The Dairy Industry Is Incredibly Cruel To Cows, Devastating To The Environment, And Bad For Human Health

Please note: This article contains no graphic images. For those who are wondering why an article about the dairy industry is showing up on the Unruly Living & Travel blog, please refer to my post If You Love To Travel, This Is Why You Should Go Vegan for the link between dairy farming and travel.

The dairy industry is one that haunts me daily. For the average consumer who doesn’t understand how the dairy industry works that probably sounds silly, petty even. “What’s wrong with milk?” people ask me. “A little bit of cheese never hurt anyone,” they taunt. They don’t understand how deadly eating animal-based dairy products is… but who can blame them? The dairy industry has done a tremendous job hiding their sinister and unethical practices from the public. In 2021 alone the dairy industry spent 1.73 million US dollars on advertising, trying to save a sinking ship.

In the this text, I hope to shine a light on the practice that hurt animals, our planet, and our very own bodies. I will point out ways in which the dairy industry is so anti-female, and you will learn how it is built upon the exploitation of the reproductive system (and how the sexism in the dairy upholds sexism between humans as well).

It is my hope that by the end of this article you can take off the rose-colored glasses we’ve all been forced to wear while looking at the dairy industry, and agree that it’s time to let that ship sink as quickly as possible.

What Does It Take To “Humanely” Exploit Animals? 

Before you dive in deeper, it’s important that you know that I’ve investigated over a dozen of dairy farms in person, from larger factory-like farms to smaller family-owned ones. I myself grew up in a farming family where the chickens that I would play with during the day would end up on our plate for dinner, and the milk that filled our glasses was from an animal who was standing just outside in the barn. I, like many of you, grew up with the narrative that “Animals are here for us” and that “It’s OK to slaughter animals, it’s what they’re made for”. I arrived to the following conclusions and work through a decade of searching for truth when it comes to our relationship with nonhuman animals, and hands-on investigations into these industries where I’ve seen these practices that I will discuss with my own two eyes.

Earlier today I toured a so called “local”, “humane”, family-run and “eco-friendly” dairy farm. It is said to be “one of the best” in our area, and these types of farms often proudly boast that they are more sensitive, compassionate, and friendly than factory farms. But the tour left a sinister taste in my mouth, and I have come to realize that often times these smaller dairy farms are more complicated to criticize than factory farms. Because while it is obvious that factory farms do not care about the nonhumans that they commodify, smaller farms have insidious ways of hiding their many abuses.  

In the following paragraphs, I will work to wash away the clouded vision that the public has when it comes to their local dairy farm by proving how there is no true “humane” way to consume the breastmilk of captive nonhuman animals (dispelling the “humane” myth), explain why just because a business is family-run does not make it family-friendly, and discuss why dairy production is actually the opposite of “eco-friendly”, even through small-scale production.

To begin, I want to explain why as a female the dairy industry haunts me so deeply. It is hard to do this without painting myself as a victim, or make this a human-centered assessment. But there’s a reason for feeling this connection between myself (a queer female) and the dairy industry: because human animal and nonhuman animal suffering are undeniably linked, as is demonstrated very clearly in the book The Oxen at the Intersection by Patrice Jones. 

The Connection Between Sexism And Speciesism 

When it comes to dairy farms, no, I am not the victim. The real victims are the nonhuman animals who are being held captive and exploited; whether that is a cow, goat, sheep, or someone else. But their widely-accepted exploitation by dairy farmers, big companies, and consumers who know the truth but are not willing to change re-enforces human female oppression, and vice versa. In this way I do feel a kinship with the cows, whose eyes revealed that they were so obviously aware of their painful situation as I stood close to them. This feeling was only strengthened as I walked the pasture next to a man (the dairy “farmer” himself) who was so out of touch with the suffering, sexism, and speciesism that he was creating and reinforcing in the world through farming cows for their breastmilk.

Patrice Jones writes in The Oxen at the Intersection that “Speciesism and sexism are so entangled that I personally tend to see them as two sides of the same coin – that coin being the profits (in terms of power and privilege as well as money) of controlling someone else’s body, including its reproductive capacities.”

For those who want to learn more about the link between speciesism and sexism, jones recommends the following books: The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol Adams, Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature by Greta Garrard, the anthology Sister Species by Lisa Kemmerer, and A. Breeze Harper’s collection Sistah Vegan.

