Erm… what about the cows?

I grew up on a farm, admittedly in the UK where dairy herds are put out to pasture for most of the year and we have high animal welfare standards than many countries, but I given to pause at our use of animals for milk production and negative impact upon us humans.

We don’t routinely inject them with BST to force increased milk yield or routinely inject them with antibiotics to increase growth (although in the US this is mainly for beef production), but that doesn’t mean it is all good.

As well as the environmental impact above, the socioeconomic impact of cattle, growing crops just to feed cattle, means we have grow vastly more to generate the food energy from milk and beef than we would need if we consumed a vegetable diet directly.

This has an ethical impact, why are we spending vast amounts of resources raising animals for food when we could feed far more of the world’s population using the same resources for direct consumption. This year it looks like we are going to see literally millions die of malnourishment in Sudan.

Then there is the subjugation of thinking beings, treating them like cattle (ha!). We rightly see it as abhorrent that people were shoved into cattle trucks and forced into gas chambers to be slaughtered, yet we still do this everyday to other sentient beings.

How we treat others is a reflection on ourselves. Would we want our children taken from us just so we could be milked, not out of choice, for other creatures?

The use of antibiotics in milk and beef production (these things are linked, think what happens to the male calves), is of grave (ours) concern as we are now seeing the rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, so the medicines we grew up with will soon be ineffective, a thing of the past.

So while I’m not a vegetarian, in the past I’ve certainly raised and slaughtered animals to eat, and as a kid I used to go shooting for duck, pheasant and rabbit for food, and I still eat the occasional bacon sandwich, I’ve given most of it up and cut down on the rest.

We no longer eat beef (the kids prefer soya mince in chillies anyway) and grilled octopus is certainly off the menu when we are on holiday (who knew they were so intelligent?) and drink soya milk in coffee and on cereal (again, the kids prefer it), I still have cow milk in my tea and enjoy a small amount of cheese (although now, it is a matter of choosing a small amount of quality over mass manufactured bulk).

Do what you think is best, it is up to you how you treat the world and those around you, but pause for a moment next time you go to buy a carton of milk.