Is Slaughter-Free Milk Realistic?

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You ruined my breakfast.

NotSean on January 16, 2012 at 9:01 AM

Why? First they give you milk for breakfast, then burger for lunch, and then steak for dinner. Why ruin it?

NateMan on January 16, 2012 at 9:03 AM

I could live without milk. Cheese, though? You're gonna have to pry that outta my cold, dead hands.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on January 16, 2012 at 9:14 AM

5280: I'm guessing your cheese is German, blued, with a textured rind, balanced, not too much of a kick?

Eric from Boulder on January 16, 2012 at 9:20 AM

It pretty much all works for me.

Fifty-Two-Eighty on January 16, 2012 at 9:24 AM

I am out of milk. Send me one of these cows ASAP...

COMTE on January 16, 2012 at 9:36 AM

Hmmmm, worked pretty well before factory dairy farms.... of course the bull calves were considered meat. The key to this one is words.... Euthanasia versus slaughter I think is the key... the undesirables will br "put down" not "slaughtered" as that designates butchered for food.

pupuguru on January 16, 2012 at 9:42 AM

Almond milk is slaughter free...

Simply Me on January 16, 2012 at 9:49 AM

Charles is making sense. What a weird day.

treefort on January 16, 2012 at 10:03 AM

#8 not true. The water used to grow almonds in CA is taken from rivers, rivers that used to be teaming with salmon, until the almond groves moved in. Now, due to the needs of almond growers, the rivers are siphoned too low for salmon to survive which results in annual fish kills of staggering proportions. Slaughter free? Hardly. Every time you drink a quart of almond milk, your doing nothing more than drinking a quart of Sacramento river water, which used to be a vibrant healthy ecosystem supporting billions of pounds of biomass. Now, it's used to make smug, self satisfied yuppie shit heads feel good about not causing pain to dairy cows (which, btw are a crop species themselves, bred to be food - whereas salmon are wild and whose genetics and lifecycles are only determined by the hands of god. Which is more deserving of your contrived outrage?

on January 16, 2012 at 11:00 AM

@8, almond milk slaughters people's ability to not be smug. Pick your poison, I guess. Make cows live and die as part of a food economy, or render human beings helplessly smug. I'm not sure where I stand, but I very much want a bit of ice cream right now...

gloomy gus on January 16, 2012 at 11:54 AM

So even though cows produce huge amounts of greenhouse gasses and everyone is saying that the best thing we can do is reduce demand for beef and dairy, there are people who want to have even more cows -- cows who will never be slaughtered -- just so they can feel better about consuming dairy? Does anyone else think this is terribly wasteful and likely to be worse for the environment?

Personally, I would rather focus on ensuring a better quality of life and less anti-biotic use for cows versus increase the number of herds to appease a few people who aren't seeing the forest for the trees.

MissMarnie on January 16, 2012 at 12:15 PM

The funniest bit for me is that part of the useless slaughter can be blamed on the dying taste for veal. I mean, sure, baby cows were being killed anyway, but at least before they were being put to use.

NateMan on January 16, 2012 at 12:20 PM

@11 Airtight logic, gus. Factory farming is the cause of more greenhouse gas production than all forms of vehicle travel in the world combined. Hope our grandkids will at least appreciate we weren't smug, though.

OuterCow on January 16, 2012 at 12:29 PM

Now we have sexed semen - that means that one can buy semen with which to artificially inseminate cows, and the resulting calves will be something like 95% female.

So no, you don't have to have half of your calves be bull calves headed for a sad young slaughter and minimal economic return to the farmer. You can have most of them be replacement heifers.

Just one of the many ways science is improving things.

Thisbe on January 16, 2012 at 12:57 PM

@14, I apologize for a poor joke when matters of such ptih and moment are being weighed by us of the Slog brain trust.

gloomy gus on January 16, 2012 at 1:30 PM

"Ptih?" Fuckity fuck.

gloomy gus on January 16, 2012 at 1:31 PM

I'm all for "humane" treatment of animals but slaughter free? That's silly. Cows are raised for food. Once you're done getting one kind of food from them it's time to get the other kind. Treat them well, feed them right then feed them to me.

Root on January 16, 2012 at 1:43 PM

@17: "Ptih" is the noise I make when I've got a hair on my tongue.

In keeping with the move towards culture-grown meat, hopefully we can someday soon grow bovine milk glands in the lab and cut overhead by quite a lot.

venomlash on January 16, 2012 at 3:01 PM

@16 Didn't realize you were joking, sorry.

@19 Agreed.

OuterCow on January 16, 2012 at 4:08 PM

@7, no even non-factory biodynamic boutique dairy farms slaughter dairy cows past their prime for food. My freezer is full of some of evidence of this practice.

kdgd on January 16, 2012 at 4:31 PM

It's really hard to make a living on dairy farming. If people stopped eating meat then a whole host of problems would disappear, not just the slaughtering.

Mr. J on January 17, 2012 at 5:18 AM

It doesnt need to be so extreme. Let the cows raise their calves outside in the sunshine having fun.Harvesting the left over milk, which can be alot. when the calves get to be adult some are kept to restock the dairy the rest are butchered as quickly and painlessly as possible. Im not going to be eating them but if this system has to exist it should be as close to natural and humane as possible. Still parasitically living off of them but in a much less intrusive way. Use real bulls for insemination, no painful mutilations, no hormones, no unnecessarily cruelty. You cant avoid killing but you can make their lives better.

princess Logan on May 26, 2012 at 8:30 PM

Is Slaughter-Free Milk Realistic?

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