When I was interviewing Chris Huriwai from the Aotearoa Liberation League – a decolonial justice project that focuses on liberation for humans, other animals, and the environment through a decolonial lens – he said that “It [dairy farming] is an attack on the feminine in every way.” This statement could not be more true, and soon you will see why.  

Cows Do Feel Pain, Have Family Bonds, And Experience Emotions

To begin, let’s lay to rest the myth that cows don’t feel pain, experience emotions, or have any self-awareness. (I also want to acknowledge that many other nonhuman animals are victims of the dairy industry too, but in this text we will focus on cows.) 

People often justify torturing and killing other animals because of the misconseption that “we’re smarter than other animals, and that’s why we can torture/abuse/exploit/eat them”. We humans can’t claim to be the “only intelligent ones” while we simultaneously wreck our one and only home planet, poison our drinking water, eat foods that destroy our bodies and our Earth, and slaughter our fellow earthlings daily (25 million worldwide, to be exact) – but that’s exactly what we’re doing. While humans can be intelligent, each species measures intelligence differently, and further, being worthy of bodily autonomy and a safe existence should not be based on one’s intelligence.

While humans can be intelligent, each species measures intelligence differently, and further, being worthy of bodily autonomy and a safe existence should not be based on one’s intelligence.

We have also forgotten that we too are animals, and that most of us easily recognize and confirm seeing “personalities” and emotions in the domesticated dogs and cats that we keep in our homes, but deny labeling these same behaviors as such in other species, because it is more convenient not to, and eases our guilt about abusing them.

What The Science Says

But for those humans who won’t let the outdated argument that “animals don’t feel pain” go, we’ll break down the subject of animals feeling pain and expressing emotions. Marc Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist says, “Mammals share the same nervous system, neurochemicals, perceptions, and emotions, all of which are integrated into the experience of pain.”

In another article, Marc goes on to say that “Cows are typically recognized for their ubiquity as various sorts of products, who value is cashed out in terms of their instrumental value—namely, what they can do for us. Their inherent value as living sentient beings with distinct personalities often is glossed or totally ignored. However, even people who work in the food-industrial complex or who are responsible for developing humane welfare guidelines (that all too frequently are ignored), know that cows are sentient beings and that they suffer and feel pain. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even bother to develop regulations that supposedly protect the animals.”

He adds that “A good deal of research has been done on the emotional lives of cows and we know that they experience a wide range of emotions. For example, they display fear and anxiety and the less eye white that is seen, the better they feel. When cow mothers are separated from their calves, as is done as they are being prepared for meals, there is an increase in the amount of eye white.”

For more information on cow intelligence and sentience, please review this article and scientific study. There is no doubt that cows are feeling beings that can suffer and experience pain, and we must stop pretending otherwise to justify their abuse.

“Local” Does Not Equal Ethical

Now that we have that settled, back to the dairy farm. First things first: “local” does not equal ethical. No matter where you are in the world, somewhere is “local” to you. You are local to somewhere. Just because you are/live close to exploitation, slaughter, forced impregnation and other horrors that cows used for dairy are forced to endure doesn’t make it right or any more ethical than if it was being done further away. Horrible and abusive acts are committed each day, and just because they are “local” to us does not make them any less cruel.

Debunking the Humane Myth

The “humane myth” tells us that there is an ethical way to domesticate, forcibly impregnate, exploit, and slaughter nonhuman animals. “Humane” is literally defined as “having or showing compassion or benevolence”. The dairy industry is literally built upon non-consensual acts that sexualize, mutilate, and exploit the female reproductive system, and it is clear that these acts are the opposite of compassionate.

Small dairy farms often play upon this myth, telling that because of their smaller scale of operations they are doing things the “right” way, while bigger farms are doing them the “wrong” way.

They try to convince us that because they have the ability to have a more personal relationship with the animals they exploit, they couldn’t possibly be doing anything wrong or inhumane. 

Instead of confining and forcibly impregnating hundreds of cows against their will at once, they often do it to 6-100 cows. Instead of forcing the animals to stay inside on hard floors all day without access to sunshine or grass, they allow their cows to graze – and they say this as if they are going above and beyond animal welfare standards, ignoring the fact that they forced these dependent captives to be in their care for profit, forced into an unnatural lifecycle from the beginning. Instead of taking the lives of hundreds of animals non-consensually by sending them to slaughter, they only do it to the ones who they have intimately raised since birth and “treat like family”.

