Newbie exploring the possibility of going vegan

[Nicholson1987]

Hello,

So as the title says I'm currently exploring the idea of going to a vegan diet, primarily for animals as a lot of what im told goes on doesn't sit right with me, and secondly for health.

I've been a "carnivore" for 30 years of my life, eating at all you can eat BBQ restaurants, drinking lots of milk, eating lots of cheese and I love my eggs for breakfast, so go easy on me as this is a big transition for me.

I've only just had a dominos pizza tonight which was all veggie with no cheese, and I made a delicious vegan curry the other day with chickpeas.

I've seen a video on YouTube which you all probably know which I'm talking about, where it shows farming with horrific scenes of a calf being dragged away from the mother and the mother clearly distressed, and chicks being thrown away. You probably know which video I mean. However, the video is American. I find it hard to believe the scenes would be the same in U.K. Is this what goes on here? I drive all round the country and only today have I seen fields full of cows WITH the calfs clearly more than days old.

I live in the countryside and we have a farm that sells raw milk straight from the Coe and I've seen the herd and all seem happy and totally not distressed in anyway.

I buy eggs from up the road where a family own a few chickens in their garden and sell the eggs at the front door. Is this really wrong? And why?

I see things, and I think that's it, I'm going vegan. Then I realise the thing I've seen or read is American and think well it's a massive change for me based on some information from another country. I want to know what happens here. Any one got good reliable info on this with evidence, links etc?

After all the info I can get before making a huge lifestyle change.

Thanks!

 

[Mark Mywordz]

Earlier this month I spoke to a Welsh farmer and she confirmed that cows are kept permanently pregnant on her farm. I liked her honesty, so didn't like to push the argument any further. After all she has to feed her family, so can't give up her style of farming very easily or quickly. Having lived in cities most of my life, it's easy for me to go vegan - I was already vegetarian. From what I see in the UK I think that there is less factory farming than in Spain for example. The Spanish have a really bad attitude towards animals.
Perhaps you should contact animal rights groups in your area if you want to find out how bad the UK is.
Would you have the guts to visit or work in an abattoir? I could not bring myself to kill animals just to satisfy my dietary whims, so I shouldn't support other people who do that for me.

 

[Mark Mywordz]

I'd be interested to hear your response.

 

[Nicholson1987]

Hi,
No I wouldn't like to look in a slaughterhouse which is why the vegetarian side of it I think is quite an easy choice.

It's the dairy side which I've got more questions about as I can only find reliable info from America. If I was living there I'd definitely go vegan but like I said I find it hard to believe that's the same in the uk.

Question, the Welsh farmer says her herd is kept permanent pregnant. Is that actually harmful to he cow at all? Or are they still living a happy life like that as long as they are milked etc? I know there is one point of view that it's raping the cow, but whilst I accept a lot of what vegans say I think that's a bit extreme. In the wild does a cow really consent when a bull is wanting a bit? I don't know? I'm after someone to give me some fact and evidence which would make it easier for me to make the change to vegan. I have to know with wig facts what goes on for me to do this change.

As I've said, the herd at the small farm in the village where I live seem happy and well cared for so based on that I struggle to stop buying milk from them.

 

[Saylward]

I think that if you're lacking video content to scare you into quitting dairy, then you might want to look at things another way, in terms of your own health. Just try and grasp this concept:

Milk from a cow has one single purpose: It is the growth hormone for a calf. It is the formula used to take infant calves and grow them into big strong cows. It is the equivalent of the milk we get from our mother during infancy. Take a minute and think of the potential harm of continuously ingesting the formula used to grow calves into cows. Then we wonder why we're all suffering from chronic diseases and getting way overweight. Cow's milk just isn't meant for humans, and the sooner you rid yourself of it, the better you'll feel. Forget all that you hear about how cow's milk is full of calcium which we need, that argument is so flawed. It's like saying that you should drink Coke because if you drink enough of it, you can get your daily intake of water. Water is plentiful in soda, but we all clearly recognize that it just isn't a good source of water because of all the baggage that comes with it. The same is true of cow's milk. You may get a nice dose of calcium, but you can find plenty of calcium in nature without all the baggage that comes with ingesting the growth hormone of another species.

With all that said, I was able to find some information on dairy farms in the UK:

https://www.ciwf.org.uk/farm-animals/cows/dairy-cows/

If you want to chat it up and have someone help you get on the path of being Vegan, feel free to message me. I'm always looking to help people with the process.

Thank you for your interest in this way of life! It's the future

- Scott

 

[Mark Mywordz]

Does it help to look at it this way:
The farmer is interested in one thing only - making a profit. If a cow is unprofitable it is sent to the slaughter house. That applies to most males either from birth or very soon in the animal's natural life cycle. In a less dramatic way it also applies to the females. Once they can no longer produce milk the farmer has no interest in keeping them alive and slaughters them. The animals' usefulness determines their life span. They are just a product for the supermarket - milk or beef. It's in the farmer's interest to keep them healthy and alive only as long as this ensures him the highest profit margin possible. An old animal neither produces good meat nor any milk. So you only see young cows on your village farm. Young animals look good and more importantly taste good.
Once the dairy cows are so worn out that they have produced all the milk they can, they are sent to slaughter, usually at around four or five years of age; the average natural lifespan for a cow could be as long as 25 years.
Other farm animals have an even more reduced life span. Chickens 15 weeks, lambs 6 months, pigs are killed at 6 months but they would otherwise (if not slaughtered) live to 5 or even 10 years.