Why We Gave Up Dairy After Our Visit To A Local Dairy

Giving Up Dairy After Visiting A Local Dairy

In this article, I share why Don and I gave up dairy in the fall of 2022 after we visited a local dairy.  Once we began to transition away from our low-carb, meat-heavy 'daze' earlier in the year ~ we were able to return to our senses, and regain clarity. 

We asked ourselves, "How could we be living an illuminated life, while consuming animals?"

Especially when in reality, we can live, and even thrive without them?  

As someone who fits the description of being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) who does energy healing, I knew better, yet I ignored my own knowing! Spiritually speaking, I certainly believe that the immense pain, fear and suffering animals endure as they are heading into slaughter causes a surge in stress hormones and adrenaline which is absorbed into their organs and flesh, and passed on to the consumer.  I am not alone in these beliefs.  Studies (1), (2) do show that the increased stress hormones negatively affects the quality of meat. 

When that reality finally sunk into my saturated-fat thickened brain, it made me sick to my stomach.  That is an energy exchange I personally no longer desire to consume, which is why we gave up dairy as well as all animal foods.

We decided to watch a few more documentaries we had not yet seen (such as India:  The Land of Ahimsa, and Dominion, Farm Transparency Project, What The Health, (and Debunking What The Health and others,) which drove it all home. We had previously watched others, like Earthlings, and Forks Over Knives, yet this was fresh in our minds, and weighed heavy on our hearts.

I am pretty sure more people would become vegetarian overnight after sitting through some of these documentaries.  Most people have empathy and compassion towards other sentient beings when witnessing their immense suffering.

Why Seeing The Calves Suckling Led To Our Giving Up Dairy (Again)

For those who may not understand what Don and I both instinctively knew when we looked at the two young cows reaching out through their pens to suckle one another, let me paint the (hidden) story the picture really told.

Although Calder's Dairy appeared to be a quaint local farm, they are still participating in practices that are built into the dairy farming system. It's economics.

Once a female cow is impregnated, the newborn calf is immediately taken away. Independent homesteaders aside, commercial dairy farms have a vested interest in producing as much salable product as efficiently and affordably as possible. 

Calder's Dairy does not indicate on their website whether or not they artificially inseminate their female cows, however, it is standard practice in commercial dairy farms. A farmer will jerk off a bull in one way or another, then stick his arm up the ass of the cow to artificially inseminate the cow. 

Cows are impregnated over and over until they are finally spent, years earlier than their normal lifespan, and sent to slaughter. Many develop mastitis which limits their ability to walk and even stand after a few years of repeated impregnations. 

Upon birth, baby calves are immediately removed from their mothers. If female, they will be put in isolation in pens until of age to repeatedly impregnate, just like their momma. If male, they are either slaughtered, or chained and fed an anemic diet, then sold as veal.

Videos of momma cows wailing and chasing after her baby can be seen on YouTube. The dairy industry is by many people's estimates, as cruel as it gets. The momma cows and her offspring all endure an immense amount of suffering. 

Having empathy is a natural human trait. It is the ability to put yourself in the shoes, or hooves of another being, and feel, or imagine how that must feel, as if it were happening to you directly. That's at least how I experience empathy. I can't not feel or sense what I imagine the 'other' must be feeling. 

Our Visit To A Local Dairy

We instinctively knew that we needed to give up dairy after visiting a local dairy, and transitioned back to  a macrobiotic diet that resonates with our hearts.  

Why, do you ask?

Because we knew that against all odds, or hope, those young female cows awaited the same fate as cows in larger commercial dairy farms, with perhaps slightly better care, although we really don't know. 

What we do to these other innocent creatures, we do to ourselves. Don and I knew better, and yet we still fell back into the carnist fears about needing dead flesh or the milk of other animals in order to heal, or have thriving health. This fear perpetuates our culture, and is the root of much of the societal ills we are dealing with. 

What we allow to be done to the animals is mirrored back in our treatment of children and one another. We traffic the cows, imprison them, rape them, then steal their offspring while selling their milk for profit. And that is what that seemingly benign picture of the young suckling cows in their isolated pens told us, and why we gave up dairy. 

Here is my video about our visit to Calder's Dairy.   Let me know what you think, below, or in the comments section of the video! You'll find more videos and articles linked in From Plant-Based to Low-Carb Back to Being Vegans. 

(That's our conclusion.  Everyone needs to decide for themselves what to do, ideally based on true knowledge of the consequences of all our choices.)  

#vegangreatlife #dairyfree #exvegan #exexvegan #whywegaveupdairy #wfpb #thegoldenrule