Cow's Milk: A Cruel and Unhealthy Product

Given the chance, cows nurture their young and form lifelong friendships with on
e another. They play games and have a wide range of emotions and personality tra
its. But most cows raised for the dairy industry are intensively confined, leavi
ng them unable to fulfill their most basic desires, such as nursing their calves
, even for a single day. They are treated like milk-producing machines and are g
enetically manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones that cause th
em to produce more milk. While cows suffer on factory farms, humans who drink th
eir milk increase their chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, a
nd many other ailments.

Cows Suffer on Dairy Farms

Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do to nourish their young but calv
es on dairy farms are taken away from their mothers when they are just 1 day old
. They are fed milk replacers (including cattle blood) so that their mothers' mi
lk can be sold to humans.(1,2)
Female cows are artificially inseminated shortly after their first birthdays.(3)
After giving birth, they lactate for 10 months and are then inseminated again,
continuing the cycle. Some spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors;
others are confined to massive, crowded lots, where they are forced to live ami
d their own waste. Cows have a natural lifespan of about 25 years and can produc
e milk for eight or nine years. However, the stress caused by the conditions on
factory farms leads to disease, lameness, and reproductive problems that render
cows worthless to the dairy industry by the time that they're 4 or 5 years old,
at which time they are sent to be slaughtered.(4,5)
On any given day, there are more than 9 million cows on U.S. dairy farms about 13
million fewer than there were in 1950. Yet milk production has continued to incr
ease, from 116 billion pounds of milk per year in 1950 to 185 billion pounds in
2007.(6,7) Normally, these animals would produce only enough milk to meet the ne
eds of their calves (around 16 pounds per day), but genetic manipulation, antibi
otics, and hormones are used to force each cow to produce more than 20,000 pound
s of milk each year (an average of 54 pounds per day).(8,9) Cows are also fed un
natural, high-protein diets which include dead chickens, pigs, and other animals bec
ause their natural diet of grass would not provide the nutrients that they need
to produce such massive amounts of milk.(10)

Mastitis
Painful inflammation of the mammary glands, or mastitis, is common among cows ra
ised for their milk, and it is one of dairy farms' most frequently cited reasons
for sending cows to slaughter. There are about 150 bacteria that can cause the
disease, one of which is E. coli.(11) Symptoms are not always visible, so milk's
somatic cell count (SCC) is checked to determine whether the milk is infected.
Somatic cells include white blood cells and skin cells that are normally shed fr
om the lining of the udder. As in humans, white blood cells also known as "pus" are
produced as a means of combating infection. The SCC of healthy milk is below 100
,000 cells per milliliter; however, the dairy industry is allowed to combine mil
k from all the cows in a herd in order to arrive at a "bulk tank" somatic cell c
ount (BTSCC).(12) Milk with a maximum BTSCC of 750,000 cells per milliliter can
be sold.(13) A BTSCC of 700,000 or more generally indicates that two-thirds of t
he cows in the herd are suffering from udder infections.(14)
Studies have shown that providing cows with cleaner housing, more space, and bet
ter diets, bedding, and care lowers their milk's SCC as well as their incidence
of mastitis.(15) A Danish study of cows subjected to automated milking systems f
ound "acutely elevated cell counts during the first year compared with the previ
ous year with conventional milking. The increase came suddenly and was synchroni
zed with the onset of automatic milking."(16) Instead of improving conditions in
factory farms or easing cows' production burden, the dairy industry is explorin
g the use of cattle who have been genetically manipulated to be resistant to mas
titis.(17)

The Veal Connection

If you drink milk, you're subsidizing the veal industry. While female calves are
slaughtered or kept alive to produce milk, male calves are often taken away fro
m their mothers when they are as young as 1 day old to be chained in tiny stalls
for three to 18 weeks and raised for veal.(18,19) Calves raised for veal are fe
d a milk substitute that is designed to make them gain at least 2 pounds per day
, and their diet is purposely low in iron so that their flesh stays pale as a re
sult of anemia.(20) In addition to suffering from diarrhea, pneumonia, and lamen
ess, calves raised for veal are terrified and desperate for their mothers.

