comments_imageCOMMENTS: 189

8 Reasons You Should Stop Drinking Milk Now

Consuming dairy products -- milk, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, etc. -- is not green and it's not healthy.
October 2, 2009  |  
 
 
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What could be more American than a glass of milk? Cow's milk, that is. In light of this common perception, the time is long overdue to add the milk mustache to that ever-growing list of American myths. Human beings are not designed to drink any milk except human milk (only during infancy, of course). As you'll see below, consuming dairy products -- milk, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, etc. -- is not green and it's not healthy.

It's also a nightmare for the cows themselves. Here's a little of how the folks at GoVeg describe it: "The 9 million cows living on dairy farms in the United States spend most of their lives in large sheds or on feces-caked mud lots, where disease is rampant. Cows raised for their milk are repeatedly impregnated. Their babies are taken away so that humans can drink the milk intended for the calves. When their exhausted bodies can no longer provide enough milk, they are sent to slaughter and ground up for hamburgers."

*Living dairy-free has never been easier...so here's a little motivation to get you on the greener, cruelty-free, not-milk track.

Environmental Reasons to Avoid Milk

1. Dairy cows produce waste.
Lots of waste. In fact, your average dairy cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day -- equal to that of more than two dozen people, but without toilets, sewers, or treatment plants.

2. Let me repeat: Dairy cows produce lots and lots of waste (and greenhouse gases).
California produces one-fifth of the country's total milk supply. According to MilkSucks.com, "in the Central Valley of California, the cows produce as much excrement as a city of 21 million people, and even a smallish farm of 200 cows will produce as much nitrogen as in the sewage from a community of 5,000 to 10,000 people, according to a U.S. Senate report on animal waste."

3. Milk production ultimately leads to climate change.
The dairy industry is an extension of the beef industry (used-up dairy cows are sent to the slaughterhouse after an average of four years, one-fifth their normal life expectancy) which means it plays a major role in creating climate change. Here's the equation: The dairy industry uses cows before passing them on to be slaughtered by the beef industry which is now recognized as an environmental nightmare. "According to a UN report," writes Brian Merchant, "cows are leading contributors to climate change ... Accounting for putting out 18% of the world's carbon dioxide, cows emit more greenhouse gases than cars, planes, and all other forms of transportation combined." That means the industry of exploiting all cows -- including dairy cows -- involves destructive practices like deforestation and polluting offshoots like runoff.

4. Milk often contains unwanted ingredients.
Under current industrial methods, cow's milk is often a toxic bovine brew of man-made ingredients like bio-engineered hormones, antibiotics (55% of U.S. antibiotics are fed to livestock), and pesticides -- all of which are bad for us and the environment. For example, unintentional pesticide poisonings kill an estimated 355,000 people globally each year. In addition the drugs pumped into livestock often re-visit us in our water supply.


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You have got to be kidding....
Posted by: dstauff on Oct 2, 2009 12:54 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
lol please don't be ridiculous...

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» Fallacies galore! Posted by: ffrf.org
» "Human beings not designed" Posted by: ffrf.org
» Sadly, no. Posted by: Walt K

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Drinking too much milk can easily lead to an excess of protein
Posted by: akai ringo on Oct 2, 2009 2:05 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Reasons 1 to 4 read to me as reasons closely related to the organization of the dairy industry, so are applicable only to a varying degree to where I live, i.e. Japan.
However, during a recent health check, I had my blood tested, and it was clear that the protein percentage content was excessively high. A chat with my doctor identified milk, of which I had been drinking a lot, as the most likely culprit. I cut back on it severely, with beneficial results. To me, the piece in general makes good medical sense.

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RE: More bullshit vegan propaganda from Alternuts.
Posted by: colinmeister on Oct 2, 2009 4:33 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, more of the same. I havn't drank any milk at all since I was a boy, but I do use it occasionally in cooking. I refuse to give up butter and cheese. I always buy imported cheese from Europe, and I have noticed lots of cows actually eating grass in Europe, where corn is not a heavily government subsidised crop like it is in the USA. Go and buy yourself some Camembert, Gruyere or Stilton and enjoy it.

