A Little Food for Thought
Do you ever think about the food you eat. Where it comes from or how it's raised? I had never given it much thought. You go to the store and pick it up, pay for it, bring it home and enjoy. Even though we started this plant-based journey for our health the more I read and research I find I've learned more about how animals are treated than I really want to know.
I did some rough calculations and figure that I've bought at least 2000 gallons of milk in the last 25 years. I wish I'd known back then what I know now.
A cow must give birth in order to produce milk. In most commercial dairies the calves are taken away from the mother shortly after birth. I've seen videos of this happening and the mother can be heard crying for her baby. Some of these babies end up as veal.
In a natural setting a mother cow would produce about one gallon of milk a day to feed her baby. In order for the cow to produce larger quantities of milk they are often give growth hormones. The commercial dairy cow can then produce up to seven gallons of milk a day.
On our walk through the Cotwolds in the UK we got caught between the fence and the cows being driven back to the barn. I was slightly terrified because they are huge! My husband said we didn't have anything to worry about because the cows knew we were friendly and didn't drink their milk so they wouldn't bother us! And they didn't.
At least these cows were allowed to graze in the pasture for part of the day...
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