this post was submitted on 07 May 2024
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What is everyone's opinion on "family cows"? Like a family who has a cow on their small farm that they take care of and use for milk. I'm not vegan (working on vegetarian first, pls no bulli) but I'm not looking to argue, just curious.
In order to milk a cow you need to get the cow pregnant once every year. Doesn’t matter if it’s a factory farm or mom and pop, you still have to get the cow pregnant to get her to produce milk and that isn’t the cows choice. Personally i drink milk but i can see their point in regards to the cow having no choice in the matter.
And to add to that, getting her pregnant naturally means she with give birth to a veal. This veal will be sold off shortly after birth and either killed or raised and then killed. There's no milk without continuous death of cows.
I actually did not know that so thanks for the information. My knowledge ended at that (apparently false?) quote from Meet The Parents about anything being milkable. And thanks for not attacking me - I think I'm immoral, too, but I'm fighting 30+ years of a carnivorous diet.
I cut milk out of my diet years ago. I failed my first attempt at veganism so I'm taking it one step at a time now and it's been working for me...slowly, but progress is progress. If that lab-made cheese I read about lives up to the hype, I think 5 years is realistic for me.
It's hard. I have a lot of respect for people who went cold turkey (no pun intended) on meat/dairy.
If it's any consolation, I don't feel like many people go cold turkey. It was tons of baby steps for me, too. It requires going out of one's comfort zone to try out some vegan food. And if your comfort zone is big enough in that direction, then it doesn't hurt anymore to leave a slice of meat/dairy comfort zone behind.
It's tough. I will probably not be able to even be fully commit until my parents pass because there is no way I'm going to ask my mom to not cook the meals she's made every Christmas since I was a kid.
But I think I'm ok with that..I'm not trying to win a contest or anything. I've already stopped cooking meat at home and next step is to stop ordering it when I go out.
I'm not vegan but animal milk was the easiest thing to transition to plant-based, for me anyway.
If I have the option it's always oat or almond so I'd agree. Cheese and bacon are by far the hardest for me to give up.
There's some good vegan cheeses now, too. Not yet centuries-of-tradition levels of variety+refinement, but it can compete with your average sliced cheese. You might need to try a few brands, though...
I've been watching that development closely. I imagine it will eventually be the cheaper option, too.
Would you milk your dog or cat?
I have nipples Greg, can you milk me?
Yeah, that's what this is about. People generally don't feel comfortable drinking other people's milk (non-sexually), so why should people drink cows' milk, when there are alternatives to soften your muesli?
If it provided food for my family, yeah? I'm a gardener not a farmer, I was just asking so I could learn more
Personally, I would actually be open to that. On a moral level, I'm thinking, if the cow has gotten naturally pregnant and is provided food+shelter and hasn't been bred to provide unhealthy levels of milk and has enough milk to feed her young, too, then I feel like a talking cow would be on board. So, if performed with an abundance of caution and respect, I consider that moral.
But if I remember correctly, I read once that this would result in ⅕ of the milk output of a dairy cow in industrial production. And you'd only get this milk while and shortly after the cow is pregnant.
So, in essence, that would result in so little dairy, it would be pretty much a vegan diet anyways...
In regards to milk, because of the process for regular product (repetitive pregnancy) it's been, at least here in America, cornered into the industrial market. Also, raw milk hatred (which arguably only exists due to industrialization) has further forced the industrialization of milk. This situation you refer to is extremely rare. The small farms I've seen in my life don't keep dairy cows when they do keep cows. My opinion on family cows is that it's totally fine. Then again, I believe in seizing the means of production (which is what family cows strike me as) and I'm an omnivore.
Fair enough. I was never a big milk drinker so I knew I made some assumptions, hence the question