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More insults and cowardice from
Posted by: corylus on Oct 2, 2009 5:02 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
a presumptuous nitwit who calls himself Antichrist. I guess this makes Mickey Z christ?

Tell us what's "bullshit." What's propagandistic, and why should any individual be kept from practicing what corporations and government, and unthinking neanderthals, are so free to do? What is "Alternuts," or are you trying to say something about your gonads? Who's the clown, and what are YOUR credentials?

Nothing to say remotely thoughtful or reasonable? Let's hurl some invective, a tried and true escape for dullards who'd rather attack someone else than use the brains they were born with, and a disturbing trend in public discourse in the land of the free to smear shit in public.

Your mind has turned to cottage cheese, AC, and it's got a bright blue mold growing on it.

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only somewhat cowshit
Posted by: mgmyers79 on Oct 6, 2009 6:33 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I like Mickey Z's articles for the most part, but this does contain some bologna.

The dairy industry is guilty as charged for the above. All milk however is not produced the same. A tiny fraction, a growing fraction, is produced green-ly and not subject to the charges above.

Humans have been drinking milk and eating dairy products since before the agricultural revolution, with good results. Fermented milk products are especially good when made at home, not so good in the store. Humans succeeded on this planet primarily due to our gastrointestinal finesse.

All that said, 310 million Americans drinking milk everyday, the USDA's wet dream, is unsustainable. The dairy industry will crash in predictable fashion as a result.

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Numerous peer reviewed scientific studies have shown the muscle growth fat loss benefits of dairy
Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com on Oct 2, 2009 2:16 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Shame on Alternet.

If you want to make the case that cows are bad for the environment because of the waste and food they require, that is one thing, but to say dairy is bad for your health is just plain wrong.

Numerous peer reviewed scientific studies have shown the muscle growth fat loss benefits of dairy.

That study clearly says 40% more muscle growth and 2lbs fat loss for those who got their protein through dairy.

An Organic Stonyfield Plain Fat Free 32oz container of yogurt has 440 total calories, no fat, 40 grams of protein (80% of your daily requirement) and none of the anti-biotics and growth hormones from regular factory farmed cows.

Add some multivitamins, omega 3 fish oil, grape seed extract, and you essentially have the goop mentioned in the first Matrix movie that gives you everything the body needs.

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Why not drink...
Posted by: ronniejw on Oct 2, 2009 2:22 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why not drink rat milk? It’s about as natural as drinking a cows milk. It’s gross!!! Humans are supposed to drink human mother’s milk not milk from other animals.

Ronnie Wright

World Change Café

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» the technical difficulties Posted by: aislinnluv
» RE: Why not drink... Posted by: wagner
» RE: Why not drink... Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line

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Depends on blood type
Posted by: Carts on Oct 2, 2009 3:05 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"B" blood can eat dairy

All other blood types cannot

www.dadamo.com

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» I call BS Posted by: BlueTigress

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Drink Raw milk
Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line on Oct 2, 2009 3:22 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
produced on small farms who care about what they are doing? Illegal in your state? Keep demanding it. It is one of the most healthful foods out there... I do not have any studies to back up this claim, but there is ample evidence if you are interested.

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» RE: Drink Raw milk Posted by: progressiveview
» RE: Drink Raw milk Posted by: 3rdI
» RE: Drink Raw milk Posted by: cpotter

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Dairy cow waste
Posted by: raine1 on Oct 2, 2009 3:30 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As a former farmer and milker of my own beautiful dairy cows (who lived into their early twenties), I can tell you first hand that cows DO NOT make 120 pounds of waste a day. Yea, they poop and pee, but lord love a duck, NOT in that volumn. That would be the equivalent of roughly 25% of their body weight daily.

I regularly made cheese,butter, ice cream and yogurt, plus had milk to sell and consume on the farm. It was part of an overall healthy diet.

Yes, some people are lactose intolerant and should stay away from some dairy, but by and large, the proteins and beneficial calcium and phosphorus from dairy is very good in one's diet. There are people who are nut intolerant, so should stay away from nut products, but that doesn't mean nuts are unhealthy to the vast majority of omnivores.

