Moo

I don't eat meat. There are a number of reasons for this. One is it just seems cruel to slaughter animals and eat them. I still eat eggs and dairy, but I know that is not free from cruelty either. Those animals, when they stop producing, will also be slaughtered. Then, I read the numbers below, and I have begun to think more seriously about cutting back on dairy.

In 1950 the average cow yielded 5,300 pounds of milk. Last year the average cow yielded 23,000 pounds of milk. A Wisconsin Holstein recently yielded nearly 75,000 pounds of milk in a year, which amounts to roughly 24 gallons a day. 

I grew up on a farm, and I did occasionally milk a cow. I hated it, but never considered the ethics of it. The cows did, most of the time, seem content. I moved away from the farm, and for the most part, had no contact with cows. Then, a few years ago, I visited a farm and noticed the cows were different from the cows of my milking days. Their udders were much larger. It looked burdensome. I suspected they were being bred for that, but until I read the above statistics, I had no idea how much. I found it rather horrifying. The cows were being treated like machines. I need to move away from this cruelty.

(These statistics come from a Vanity Fair article about the Department of Agriculture. Find it here. Also, here is an earlier article I wrote about cows here before. When I went back and read it, I realized how long I've been concerned about this.)