Cheese is not vegetarian

[Drowningintherain2]

Originally Posted by bustaduke

You do realize that you are totally wrong. You have never been on a real dairy farm have you? If you have you would know that cows DO NOT spend their lives hooked up to milking machines.

Cows are milked once in the morning and once in the afternoon. They spend the rest of the time grazing in nice green pastures.

Perhaps, you don't have this kind of farm but the vast majority of daiy farms in North America are factory farms. Even if the farms operated as you say, what becomes of the male offspring of these "well treated" dairy cows? How often is mastitis a concern? How often are these cows impregnated during there life? What happens to these dairy cows after their milk poduction starts to slow down? I mean really...lets be factual about this. I am sure there are people out there that would love to puchase dairy from these wonderful farms where calves suckle at their mother's teat and after her milk production wanes the mother is sent to live the rest of her days in comfot on a beautiful farrm santuary.

[Peggy Anne]

They sell a vegetarian rennet. I saw it at the hf store. Check cheese labels. Some list it on the pack.

[Opyelie]

Originally Posted by Cliffie

It does harm animals to eat dairy. Calves and kids are separated from their mothers so mom can be milked, which is distressing, disease-promoting and life-shortening to them both. And calves are then incarcerated in veal-fattening booths which are too small to move in -- keeps the meat tender and pale. Veal production is definitely harmful to the calves. The veal and dairy industries support each other, house-of-cards fashion.

Funny, I grew up on a dairy and mixed farm. What you're describing wasn't my experience. Our jerseys were grass fed contented cows and we NEVER restricted vealers to pens btw.

Then again maybe it's different in Australia.

[groar]

Originally Posted by bustaduke

You do realize that you are totally wrong. You have never been on a real dairy farm have you? If you have you would know that cows DO NOT spend their lives hooked up to milking machines.

Cows are milked once in the morning and once in the afternoon. They spend the rest of the time grazing in nice green pastures.

i have been on the kind of farm you describe. but farms like that can't supply the volume that is demanded by consumers in the united states. as i said, MOST (not all) cows (and pigs, and chickens) in the united states live on large scale factory farms, where they are concentrated and their movement is restricted, causing all sorts of health problems and inhumane conditions.

i've never been to a factory farm. they don't exactly welcome visitors at those. but it's not a secret that the cows at those farms are milked at up to 10 times their natural production rate and are not put out to pasture. these cows don't eat grass, they eat grain and even meat-based feed - remember mad cow disease? that was spread because cows were eating feed made up partly of other cows. your average cheese from your average grocery store is made from milk from a factory farm.