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In terms of carbon pollution it may be debatable, but in terms of treatment towards animals soy is much better morally.
On the small farm my mother grew up on a cow was only milked after it calved every couple of years. A cow in a commercial milk factory (do not confuse with a farm) is milked nonstop for years. If it stops producing milk they get it pregnant and then abort its calf to keep the milk flowing. In addition soy milk also has tons of fiber and vitamins that regular milk doesn't have.
People that don't like the taste of the powdered stuff need to try the chocolate or vanilla flavored soy in a half gallon container.
Let's see. A cow's gestation period is 9 months. Left to their own devices, as they would be in the wild, with a bull in the herd (as there would be in the wild), what do you think the cows do? I can tell you exactly what the cows do - they breed! Annually, not every couple of years.
As for aborting the calf, that would not be good for the bottom line, especially when those calves can be (a) replacement heifers for the herd or sold to those seeking replacement heifers or (b) if bull calves, sold to people who want to raise some feeder steers for their own consumption or to sell. So, the argument that it's all about the money doesn't agree with the statement that the calves are aborted. I detect the faint whiff of PETA in that argument - and they've acknowledged to my face over another issue that they had no knowledge of either the issue or the animals in question and appropriate care for them, but it sure did make good copy and keep the donations flowing in.
Oh, the flavors of soy milk you recommend? Tried them, found them undrinkable. If you like them, by all means, drink them, just don't expect others to give up milk because you want to.
If you are feeding cattle soy then I think it's time to become a vegan. Steers and cows where intended to feed on grass not corn or soy. Corn and soy fed beef are sick and consuming those products from these ill-fed livestock compromises the health of those that consume them.
FYI: Many food companies are now using soy oil in their products because corn products are now more expensive. Hellman's mayo is one of them. People with thyroid problems should not use soy products. Others may have digestive problems due to the hidden soy in processed foods. Read the labels!
Got milk...stay with the real thing, enjoy and be healthy.
I didn't know this. Soy sauce is okay, but I don't tolerate it otherwise. I hope these products contain a label on the front which says (made with soy milk). Of course a lot of people would not buy them then.
It's like the sweetners. One of them make me sick. I don't know what kind is used in diet stuff so I simply eat nothing that is diet.
Did you not notice that alfalfa was one of the things that they're feeding the dairy cows instead of corn? And that they're feeding them a grain ration made of those plants that are more like their natural diet than a corn based one is? That was on the first page of the article.
As for grassfed beef, it's raised here in Central Texas, in the Hill Country, even, where water is ALWAYS an issue one way or another. But the "lots and lots of rain" that is here tends to be all in one week with flooding, right after several months or years of drought, rather than the kind you're talking about. Interestingly, meat can be raised in areas where crops can't be grown, making the land useful for food production where it would not be otherwise.
I was only picking up on your post to the better advantages of grass fed aniamls. I agree that would be great for them to have their nature diet, but that is not available in many areas. Now where I lived I had a former neighbor in Anza who had a Timothy grass and Orchard hay business, of course he was actually 6 miles away, but in true country wilderness fashion a thousand square miles of rural folk can and are your neighbors.
Here is his site. Here picks it up in Oregon. Quite expensive too. Most of his customers are horse breeders and others with expensive stock, not dairies and such like. Again it's either double or even more than double the cost of Alfalfa hay. PBR HAY SALES offers only top grade Timothy and Orchard hay
Anyway not everyone has the advantages of pasture and perhaps corn and other products are what is only available. Actually many of the Ethanol producers are taking the corn mash they are using and after taking out the carbohydrates they want for alcohol fuel, they make feed from the processed mash which apparently still has the proteins needed. Although I could be wrong, I believe it's the Carbohydrates that cause the gas in the first place. Maybe someone else here knows more on that.
I grew up on a small dairy farm. We'd filter some of the milk, put it in glass gallon jars and bring it in the house for our own drinking.
Our cows always had ground ear-corn to eat. But it was unbelievable how much differently the milk tasted when the cows were switched from one roughage to another. It's not that the milk would taste just like corn silage, or alfalfa hay, but it certainly had different "nuances" to the taste.
Well I can back you up on this. There is a taste difference on what they get fed, no science necessary, just your own taste buds.
My family were into dairy as we were growing up and my little brother was allergic to cows milk. So we bought goats milk from those who raised them. I hated the taste of it, but they use to let their goats run the range and if you know goats, their diet is whatever they want. Most of their diet was various type of sage brush and other chaparral. Consequently it had a rangy wild gamey flavour. Later I did actually have some goats milk that came from grain fed goats and it was almost like cows milk. I actually thought it tasted good.
I think the same could be said for pigs fed on wild food or restrant scaps or slop. The meat can taste wild and gamey or corn fed as the expression goes. Same can be said for beef as well.
Do any stores carry these? My son is allergic as well
Not sure where you live but they are based in Belgium. Here is their website in English. Maybe you can find a öoacation in the United States if that is where you are.
Well I can back you up on this. There is a taste difference on what they get fed, no science necessary, just your own taste buds.
My family were into dairy as we were growing up and my little brother was allergic to cows milk. So we bought goats milk from those who raised them. I hated the taste of it, but they use to let their goats run the range and if you know goats, their diet is whatever they want. Most of their diet was various type of sage brush and other chaparral. Consequently it had a rangy wild gamey flavour. Later I did actually have some goats milk that came from grain fed goats and it was almost like cows milk. I actually thought it tasted good.
I think the same could be said for pigs fed on wild food or restrant scaps or slop. The meat can taste wild and gamey or corn fed as the expression goes. Same can be said for beef as well.
And on another level, this would apply to nursing human mothers as well.
It's kind of a no-brainer that what she eats is going to - in some form or flavor - be passed on to her baby.
Cow milk is for calves. It is not designed for the needs of a human child. It may have calcium [which is hyped up big by the media and commercials] but so do many things. It also has estrogens in it: which young boys do not need [it can cause higher rates of male sterility], and which young girls do not need [it causes them to enter puberty faster], only menopausal females 'need' extra estrogen [which they can get from soy].
Interesting how well human children have done on cow's milk for generations. And, of course, on the many other things that some folks now have decided must be "bad" for us wholesale (rather than bad for the occasional person who has an allergy or other individual physiological idiosyncracy). I don't by any means think that the things that I eat that my body demonstrates with good health for me MUST be the way and the Only Way for everyone, no matter their individual genetics, and that that's what everyone must eat and be healthy on, and I would prefer the same respect from others (though I'm not going to hold my breath, as diet seems to be one of those areas where misplaced religious fervor takes root easily these days).
It would be best if we all paid attention to what our bodies tell us about what we're eating and ate accordingly and stopped right there, without generalizing our own experiences to the entire human race.
The European Union actually wants agriculture to be nothing more than government controlled industrial farming. Very few small farm business anymore. The entire E.U. has to keep strict guidelines and restrictions on how things in agriculture are done throughout Europe. Many long time traditional cheeses made by small family farms are no longer allowed. Cheese can only be made with acceptable socialistic E.U. created guidelines and usually only large corporation run dairy products plants. So in France as an example, many traditional family farms can no longer make their own centuries old family cheese recipies to their own local small town for who love their own unique variety of cheese. They have no choice but to sell their milk to big middlemen producers.
Same with wine. My wife and I were watching a documentary on eastern European wineries that were given back to the original families who had them taken away by the communist regimes. Traditional wines and methods for making them are now forbidden under the E.U. restrictive guidelines. So only E.U. approved wines are allowed. Sad really.
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