I do believe in treating animals humanely. Our cows were bred for both milking and creating new replacement stock. Breeding was not an annual event. Gigantic dairy farms, as in any huge mega-animal production facility, could take note that treating animals as though they have no worth beyond milk/meat production is immoral. Cows are thinking, feeling beings. Maybe not the brightest bulbs in the pack, but certainly social critters who feel something for their offspring and herd mates. Treating these animals with some respect would mean keeping them clean, allowing them to graze naturally and supplementing grass with digestable grains.

None of my small family farm cows went for hamburger either. We appreciated their contributions to the farm and family and used their poop waste to fertilize our gardens. It was shoveled up by hand, piled away from water sources and later incorporated into the soil with composted hay and other vegetable matter. This is the way dairy cows are supposed to live in a farm setting.

If you want to discourse on CO2 emissions from livestock, 9 billion farting, pooping humans make a lot of waste. Perhaps we need fewer of them.

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» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: Nightowl
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: raine1
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: Jethro2112
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: WhuThe?!?
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: EncinoM
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: WhuThe?!?
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: EncinoM
» Cows must give birth to lactate Posted by: pancakebunny

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Skinny folks beware
Posted by: Perry Logan on Oct 2, 2009 4:04 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Not an expert on diet here, but I have a skinny physique, and I find a vegan diet quickly causes me to disappear, no matter how much of it I consume.

Avoiding dairy products might work well for normal-sized or big people, but those of slight build should hesitate before dropping dairy products from their regime. Different bodies have different needs.

Ayurveda--traditional east Indian medicine--has advice for consuming milk safely. They recommend milk be boiled to make it easier to digest, and they sometimes say to add spices.

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» RE: Skinny folks beware Posted by: Higher Reptile
» Perhaps you didn't eat well Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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G.K. Chesterton
Posted by: sunnywater on Oct 2, 2009 4:17 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I ate a bit of Blue Stilton with pear last night, it was delicious.

I love Stilton, it produces intriguing dreams.

Check it out.

Stoneyfield Farm yogurt is great too!

Thank God for cows!

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» RE: G.K. Chesterton Posted by: Higher Reptile

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I am from Wisconsin, I ought to know.
Posted by: AJR Journal on Oct 2, 2009 4:27 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Some things to note:
California's milk prroductiion is the result of government-induced distortions in the Western water market. Artificially low water prices lead alfalfa production to be found in Utah, Arizona, and southern California. Alfalfa is in no way, ever, ever, going to be found naturally in those areas. Wisconsin, on the other hand, is naturally "Alfalfa Heaven",with 3 crops harvested every year.
Milk, cheese, yogurt, etc are very delicious. People love them. Especially those from America's Dairyland.
Wisconsin's dairy cows are loved and treasured. Disease IS NOT rampant, exploitation is non-existent, and cows are pampered. This is because milk production is actually a very delicate procedure. Cows production will plummet if everything is not perfect. Cows can be high-producers for 10-12 years, in good hands.
Eat more dairy products, especially those from Wisconsin!

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But What do I Put on My Cereal
Posted by: ProgressiveManiac on Oct 2, 2009 5:16 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Those vegan recipes may be great, but really, they don't substitute for the situations where Americans typically consume milk. There actually are some good alternatives to put on your cereal - I actually prefer almond milk to cow's milk for this purpose. Years ago when I found out that cow's milk is statistically linked to several forms of cancer I switched to soy milk and then to almond milk; they taste a bit strange for a few days, but now I find cow's milk to taste equally strange.

Still, everything in moderation. I still enjoy a bit of cheese now and I just can't seem to keep permanently off of ice cream.