Environmental Destruction
Large dairy farms have an enormously detrimental effect on the environment. In C
alifornia, America's top milk-producing state, manure from dairy farms has poiso
ned hundreds of square miles of groundwater, rivers, and streams. Each of the mo
re than 1 million cows on the state's dairy farms excretes 18 gallons of manure
daily.(21,22) Overall, factory-farmed animals, including those on dairy farms, p
roduce 1.65 billion tons of manure each year, much of which ends up in waterway
s and drinking water.(23) The Environmental Protection Agency reports that agric
ultural runoff is the primary cause of polluted lakes, streams, and rivers. The
dairy industry is the primary source of smog-forming pollutants in California; a
single cow emits more of these harmful gasses than a car does.(24)
Two-thirds of all agricultural land in the U.S. is used to raise animals for foo
d or to grow grain to feed them.(25) Each cow raised by the dairy industry consu
mes as much as 40 gallons of water per day.(26)

Human Bodies Fight Cow's Milk

Besides humans (and companion animals who are fed by humans), no species drinks
milk beyond infancy or drinks the milk of another species. Cow's milk is suited
to the nutritional needs of calves, who have four stomachs and gain hundreds of
pounds in a matter of months, sometimes weighing more than 1,000 pounds before t
hey are 2 years old.(27)
Cow's milk is the number one cause of food allergies among infants and children,
according to the American Gastroenterological Association.(28) Most people begi
n to produce less lactase, the enzyme that helps with the digestion of milk, whe
n they are as young as 2 years old. This reduction can lead to lactose intoleran
ce.(29) Millions of Americans are lactose intolerant, and an estimated 90 percen
t of Asian-Americans and 75 percent of Native- and African-Americans suffer from
the condition, which can cause bloating, gas, cramps, vomiting, headaches, rash
es, and asthma.(30) A U.K. study showed that people who suffered from irregular
heartbeats, asthma, headaches, fatigue, and digestive problems "showed marked an
d often complete improvements in their health after cutting milk from their diet
s."(31)
Calcium and Protein Myths
Although American women consume tremendous amounts of calcium, their rates of os
teoporosis are among the highest in the world. Conversely, Chinese people consum
e half as much calcium (most of it from plant sources) and have a very low incid
ence of the bone disease.(32) Medical studies indicate that rather than preventi
ng the disease, milk may actually increase women's risk of getting osteoporosis.
A Harvard Nurses' Study of more than 77,000 women ages 34 to 59 found that thos
e who consumed two or more glasses of milk per day had higher risks of broken hi
ps and arms than those who drank one glass or less per day.(33) T. Colin Campbel
l, professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University, said, "The assoc
iation between the intake of animal protein and fracture rates appears to be as
strong as that between cigarette smoking and lung cancer."(34)
Humans can get all the protein that they need from nuts, seeds, yeast, grains, b
eans, and other legumes. It's very difficult not to get enough calories from pro
tein when you eat a healthy diet; protein deficiency (also known as "kwashiorkor
") is very rare in the U.S. and is usually only a problem for people who live in
famine-stricken countries.(35) Eating too much animal protein has been linked t
o the development of endometrial, pancreatic, and prostate cancer.(36,37,38) Con
suming too much protein may also put a strain on the kidneys, causing them to co
mpensate by leaching calcium from the bones.(39)

What You Can Do

The best way to save cows from the misery of factory farms is to stop buying mil
k and other dairy products. Discover the joy of soy! Fortified plant-derived mil
ks provide calcium, vitamins, iron, zinc, and protein but do not contain any cho
lesterol. Soy, rice, oat, and nut milks are perfect for cereal, coffee, and soup
s and also work well in baked goods and other recipes. Many delicious nondairy p
roducts are available in grocery and health-food stores. Visit VegCooking.com fo
r ideas, or call 1-888-VEG-FOOD to order a free vegan starter kit.

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