While I was busy selling raffle tickets at a recent benefit gig for the Irish Vegan Society, a woman approached with a common question about dairy: she could see the problem about meat eating - but surely there are no ethical issues regarding milk and cheese.
I explained, as you do, about the fact that calves are taken away from their mothers so we can consume this baby food of another mammal in our never-weaned society. Now, usually at this point, people tend to assume that we ‘share’ the mother’s milk with the calf: we just ‘take the surplus.’ However, on this occasion I was shocked to find that the woman had no awareness that pregnancy and lactation were connected. She also was unaware that cows do not ‘give milk for life,’ seemingly still a commonly held myth. Even those who hold this false belief surely assume that the cow would need to be pregnant to begin this process?
So, trying to talk over a Johnny Cash tribute band, I said it would be the same as if she were breastfeeding her own child, eventually the milk flow would decrease and then stop. For it to begin again fully, she would need to be pregnant again. Rather than this statement clarifying the issue, as I had hoped, the woman was more confused. She was apparently unable to make any connection between a human mother breastfeeding her children and cow’s milk.
Have the dairy industry been so successful in achieving this disconnect, and is part of the resistance in human animals to acknowledge that they are animals also manifest in a denial of the fact that we are mammals capable of feeding young just like other mammals do?
13 comments:
In answer to your rhetorical question, yes.
The dairy industry is built upon such lies. In some ways I think that dairy is worse than eating meat - beef cattle have a relatively idyllic life, before the inevitable final trip to the slaughterhouse, but dairy cattle endure day after day of milking, and year after year of repeated pregnancies before their worn out bodies are made into hamburgers.
I think more vegetarians would go vegan if they knew the full story.
Sadly money talks and there are too many vested interests in portraying veganism as "fringe" and vegans as lentil-eating hippies.
Last year at a Halloween party I had a similar conversation with a 60+ year old man. Simply (in his mind) cows ate grass which made milk inside them that we had to extract from them otherwise they'd explode presumably? The mention of the word 'pregnancy' hit him left-field and stuttered as he tried to comprehend something so obvious. In the end, the warm blanket of ignorance came in and all he could say was the word "no" to me. I kid you not. Comically he was unable to rethink his world. Old dogs & new tricks?
A while ago, I was talking with a gynaecologist about cow's milk, and she showed surprise when I told her that cows don't give milk without being pregnant. No kidding.
It is the commodification of nonhumans that stops people from perceiving animals' milk as anything but an object of human consumption. They enjoy consuming it because they don't perceive it as mother's milk, meant to feed a baby. Realizing – in more than a matter-of- fact sense – that the liquid we pour into our coffee is the equivalent of the substance needed for breastfeeding a human child makes consuming the stuff much less convenient. That's why we educate people about it.
Your description of the process makes it easy to understand how a glass of milk can represent more cruelty than a serving of beef. That being the case, it's ironic that people who transition to veganism, including those who are ethically motivated, usually give up beef first, dairy and eggs last. I like Francione's transition advice of veganizing one meal at a time.
People hide from the full meaning of animal exploitation - its terribleness and brutality - so they can continue consuming animal products with a clear conscience.
Some people are disgusted when they see a reflection of their own behaviour in animal behaviour, whereas I have always found this -- the similarity between humans and nonhumans - to be an object of wonder.
I think this is a good example of how vegans like myself have just heard these facts explained so many times, we forget we have to start with the ABCs of why we are vegan. I find myself throwing the ideology of animal rights on people before I even tell them the simple stuff and the dairy vs. meat information is one such piece of information.
Thanks for all of your interesting - and sometimes shocking - observations folks. Adam - I think one soon learns the need, and gains the ability, to shift gears when talking to different people. It soon becomes apparent what they do not know! In my example, I soon realised talk of rights bearing and rights violations would have to wait for later for this person and I needed to talk on a basic biological level, which she clearly struggled with.
This appears to underline the fact that we can explain a lot about what goes on in human-nonhuman relations by looking at basic sociological issues like socialisation processes and social psychological issues such as denial.
RY
FYI--mammals do not actually have to have a baby to lactate. Grandmothers can lactate to feed their babies, moms can feed adopted babies. But production and quantity are improved by childbirth, which is why they do forcibly impregnate cows and steal their babies away.
It's a fine point, but we should be accurate. As long as they are milked, they will produce milk. As long as a human mama pumps, she will usually keep producing (but supply will be reduced).
Re the last comment - I've found that people shelter behind the idea that cows GO ON giving milk after (say) one calf, as long as they're milked - lots of stories about the woman in the village who went on giving milk for so long, fed all the orphans for miles around - just the other day someone chipped into a conversation with a tale of a seven-year old running up to mom (humans) and requesting the breast etc etc. The fact that these are exceptions and light years frpom commercial milking practices get overlooked - wishful thinking, I guess, but often capable of derailing conversations about veganism. Sigh.
Thanks again for the comments. Sara and Cavall - I can see the need to tidy up my claims-making on this issue! Of course, there is a distinction to be made from instances that tend to be the norm and unusual examples. Your posts made me think of wet nursing, which is a fascinating subject in its own right, especially sociologically, with its class and gender based aspects, wrapped up with the issue of the medicalisation of society. There is a great book from 1996, by Janet Golden, about the social history of wet nursing in North America.
The advice given to women about breastfeeding is pretty telling too. For example:-
http://www.newbiemommy.com/breastfeeding/lactation/Tips-For-Inducing-Lactation-In-Any-Woman.html
http://www.breastfeeding-mom.com/wet-nurse.html
The comments here are most interesting: http://breastfeeding.blog.motherwear.com/2009/07/what-kind-of-mammal-are-we.html
I definitely promise to sharpen up on this issue in the future!
On the misconceptions people have about the basic biology of animals... When I mention to someone that I'm vegan and do not eat eggs (either)... they assume it's because "eggs" have the potential of becoming chicks. And that this is extreme "vegetarinism", which honors unborn lives.
You can strike them down with a chicken feather, once you disclose the fact that the eggs they consume are "unfertilized".
They breath a sigh of relief that they are not "cruel" by killing unborn chicks. Then the next blow comes when describing the where/how their eggs are gotten.
I think it does all confirm though - that the greatest asset the animal industries have... is the ignorance of it's consumers.
I used to be one of those ignorant consumers...it wasn't until I was vegan (and it's embarrasing to say this) that I found out that dairy cows don't naturally produce milk. I was 25 and I have an MBA and studied nutrition - that is how good the dairy industry is at keeping people in the dark.
My vegetarian roommate's bestfriend owned a dairy farm and she believe that cows need to be milked - so it makes me wonder if even some of those in the dairy industry believe the lies and are just as ignorant as the consumers...
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