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» RE: But What do I Put on My Cereal Posted by: ProgressiveManiac
» RE: But What do I Put on My Cereal Posted by: purpleheart

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Would the real Mickey Mouse please Fuck Off!?!
Posted by: Augustus_818 on Oct 2, 2009 5:23 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Mr. Mickey Mouse, or whatever the fuck your name is, NO!
NO, I'm not gonna stop drinking milk, I'm not gonna stop eating meat, I'm not even gonna stop breathing the fucking air, just because your college professor that you get high with, told you a scary story about the evil's of such things. I'm sorry he blew your high and got you all freaked out, MAN! That don't mean you gotta start in on everybody else.
For the love of everything fucking sacred, Alternet. Just STOP!

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» Yea! Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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COWS are meant to eat GRASS
Posted by: snowhound on Oct 2, 2009 5:33 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think the person who wrote this short sighted article is smoking it.

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» RE: COWS are meant to eat GRASS Posted by: Higher Reptile

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Great article, right up until the end
Posted by: nullipara on Oct 2, 2009 5:42 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hey Editor, was your little note at the end really necessary? This is the problem with the enviro movement. It's full of self-righteous jerks who delude themselves by saying, 'Oh well I eat *less* meat so that's GREEN and besides I drive a Prius so I'm saving the Earth!' If you really cared about the earth an its inhabitants, you'd eat no animal products at all. Period.

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Life is Short
Posted by: kad on Oct 2, 2009 6:14 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
to short in fact, too not eat good cheese, drink good wine and whiskey, have sex outside, and eat ice cream and chateaubriand . So bugger off with you buzz kill vegan bullshit.

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» RE: Life is Short Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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Those GOT MILK stupid ads....
Posted by: exnazipope on Oct 2, 2009 6:29 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ever since those dumb ads appeared in TV and print, milk consumption had dwindled. I guess folks are a lot smarter than the dairy industry would dare to believe.

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WTF will I dunk my cookies in?
Posted by: thekidde on Oct 2, 2009 6:37 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
.

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Wait
Posted by: Robba29 on Oct 2, 2009 6:41 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
let me just finish my bowl of cereal...slurp...

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I'm still waiting for Alternet to post an article on "8 Reasons You Should Stop Having So Many Kids"
Posted by: Quist on Oct 2, 2009 6:48 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The BIGGEST environmental and overall health issue is not cows or people drinking milk, it is too many damn people on this planet.

...but lets keep ignoring that big fat elephant in the room.

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» Amen! Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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Wow
Posted by: wzsteen on Oct 2, 2009 6:57 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had no idea! But a glass of ice cold milk is SO good!

RT
Ultimate Anonymity

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» RE: Wow suggestion Posted by: Higher Reptile

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IT'S ALL TRUE
Posted by: smf1403 on Oct 2, 2009 7:24 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you want to stay healthy and if you have any compassion at all for the suffering of others (yes, animals feel pain and suffer):

Please consider reducing dairy and animal product consumption or at least buy from local small farms or Organic Valley which treat the animals humanely.

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» RE: IT'S ALL TRUE Posted by: Higher Reptile

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Moderation is the key
Posted by: wonkywriter on Oct 2, 2009 7:31 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It seems to me that a few vegetarians and, especially, vegans have a psychological desire to instill shame and guilt in those of us who eat meat and/or dairy in order to assuage their own sense of deprivation. My vegan friend looks like death-warmed-over most of the time. I, on the other hand, have been drinking milk for over six decades--as much as a gallon per day when I was a child--and eating ice cream with relish for almost as long. I respect cows and think they should be treated humanly. I'm not proud of some of the things the dairy industry does but the fault lies with capitalism and not those who eat the fruits of the dairy industry. If every person who eats meat or dairy would stop tomorrow, what would happen to all those cows? I doubt if vegans would adopt them as pets.

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» RE: Moderation is the key Posted by: Jethro2112

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Does this include grass fed milk?
Posted by: MichaelGoodhart on Oct 2, 2009 7:34 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's a big difference between drinking grass fed milk and the regular version. Another issue to consider is that the milk-based products especially milk chocolates are the problem that must be addressed at.

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Ah!!!!!! Domestication is unnatural!!!! Run!!! Light your hair on fire!!!!
Posted by: ABetterFuture on Oct 2, 2009 7:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, shriekers: if rats grew to be 1300 pounds and had udders, a docile temperament, and a palette friendly flavor of milk, we'd have inevitably turned Rattus rattus into R. domesticus*.