Nothing Humane About Forced Impregnation

Let’s get one thing straight: cows do not make milk because “that’s what they’re here for”, or because they are milk machines. This is an outdated myth that needs to be burned down. They make milk because they are mothers; on dairy farms cows are forcibly impregnated year after year so that they will begin lactating. Once they are lactating, humans steal their babies from them and take the breastmilk for themselves to profit off of instead.

Sometimes they are forcibly impregnated by human hand and bull semen through artificial insemination (let’s not act like this is not disgusting, disturbing and incredibly violating), and sometimes by the females being forced to endure sexual intercourse with males – forcing nonconsensual sexual acts onto another species. 

Nothing Humane About Taking Away One’s Right To Choose

This point may go over the heads of those who subscribe only to gender binaries or accept heterosexuality as the one and only path, not understanding how our views on gender directly and indirectly shape our world, but one thing is sure: nature is queer. We live in a world where heterosexuality is violently enforced by the state in many ways. Heterosexuality is not the “natural” way of the world.

In nature, and when it comes to other animals, there is just sexuality and no gender (since gender is a social construct, created by humans), and it goes in all different directions on an open spectrum. Queer is the baseline, and heterosexuality is just another point on that spectrum. On episode #58 the Unruly Podcast, Robbie Lockie points out how it is less of a spectrum, and more of an open galaxy with endless possibilities. 

Queerness is the baseline, and heterosexuality is just another point on that spectrum.

Robbie Lockie

So let’s not assume that all animals are “straight”, because they aren’t. Due to the controlling nature of the dairy industry and the humans who decide when/where/how female cows will be impregnated, female cows lack the ability to choose a partner out of love or emotional/physical compatibility. Female cows are often forced to mate with whatever bull is in their area, or are forcibly impregnated by human hand using the most desirable semen (that is often produced by bulls through electroejaculation or other methods).

To quote pattrice jones, they point out when it comes to animals being used in animal agriculture that “Love matches are not allowed, and no animal may opt out of compulsory heterosexuality.” When interviewed on the Unruly Podcast, pattrice added: “Cows in the dairy industry may form bonds and relationships with the others that they are around. But they can’t even count on these relationships. Their friends and family members are subject to being removed – and even killed – at any moment.”

Nothing Humane About Stealing Babies

Calves used by the dairy industry (on all dairy farms, large are small) are babies. They have mothers that care for them and feel a strong bond with them. But in the eyes of the dairy industry, they are seen as “waste” and “trash”. It is obvious because most males in the dairy industry are discarded; their young bodies are to be used for “veal” or cheap “beef” because they cannot lactate and produce breast milk like females can. And before they are discarded, they are separated from their mothers, 97% of them just 24 hours after being born.

Which brings me to my next point about the young female calves of the dairy industry. Yes, they are separated from their mothers as well, and yes, their futures are just as grim, but the suffering is prolonged – they will grow up (and not really at all, they are slaughtered at just a sliver of the age they could naturally live to) and be forcibly impregnated just like their mothers. 

The separation is traumatizing for the mother and child. There are countless videos of cow moms fighting back when their babies are being taken away from them, and multiple dairy farmers have admitted to me that their babies cry out for their mothers, and mothers for babies, for days or even weeks after the separation. On this website that highlights some of the most “humane” dairy farms in North Carolina, you can see that separation of mother and baby are standard practice at all farms.

Nothing Humane About Any Of It

To summarize, it is delusional to conclude that an industry is “humane” when it literally depends on forced impregnation and separation of mother and child to exist. The word “humane” implies that it is the “most human” thing to do – that it is suitable and ethical for even humans to endure – but what I have just explained is clearly the furthest thing from what any of us would want to experience, and the only way to conclude otherwise is by pretending that cows do not feel emotions or form family bonds, which has already been disproven previously in this text. Now, let’s move on to some more important aspects of the dairy industry.

The Dairy Industry Disrespects Mothers

Motherhood and birth is a sacred, powerful act. It gives life and takes life. It should be respected and honored as such. When speaking to Samah Seger from the Aotearoa Liberation League, she expressed that “Dairy is really about as disrespectful as you can get. We’re talking about motherhood; what can be more sacred than motherhood, or the fluid that she creates to feed her child?”

