Pollan and The Kind Diet author Alicia Silverstone, who goes vegan food shopping with Oprah’s camera crew. And Mercy for Animals’ new shocking dairy farm investigation lands stories on Nightline and ABC World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer. Today Marisa Miller-Wolfson of Kind Green Planet challenges you to drop dairy for one week!
Those who’ve seen footage of dairy farms wouldn’t have been surprised by the cruelty depicted in the footage. Not only are many of the practices common throughout the industry, but they’re not even illegal, including:
- Calves having their horns burned off without painkillers.
- Calves having their tails cut off without painkillers – a practice opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
- Newborn calves dragged away from their mourning Mothers.
- Cows living in overcrowded sheds on manure-coated concrete flooring.
But it’s the stuff that didn’t land on the news that hit me in the gut. Check out the investigator’s diary for a more complete picture of daily operations. Two of the tamest excerpts:
Day 30
My supervisor told me that our cows are impregnated every time their daily production drops below 65 pounds per day, which is four times that which a nursing cow naturally produces. I asked him when they are sent for slaughter. “When they can’t f—ing walk,” he told me.
“So we’ll just keep impregnating them until they get sick?” I asked.
“Until they’re too old or ’til they get sick or something happens to ’em,” he said.
He told me that they are usually spent by the age of four or five, about a quarter of the natural lifespan of a cow.
Day 32
I was surprised to hear this same supervisor acknowledge the cows’ capacity for emotion. While I repaired a motor, the cows crowded around me and fervently licked my back. He explained that after they calve, their mothering instinct never leaves. I asked him if he had ever seen cows get angry when their babies are taken after calving. He answered with an emphatic “yes,” telling me that they think, “If you’re taking my kid, you’re dead… and then once you f—ing get the calf outta there she’ll be runnin’ around the box stalls lookin’ for it for days.”
Unfortunately, even organically and locally raised cows are almost always separated from their babies after birth and are always killed after their milk production declines.
You can (and should) watch the video here:
In honor of the dairy cows and their calves, we’re doing a “Drop the Dairy” week. Pick a day to start your 7-day stint, and see how you do.
Fear a fierce cheese craving? Plan ahead. Put the ingredients of Alicia’s favorite Mac n Cheese recipe on your shopping list.
Or add her husband’s favorite pizza to your list, and shred some Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella on top. Putting it on broil for a few minutes under a high temp will help it melt.
Wanna know which vegan recipe Oprah and Laura Linney rave about? Alicia’s Cheesy Oozy Guacamole Bean Dip. You can even watch Laura and Alicia make it in Laura’s kitchen.
Want a reminder of some of the delicious non-dairy products that are out there? Check out Marisa’s favorite non-dairy cheese here, and our favorite vegan ice creams here. On another, and yet similar note, feminists of all genders will want to read this before continuing to support the dairy industry.
Got other non-dairy favorites you want to rave about? Leave a comment below.