What's the author's point again? Cow milk isn't human milk, and isn't needed by adults, in either case? Yeah, well, neither are books, skyscrapers, concrete, paintings, or any of a hundred thousand things we produce or consume. Milk is, of course, on the list of things we don't technically need...I'd place it behind wars, debt, servitude-orieted national policies, and ignorance...

...but you've got to be discriminating re: what you choose to shriek over. Only so much oxygen to go around, eh?

*no, not that one :)

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Drink raw milk!
Posted by: wireup on Oct 2, 2009 7:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I moved to Pennsylvania a few years ago and last month, at the famers' market, I discovered certified organic, non-pasteurized, non-homogenized raw milk!!!!!!

I am DELIGHTED! When the milk sits in the refrigerator, the cream rises to the top. You have to shake the container! So, I know it's definitely NOT homogenized (which is another health problem so you should try to avoid anything that is homogenized)

Where I previously lived it was unavailable. So, I was buying organic pasteurized milk but couldn't get it down because of the digestive problems it caused. But with RAW milk, this is no longer a problem.

If you have access or certified organic milk you avoid all the problems the go with feedlot cows. As far as I know, it's green all the way!

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» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: dstauff
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: dingham
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: Imanibr2
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: progressiveview

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Dairy Causes climate change?
Posted by: Ayla87 on Oct 2, 2009 8:34 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Humans have domesticated and milked cattle for thousands of years. Climate Change has been occuring for the past two hundred years, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the use of fossil fuels as energy.

Does anyone else see the discrepency?

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Notice how the author conveniently and blatantly leaves out the facts on
Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Oct 2, 2009 9:08 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
factory farming vs small farms when he bashes diary. Up until 50 years ago, most milk was raw and grassfed rather than corn fed. Milk back then had all the vitamins and minerals as a result and actually kept one healthy. The culprit is not milk but the changed way it is produced for the last 50 years that is the problem. Allow cows to roam free on the pasture and stop raping Mother Earth of water and fossil fuels just to produce processed cornfeed and anti-biotics to force down cow's throats and we will get healthy milk.

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Tired of it
Posted by: Ignatz deFyre on Oct 2, 2009 9:19 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I decline to read this article. The headline re-kindles my dismay at seeing, with great frequency, articles exhorting people to stop eating this, that, or the other thing.

Fact 1: mankind has been eating the tissue and secretions of animals for millenia.

Fact 2: mankind has been eating plant matter for millenia.

Some choose one, the other, or a combination thereof. Methods of ingestion vary: Some eat raw, some eat cooked, some imbibe, inhale or inject. This is reality. These kinds of articles are a waste of space. These facts will not change.

The issues are moderation, balance, sustainability. That's is where the thinking and effort should be going.

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» Amen Posted by: pancakebunny
» RE: Tired of it Posted by: corylus

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As Lenny Bruce Said...
Posted by: talapuspete on Oct 2, 2009 9:21 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"The word 'should' is a lie. Should implies a moral imperative, which usually leads to a guilt-trip, which is an attempt to control the behavior of others. That is authoritarian; as authoritarian as the flipping Christians that want the government to become Christian. Thanks, but no thanks.

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get rid of the cows
Posted by: workman586 on Oct 2, 2009 9:43 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
so cows are causing all the pollution ? so do we get rid of the cows ? how ? slaughter for beef ? How come cows only started producing dangerous green house gasses in the last decade or so. AND since there are probably less cows now than there were in say the 1950's cause they produce more milk per cow now than in the 1950's we probably had more cows then than now- producing more greenhouse gases than now ? So haven't we probably reduced total greenhouse gasses from cows ?

Less hair on fire rhetoric and more thought please.

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you can have my cheese
Posted by: hurricane hugo on Oct 2, 2009 10:04 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

#@!

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From a working dairy farmer--the similarties between the extreme vegetarians and Right to Life
Posted by: frantic1971 on Oct 2, 2009 10:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Please folks--disregard this incredibly distorted and hysterically inaccurate piece of vegetarian propaganda.