She went on to explain that “Reproduction in general has been one of those things that colonialism has systematically desecrated, not just for animals but for humans as well. And you see it across the world in the history of colonization. It is one of the first things that the target: female’s autonomy over their own reproductive systems.” She adds that “Dairy normalizes the exploitation of the reproductive system. It normalizes saying, ‘there is nothing sacred about a mother, about giving birth’. Again, it is about as disrespectful as you can get.” Many mothers around the world have amplified the same sentiment and share their powerful stories on the Mothers Against Dairy website.

Reproduction in general has been one of those things that colonialism has systematically desecrated, not just for animals but for humans as well. 

– Samah Seger

You can listen to my full episode with Samah and Chris on the Unruly podcast here.

“Family-owned” Doesn’t Mean “Family-Friendly”

I think by this point I’ve proven how the dairy industry is the opposite of family-friendly. To put it plainly, forcing someone into existence just to become pregnant, give birth, and start a family that will just be ripped away from them does not spell out “family-friendly”, or anything close to it, for that matter. 

Just because a whole entire family owns a business that exploits sentient beings does not make that exploitation any more justified. Just because this cruel business has been passed down from generation to generation doesn’t excuse the horrific practices that take place within the business. 

Do “Eco-Friendly Dairy” Farms Exist?

We’ve all seen the idyllic ads of “dairy cows” grazing on sweet, green pastures that cover the rolling countryside. We are told that these cows are happy – that these cows are treated “like family”. 

All cows used by the dairy industry are forced into the world so that their breastmilk can be stolen and sold by humans, and we’ve already talked about what it takes to complete that process. With that in mind and it being the baseline for dairy farming, I would hate to see how the family members of dairy farmers are treated if their cows are treated “like family”.

But ethics aside, what about the environmental impact? A very, very small amount of consumers turn to small-scale dairy farms for dairy “products” because they believe that they are doing the planet a favor – but that couldn’t be further than the truth. 

Do Humans Really Need To Consume The Breast Milk Of Another Species? 

Before we dive into the environmental impact of dairy farming, we must make one thing clear: drinking the breast milk of another species’ (especially after weaning age) is not a requirement for human health. In fact, the practice is detrimental to human health. 

We’re “Lactose Intolerant” Because We’re Not Calves

Most of us have heard that we need to consume the breast milk of a cow to grow up big and strong. But is that really true? When it comes to digesting cow’s milk, Switch4Good says, “How can cows’ milk be considered a health food when 65% of the world’s population is intolerant to it?

Once someone who is lactose intolerant consumes cows’ milk or other lactose-containing dairy products, symptoms can occur within 30 minutes to two hours! These symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating, gas, nausea, and diarrhea. Cows’ milk is making those who are lactose intolerant sick.” The harmful effects of dairy consumption don’t stop there.

Consuming Cow’s Milk Has Been Linked To Cancer

When it comes to cow’s milk and cancer, Switch4Good shares: “Milk from other animals is linked to cancer in human bodies. Dairy can stimulate unregulated cell growth and increase one’s risk for hormone-dependent cancers. On top of that, a 2015 meta-analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that high intakes of animal-based dairy products increase the risk for prostate cancer, while other research found that people who drank more than one glass of whole animal-based milk per day had twice the risk of fatal prostate cancer. Another study found that women who reported just eight ounces of cow’s milk a day increased their risk of breast cancer by 50%. Those who consumed two to three glasses escalated their risk up to 80% (in comparison to the women who did not drink any cow’s milk).”

The Harmful Side Effects Of Consuming Cow’s Milk Don’t Stop There

I would bet a lot of money that you’ve heard that “cow’s milk gives us strong bones”. Sorry to bust through those seemingly wholesome childhood memories, but that’s a myth. “Yes, it’s true: cow’s milk contains calcium. But what you probably didn’t know is that only about 30% of it can be absorbed by the body. In fact, a 12-year prospective study found that regular daily consumption of dairy products actually increased one’s risk of hip fracture. Want strong bones? Try tahini, bok choy, broccoli, and these foods instead.”

If that’s not enough to convince you that we don’t need to consume cow’s milk to be healthy, check out these 9 reasons to avoid dairy and this overview of how dairy consumption hurts human health. 

Dietary Racism And Food Apartheid

I won’t spend too much time on this section, but it doesn’t mean that this topic isn’t important. There is just so much information to cover that I wouldn’t do it justice without dedicating a whole article to the subject, which many other people have already done. After learning the health impacts that cow’s milk can have on human health, many people want to ditch dairy for good, but there can be many obstacles in the way.

