The Life of a Dairy Cow

Dairy products are the most easily replaceable in your diet, especially due to the ever increasing alternatives and availability thereof. If you can acknowledge that some part of the dairy industry might be cruel, you can do your part to stop it with very little effort.

Especially exciting for dairy enthusiasts are innovations like Bored Cow, https://tryboredcow.com/ (Dairy without the cow!)

> Modern cows have been bred to produce nearly 8 gallons of milk per day on average, the equivalent of a human running one to two marathons a day.

What? Calories maybe?

We can decide to spend our money on more ethical providers, be it eggs, milk, or meat, but as animals, we cannot get away from the circle of life.

Is it more "humane" for an animal to be eaten alive by another predator? The only difference is mankind has industrialized the process, and we don't truly give thanks because we are so separated from the process.

Edit: I don't really want to dissuade against alternatives, the problem I see is many nutritionally inferior options.

I've been using skim milk for years for my protein shakes and just today I bought my first litre of almond milk to experiment with making the change. It's 3x as expensive but I may be able to half/half it with water. I'm feeling bullish

That's called the naturalistic fallacy, and there's a clue in the name that should indicate how reliable an argument it is.

And re "nutritionally inferior", every dietetics and nutrition peak body on the planet agrees that a fully vegan diet is suitable for all people throughout all stages of life. In fact, billions of people have already lived perfectly normal, perfectly healthy vegan and vegetarian lives throughout history. If your diet — any diet — is nutritionally incomplete it's because you made the wrong choices.

There's so much to respond to that I'm afraid I'll have to use a list. It's not conducive to conversation between us , but other readers may appreciate it.

1. We're talking about dairy. To my knowledge, humans are the only animal that harvest another animal's milk. An outlier in the animal kingdom. (i.e. not the naturalistic "circle of life" any more than plastic bottles or sarin gas.)

2. No, it would not be "humane" (as in "human") to eat something alive, but animals do it! There's a distinction there between human and animal, like squares and rectangles. I am encouraging you to lean into that distinction and be as humane/human as possible.

3. How far off of ideal nutrition would you be willing to go to save a dog? Would you give up broccoli if it meant no more dogs would be abused? Could you find a way to replace broccoli, difficult as it may be?