I am a lifetime dairy farmer, like my dad before me, with 50 cows. They are well treated and do NOT spend their lives confined in a lot! They are out on pasture all summer long, and then in the winter they freely graze the stubble in my cornfields and soybean fields.

The waste from cows is largely vegetable matter. It goes back onto my fields as fertilizer.

I don't "heartlessly sell my cows for hamburger" but keep them as long as they are productive. Which can be 8 years or more until the natural aging process starts to take hold (cows don't live forever, you know).

I could go on and on about the points raised in the article. Please believe me that NONE OF THIS IN THE ARTICLE IS TYPICAL OF ANY DAIRY FARM WHERE I LIVE! IT IS NOT DONE IN WELL MANAGED DAIRIES---EVEN THE LARGER ONES!

This article is sooo incredibly distorted--has the author ever BEEN to a dairy farm where I live? Has he been within 50 miles of one in his life?

I have noticed also--the curious similarities between the anti-abortion movement and the extreme vegetarians, as illustrated by this author. Each resorts to wildly inaccurate distortions of the facts, and the willingness to demonize those who don't believe as they do. If you don't agree with them, you are not only wrong but EVIL!

Alternet--I know some of these people probably donate alot to you, but don't let your website become a tool for propaganda. Leave that to Fox News.

I am just a farmer and I know I can't compete with the eloquence and those on this website who are much better at writing than I am. This article is a disgrace and totally discredits Alternet. And I am sure there will be others who will slap me down with a "shut-up you stupid dairy farmer! What the hell do YOU know about it!"

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In moderation, and with some education
Posted by: geekman on Oct 2, 2009 10:51 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cheese and other dairy products are part of some of the most healthy diets on the planet. But like anything you eat, don't overdo it, and find out where your food comes from. I'm lucky enough to live in WI, where there is a lot of local produce and local meat and dairy. Many of these producers are not just organic, but let their animals be the critters they are. Pasture grazed critters that aren't filled up with hormones and antibiotics. Get the animals out of confinement and they don't NEED antibiotics! So learn about your food. Learn about your producers. Help support local, organic, naturally raised meat and dairy products. Factory farming is cruel to animals, AND to humans!

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We have been given the opportunity to actully see proof
Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Oct 2, 2009 10:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
of there being GREEN assholes.

this group of neurotic greenweenies is ONLY concerned with their green shit.
They don't give one little fuck about anyone's health.

Let me tell of a way to actually shit green.
Eat an entire packet of spinach.
You WILL shit green the next day.
I eat it often and shit greenish brown.

I am soooooo impressed with their garbage.

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» Name-calling Posted by: corylus
» RE: Name-calling Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN

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And what about goat, sheep,buffalo, camel milk?
Posted by: MotherLodeBeth on Oct 2, 2009 10:58 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I drink local organic raw milk and will continue to do so.

Heck even Mongolian herdsmen and the desert people of Persian and African drink and use milk products.

Which shows the authors ignorance since milk doesn't come from just cows! There is goat, sheep, buffalo, camel milk.

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Some have suggested Soy milk
Posted by: dingham on Oct 2, 2009 11:13 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I can't prove it but, Soy(milk) messes up your manly hormones. If you are manly, don't partake.

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» not to mention... Posted by: undrgrndgirl
» RE: not to mention... Posted by: WhuThe?!?
» RE: Some have suggested Soy milk Posted by: progressiveview
» ..WESTON PRICE schills are here! Posted by: truly scrumptious

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Why Would Anyone in Their Right Mind Consume Milk?
Posted by: Saiva on Oct 2, 2009 11:34 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When there are so many more healthful, sustainable, and compassionate choices? How about milk made from soy, rice, almonds, oats, and the best yet ... coconut milk!

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» Habit before Reason? Posted by: Saiva
» RE: hyperbole before reason? Posted by: ffrf.org
» round up ready reason? Posted by: ffrf.org

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vegetarianism vs. veganism
Posted by: vasumurti on Oct 2, 2009 12:11 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Regarding vegetarianism vs. veganism, man is the only species that drinks the milk of another species. All other species drink the milk of the mothers of their own species until they are weaned. Cow's milk is the perfect food—if you're a baby calf!