When it comes to dietary racism, Switch4Good reminds us that “Food is a political act, and our choices impact the lives of others—whether we are conscious of this or not. While we have been told that dairy benefits our bodies, the serious social repercussions far outweigh any nutrients found in this food (which are easily obtained elsewhere). Sixty-five percent of the world’s population is intolerant to cow’s milk with disproportionately higher rates (up to 95 percent!) among Black individuals, Asians, Native Americans, and Latinx populations. Despite this, the American government and even some nonprofits promote dairy to the public as a healthy, necessary food. This is an act of dietary racism.” 

The system is often stacked against individuals who want to give up consuming dairy products or other animal products in numerous ways. Another challenge that someone may face is having a lack of access to healthy food, which is described as a “food apartheid”. NRDC says: “Apartheid is a system of institutional racial segregation and discrimination, and these areas are food apartheids because they too are created by racially discriminatory policies.”

So Cow’s Milk Actually Harms Human Health And Is Not Necessary For Survival. Now Back To The Environmental Impact 

Now that we’ve clarified that it is not necessary for humans to consume cow’s milk (and that that consumption actually hurts us), we can move on to discuss how dairy farming affects the planet. This 100% unnecessary and unnatural practice is extremely harmful to our planet.

Ok, so imagine those images of “dairy cows” grazing on sweet, green pastures that cover the rolling countryside again. Yeah, that’s not really how most dairy farms work these days in the USA and most other countries. Hardly anyone buys products from small and local dairy farms, as we will explore below. Therefore, we will focus on factory farms for a moment.

Sentient Media reminds us of an important message: “While cows as a species are not inherently bad for the environment, the way that industrial farmers raise cows for food and other commercial purposes has harmed the environment.”

Dairy Farming And Hazardous Waste Issues

Nearly 99 percent of farmed animals in the US are factory farmed, and there are around 250,000 farms in the US. When it comes to waste, one dairy farm with 2,500 cows produces as much waste as a small city with 411,000 residents. The amount of animal waste produced by animals trapped in factory farms is almost 13 times more than that produced by the entire US population. So what happens do all of that waste, and why is it dangerous?

When it comes to storing nonhuman waste, Food Print says: “Animal waste is stored in open ponds (called lagoons) or pits and is applied untreated as fertilizer to farm fields. The mixture in lagoons consists not only of animal excrement but of bedding waste, antibiotic residues, cleaning solutions and other chemicals, and sometimes dead animals. Most lagoons are lined only with clay and can leak, allowing the waste to seep into groundwater.”

So what’s the problem? “When such an extraordinary amount of waste is applied to fields, it is generally on a scale and at a rate that far exceeds what the land is capable of absorbing. Not only is untreated waste and chemical residue applied directly to cropland, but the excess runs off and ends up in nearly all streams and rivers.”

On top of that, “The high content of nitrogen and other nutrients in manure runoff lead to dead zones in downstream waterways, where an overgrowth of algae consumes all the oxygen, which is of course needed to support other life.” In conclusion, waste problem that dairy farming creates hurts our soil, waterways, and aquatic animals. But what about humans?

Food Print says: “Untreated waste at CAFOs also pollutes the air with odors and creates health problems, markedly decreasing the quality of life of workers, people nearby and neighboring communities and property values. Two significant pollutants are potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, along with ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other noisome chemicals.”

Dairy Farming And Climate Change

When it comes to climate change, Sentient Media says: “The way cows are farmed results in greenhouse gases that warm the earth’s atmosphere, contributing to sustained changes in the weather known as climate change. The effects of climate change include cycles of extreme weather like floods, excessive rain, and droughts. Climate change is also resulting in harm to ecosystems, such as the acidification of the ocean due to warmer waters. Greenhouse gases released as a result of cow farming include methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide.” Wow, that’s a lot of damage in the name of a glass of another species’ milk. Earth is our home too, and people across the world are feeling the effects of climate change. Hurting cows to consume their breastmilk is undoubtably hurting us.

Dairy Farming And Wildlife Destruction

In an article titled Meat and Dairy Consumption Are Destroying Earth’s Wildlife, Ashley Capps writes: “Among the most pressing of these is the impact to wildlife ecosystems that results from the disproportionate use of natural resources required to produce animal-based foods: it takes far more land, water, and energy to raise and slaughter some 70 billion land animals annually (and to grow the crops to feed them) than it would take to grow crops to feed 7 billion humans directly.” She goes on to point out that “A result of clearing all this land for cattle, sheep, and other farmed animals is that ‘livestock’ production is now the single greatest driver of habitat loss and destruction globally (Science of the Total Environment, 2015). It is also the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, and water pollution. Indeed, scientists now agree that a mass extinction of species is rapidly underway; they are calling it the Sixth Great Mass Extinction of Species on Earth, with up to 200 species going extinct every day. And it’s being caused by us.”

