Cheese

I have been on and off vegan for the past two and a half years.  Most of 2011 I was "on" and a good portion of last year was "off".   I was doing it for health reasons.  Honestly, I never thought about animal cruelty until 5 years ago.  Having been raised vegetarian, I turned a blind eye to PETA and other animal rights organizations because I thought I was already doing the right thing.  

Until I read this article, I was only vegan due to my natural aversion to milk and eggs, as well as my hereditary high cholesterol   After reading this article, I decided to research the dairy, wool, down, silk and leather industries.  What I have discovered is shocking and horrifying.

I don't want to tell anybody what to do.  Instead, I am just going to spread the information that has opened my eyes and changed my diet for good. 

--

I Couldn’t Give Up Cheese, So I Gave Up Animal Cruelty Instead

POSTED ON FEBRUARY 17, 2012 BY JO

I used to think I could never give up cheese. After all, it was my very favorite food. When my husband and I would eat out at fancy restaurants, I wouldn’t even look at the entrées or desserts; I’d just order the cheese plate. Brie, havarti, gouda, goat, stilton, gorgonzola, feta…I loved them all. I remember one time (before I knew the truth about animal agriculture) I went to a local bookstore and was flipping through a copy of Joel Fuhrman’s Eat To Live.  I was reading along, nodding in agreement as he described a diet which contained no meat, no fish, no eggs, no oil…and then I saw it: no cheese. Huh? Say again? What kind of joyless doctrine of abstention is this?  Fuuuhggit about it.

I quickly slammed the book shut and returned it to the shelf.

But then, soon after, three things happened:

#1 I learned that the dairy industry drives the veal industry. Just like humans, female cows need to give birth in order to produce milk. So the dairy industry is, by necessity, a baby-making industry. But only female calves are useful to dairy farmers. The males are considered unwanted byproducts, and are typically killed on site or sold at auction to veal producers. The mothers mourn and bellow for their stolen babies. I’ve seen footage of terrified, days-old calves with wobbly knees and their umbilical cords still attached being dragged by their ears onto the auction floor and it’s something I’ll never forget.

Once sold, they are confined to tiny crates designed to restrict their movement and fed an intentionally iron deficient diet of artificial milk supplements so their muscles won’t develop and their flesh will retain the pale, soft quality preferred by “gourmands.”  For a basic (non-graphic) overview of veal farming, click here.

At first, I believed this must only happen on large factory farms. My initial thought was that I might be able to avoid these cruel practices by buying “local” or “organic.” I did lots of research and even spoke in person with a couple dairy farmers in my community (hoping for reassurance). One told me that yes, they sold the calves for veal and acknowledged that it “upsets a lot of people.” Another told me she couldn’t bear to do it, so she bought an extra lot to allow the calves to just live there. I asked her how long she thought she’d be able to financially support those calves, since they consume a lot of resources and she would keep adding new calves every year.  And since cows can live for 20 years or more, I wondered how many “extra lots” was she prepared to buy in order to provide space for them all? She had no answers, and it was clear that her “solution” to this problem was unviable and unrealistic.

A friend in a more rural part of the country even told me about ads for “free calves” posted by local dairy farmers on craigslist. That’s what it’s come to. I’ve learned that there’s just no getting around it: when we’ve “got milk,” we’ve got dead baby cows. And dead mothers, too… eventually.

#2  I discovered that many cheeses are not even vegetarian since they contain rennet. Rennet is extracted from the stomach chambers of slaughtered young, unweaned calves. Ironically, the stomachs are a by-product of the veal industry.  (Although there are vegetarian forms of rennet, it is more commonly sourced from animals.)  So basically, cheese is made by mixing mothers’ milk with pieces of their dead babies’ stomachs.  If that’s not enough to turn someone off cheese, I don’t know what is.

#3 I learned how dairy cows are impregnated, and what happens to them once they’re “spent.” Their bodies are often so ravaged by the time they are slaughtered that their meat is only “good enough” for dog food, cheap tv dinners and stews. Many are lame with illness and disease, and have to be dragged or pushed to slaughter with forklifts. These animals are known as downers.

I recognize that cheese is addictive and for many people, giving it up can be difficult. If you find yourself craving animal cheese, remember that it’s just temporary and it will pass. In time, you’ll likely find that you don’t miss it in the least. For me, what ultimately helped was changing my way of thinking. I didn’t think of “giving up cheese,” rather, I thought of “giving up animal cruelty.” And that made all the difference.

If a former certifiable cheese-junkie like me can go vegan, there’s hope for you, too.

Source