My Visit to A Dairy Farm

 

In comparison, it seems maximum cruelty lies in the following actions, which are same in India, USA, and the rest of world:

·    To keep cows pregnant continually

·    Slaughtering their 70% to 80% of babies within six months by Veal industry or within five years by beef industry

·    Slaughtering the mother cows after five years of their fertile life while their life expectancy is 15 years.

Organic Milk:

The Organic farm is generally smaller than the huge factory-style farm. The Organic milk is produced without using antibiotics, pesticides, and hormones. There are no milk additives added into the milk. However there are no legal regulations that prevent farmers from engaging in similar abuses such as keeping the cows in tie stalls and using electric milking equipment, etc. Only few organic farms treat cows properly during her milk producing life.

Also to ensure steady milk production the organic farms:

·    Keep cows pregnant all the time through artificial insemination or other means

·    Sell baby calves to veal industry, where they are slaughtered in six months

·    Sell the adult cows to the slaughterhouses after four years when the milk production yield drops

Hence the Organic milk is not cruelty free milk.

American Slaughterhouse Statistics:

New York Times on May 12, 1996 reported that on an average day the following numbers of animals are slaughtered in American slaughterhouses.

Animals/Birds	Number Killed per day in USA
Cattle	130,000
Calves	7,000
Hogs	360,000
Chickens	24,000,000

Please let me know if you have any statistics for India.

Health Issues:

After becoming vegan, I have researched the following health related issues and summarized my findings as follows:

Calcium and Protein Issue:

Most Americans consume two to three times protein from animal source (milk, cheese, and meat) than their daily requirements. Many scientific studies show that the people who consume animal base high protein diet have lots of calcium in their urine but not in the people who use vegetarian diet.

The protein in animal products (such as milk, cheese or meat) is more acidic than the vegetable protein. The body neutralizes extra acid associated with animal protein by drawing calcium from bones. This causes calcium deficiency in the bones causing diseases like osteoporosis for the people who consume dairy or meat products. Also their kidneys have to work harder to remove the waste of calcium that leached from bones to blood. The net result is that the people who consume animal base high protein diet lose the calcium from their bones and their kidneys are more susceptible to fail.

Vegetarians get enough protein from their diet but not in excess. Also the vegetable protein is less acidic than animal protein, hence it does not leach calcium from bones. So the calcium absorbed by consuming dark green vegetables and various other vegetarian sources is maintained by the bones at a much healthier rate. The end result is vegetarians who get their calcium from non-animal sources such as dark green vegetables develop stronger bones, not weaker ones. Hence they do not find calcium in their urine. Many scientific evidences indicated that milk is not essential for strong bones.

However one should remember that thinning of the bones occur among older people regardless they consume the milk or not. This problem is more severe among the older people who use more dairy and other animal products. This is due to the protein effect (large amount of protein in diet and calcium is leached out) as indicated above. Postmenopausal women are particularly at risk for osteoporosis. Milk does not seem to protect the bones of older people.

In conclusion vegetarians get enough calcium and protein as long as they eat good variety of plant foods such as dark green vegetables in sufficient quantities to maintain their natural weight. They are less susceptible to osteoporosis, and the failure of their kidneys.

Cholesterol:

Only the lever of animal and human bodies makes cholesterol. Hence externally the cholesterol is found only in animal products such as meat, milk, cheese and other dairy and nonvegeterian food. Pure vegetarian diet (fruits, vegetables, grains, and lentils) has no cholesterol at all.

Cholesterol is a material similar to wax. It makes hormone and other elements for our body. Generally the lever of human being produces cholesterol in sufficient quantities for its body need. However when we consume dairy or meat products, we also consume its cholesterol. This way we will have excess cholesterol. This excess cholesterol in the body is harmful because it gets deposited in our artery. Ultimately artery gets cloged, which results in heart attack.

For pure vegetarians (vegan), their lever makes only needed cholesterol and hence they will not have high cholesterol condition.