For those who claim to care about other animals or the planet, this should be your wake up call. Consuming cow’s milk is directly linked to the extinction of various species in mass. It can be hard to wrap your head around at first, but this article goes into exactly how our obsession with milk and cheese is fueling this mass extinction, taking out many of the majestic species that are no longer able to roam this planet freely or peacefully.

Dairy Farming And Water Waste

Dairy farming is a threat to our water system. Waterways are not just drained by the water consumed by cows, but also by the water used to clean their facilities and their carcasses, and the water that it takes to raise the crops that feed them. It takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce one gallon of cow’s milk. Water is precious and should be protected, what a waste!

Cow’s Milk VS Plant Milk

Remember: Any plant-based milk is more eco-friendly than cow’s milk, even almond milk (according to a study by Oxford University). Did you know that a single glass of dairy milk results in almost three times as much greenhouse gas emissions and nine times more land use than the equivalent glass of plant-based milk? It’s true.  Ditching the dairy and consuming a plant-based diet can reduce your carbon emissions on average by 45% and land use by 55%. Switch4Good points out: “If everyone in the USA ate no meat or cheese just one day per week, it would have the environmental benefit of not driving 91 billion miles or taking 7.6 million cars off the road.”

But What About Small Farms, Aren’t They Better For The Planet? 

The short answer: no. I’ve gone over the ways in which dairy production drains land, water, and natural resources. Small farms that let their cows graze on pasture require even more land and resources than factory farms. While grass-fed cattle do offer some benefits in areas like fossil fuel use, they require an unattainable amount of land and still highly contribute to climate change.

The Food and Climate Research Network says the following when it comes to grass-fed cattle: “However, because their milk or meat yields are lower [because they eat high-fiber, low-calorie grass instead of high-calorie grain, they weigh less, plus they are not given growth hormones so they produce less milk], more numbers are needed to produce the same amount of edible output (three extensively reared cows, for example might produce the same amount of milk as two intensively reared cows), which translates into more methane emissions for a given quantity of milk or meat.”

They go on to point out “Hence, most LCA [life cycle assessment] studies find that organically reared cattle emit more emissions per kg of meat or milk produced than their conventional counterparts, largely because they tend to be reared more extensively.”

Grass-Fed Dairy Production Is A Pipe Dream

Despite the fact that farming animals in a “grass-fed” method is not sustainable, it’s hardly practiced at all. As of 2010 grass-fed “livestock” only represented 1% of the nation’s supply. On top of that, 75% to 80% of grass-fed beef (which is often a by-prodcut of the dairy industry) sold in the U.S. was farmed abroad and imported from Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South America, according to a 2017 report from the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

When It Comes To Protecting The Planet, Animals, And Ourselves, What’s The Solution?

“Livestock” already takes up nearly 80% of global agricultural land, yet produces less than 20% of the world’s supply of calories. It is clear that farming animals for their flesh and secretions is arguably one of the top cause of greenhouse gas emissions. Why do we keep supporting this outdated food system that its literally hurting our bodies, wildlife, animals, and the planet?

A plant-based diet needs to be globally adopted, and it needs to be adopted quickly. Research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75%. That would be an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined – and we could still feed the world, in a better way.

Let’s Rewild Instead 

So far we’ve gone over how dairy farming commits outrageous atrocities against our bodies, our homes, and other species that we share the planet with. It can be a lot to take in and may even leave you feeling hopeless. The fact is that even when we try our best to be conscious consumers, we don’t live in a perfect world, and we sadly aren’t even close to living in a vegan one. But we can make steps to head in the right direction, even while participating in mainstream society and start to rewild ourselves and our planet.

“Around 3 quarters of our land is used for animal agriculture, but that is only giving us about 18% of our global caloric need. The ultimate dream is that, with the land that we get back through converting animal agriculture to plant-based production, is that we would be able to re-wild a lot of that space. We would be a lot of our trees and native ecosystems back. It is not something that needs to stay in the past. It is just about changing our habits,” said Chris Huriwai in our recent podcast interview.  

He then went on to say: “I think modern day veganism, the way that we live in this world having to rely on industrialized food systems – the closest way that we can get to living in that more indigenous way that is connected with the land, is to be eating plant-based foods. It is as simple as that for me. Going into the super market and buying plant-based foods is more aligned with me and my indigeneity than buying animal products that we know are incredibly more harmful to the environment, the thing that we are trying to connect more with.”

The closest way that we can get to living in that more indigenous way that is connected with the land, is to be eating plant-based foods.

– Chris Huriwai

My Plea to Mothers, Feminists, Dairy Farmers, Environmentalist and Humanity Alike 

Please stop consuming the breastmilk stolen from other animals. While clever packaging and sneaky advertisements by the dairy industry may try to tell a different story, you now know the truth behind what it takes to create an animal-based glass of breastmilk, scoop of ice-cream, or block of cheese. These days there are so many delicious plant-based dairy options out in stores, and so many resources to help guide your plant-based journey along the way. Here are a few of my favorites that are great to start with:

• Afro Vegan Society’s African American Vegan Starter Guide
• Afro Vegan Society’s Dump Dairy Resource Library
• Animal Save Movement’s Self-Care Guide
• Free From Harm’s Dairy-Free Guide
• Switch4Good’s Alternatives to Dairy
• Switch4Good’s Dairy Detox
• Switch4Good’s Dairy Free Recipes

Free Support On Your Dairy-Free Journey

There are many intersectional organizations that are here to support you that you can follow and connect with such as:

• Milk Hurts highlights the ways in which dairy hurts animals, the planet, and human health.
• Mothers Against Dairy shares stories from mothers across the globe on vegan parenting and their journeys to rejecting the dairy industry.
• Switch4Good fights dietary racism on a systemic level, provides the science that shows how dairy harms human health and athletic performance, and has countless free guides to get you started on your dairy-free journey.
• Aotearoa Liberation League is a decolonial justice project that focuses on liberation for humans, other animals, and the environment through a decolonial lens.
• Afro Vegan Society is on a mission to make vegan living accessible to everyone. They often share cooking demos, food swap guides, and more.
• Vine Sanctuary is an LGBTQ-led farmed animal sanctuary that works for social and environmental justice as well as for animal liberation. 
• Animal Rebellion is a mass movement that uses nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to campaign for animal and climate justice.
• The Animal Save Movement‘s mission is to spread the idea that we all have a moral duty to bear witness, end animal agriculture and reforest the Earth.
• A Well-Fed World is supporting a global shift towards plant-based foods more efficiently uses crops and natural resources to nourish people and cool the climate.
• Free From Harm is dedicated to helping build a nonviolent mass movement of liberation for all species. Their website covers a wide variety of topics about farmed animals and even has a section dedicated to former animal farmers gone vegan.

We All Have Different Reasons For Ditching Dairy, What’s Yours? 

I originally ditched dairy for health reasons in my last year of high school, but would have done it sooner had I known about the ethics (or, lack thereof) in the dairy industry. You can read about my experience letting go of the dairy that I was so addicted to here.

Some people just need to see the dairy industry in (cruel) action for themselves to make the connection. Samah Seger from the Aotearoa Liberation League recounted a story to me on our recent podcast interview. She said, “I was driving down the highway and I saw a farmer taking a baby calf from a cow, and she was chasing the truck. I pulled over and thought, ‘Hold on a minute, I consider myself a feminist, and I am drinking the milk from these sad and suffering mothers who had their babies taken from them. I can’t justify this anymore.'”

It was undeniable that this was a grieving mother. The industry can say whatever they want, but it is black and white when you see it with your own eyes.

– Samah Seger

(Plant-Based) Food For Thought

When I asked Chris why he perused veganism, he said, “I made the decision when I was about 13 years old to become a vegetarian. About 10 years after that, after learning about the environmental impact of agriculture – and also just the dominance of the industry in our society: the way it is seeped into politics, education, health care system and more – really pushed over the edge.”

My veganism is really driven by the fact that I hate manipulation, I hate bullying, and I hate seeing big corporations take advantage of minority groups. The only response I could think of to all of this was to go vegan.

– Chris Huriwai

“My veganism is really driven by the fact that I hate manipulation, I hate bullying, and I hate seeing big corporations take advantage of minority groups. The only response I could think of to all of this was to go vegan.” After learning the truth about the dairy industry, I hope (for the sake of our future) that it’s the response that you’ll have too.