To mass produce cow's milk on a large scale via factory farming, cows have to be kept continually pregnant, giving birth, and lactating. The cows are genetically bred to produce excess cow's milk for humans. Male cows (bulls) are useless to the dairy industry, so they become veal. By supporting the dairy industry, one indirectly supports cow killing.

Vegetarians do cause far less animal cruelty than meat-eaters, but a nonviolent philosophy would carry greater weight if it came from vegans rather than from vegetarians.

The meat-eaters, especially, exactly, are ready to find fault with us in this regard: do we love all animals, or only some animals (e.g., cows) and not others? And if we really do love the cows, why do we contribute to their death and suffering just to drink their milk?

Can children be raised without cow's milk? YES! Half the world's population (blacks and Asians in particular) are lactose intolerant, and can't digest milk after infancy. Dr. Michael Klaper has written books on vegan nutrition, pregnancy, and childbirth.

One of the first books I read on the subject of vegetarianism while in college was A Vegetarian Sourcebook by Keith Akers (1983). Describing the environmental damage caused by raising animals for food: topsoil erosion, deforestization, loss of groundwater, etc. as well as the economic inefficiency and waste of energy and resources in raising animals for food in an age of exploding human population growth, Keith Akers foreshadowed John Robbins' Diet for a New America (1987), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

In A Vegetarian Sourcebook, Keith Akers writes:

"Using grasslands for livestock agriculture creates great environmental problems, which greatly limit its usefulness. Grazing systems require ten times more land than feedlot agriculture, in which animals are simply given feed grown on cropland. Grazing systems have to be extensive in order to avoid the catastrophic consequences of overgrazing—which renders a piece of land unsuitable for any purpose.

"Overgrazing and the consequent soil erosion are extremely serious problems worldwide. By the most conservative estimates, 60% of all U.S. rangelands are overgrazed, with billions of tons of soil lost each year. Overgrazing has also been the greatest cause of man-made deserts.

"Even if we grant grazing a role in a resource-efficient, ecologically stable agriculture, milk should be the end result, not beef. Milk provides over 50% of the protein and nearly four times the calories of beef, per unit of forage resources from grazing.

"'When only forage is available, then egg, broiler and pork production are eliminated and only milk, beef, and lamb production are viable systems,' state David and Marcia Pimentel, scientists and authors of Food, Energy and Society. "Of these three, milk production is the most efficient.'

"An ecologically stable, resource-efficient system of grazing animals for human food could not be anything faintly resembling today's livestock agriculture," concludes Akers. "It would be a smaller, decentralized, less intensive system of animal husbandry devoted to milk production."

So it may be possible to have animal agriculture (devoted solely to milk production) on a small scale—e.g., religious groups like the Amish. But the rest of humanity, with an exploding population in the billions, will have to be vegan.

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» Revealed ignorance Posted by: Walt K

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Raw Cream
Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line on Oct 2, 2009 12:20 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is just about as good as anything on this planet...anything else is just a cheap imitation. In fact I agree...milk sucks..(milk that is so processed that it is just white water)... Drink raw milk for health..AND superior flavor.

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I suffer from depression and ibs
Posted by: noalternative on Oct 2, 2009 1:30 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I benefit from fish oil, since the epa is beneficial for my condition, and helps keep my mental health on an even keel, and the yogurt keeps my digestive system in good order. It also helps me to eat things that have b12 in them, since that is associated with mental health as well. I know alternet can't stand it that not all liberals can be vegans, but it is just tough!

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The cows are not REPEATEDLY impregnated
Posted by: pancakebunny on Oct 2, 2009 1:34 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This article makes it sound like the cows are raped daily. The cows are impregnated once a year. If there were such a thing as a wild cow it would assuredly get pregnant every year anyhow. This is the natural scheme of life.

When they give birth the unwanted calves are no doubt slaughtered and used for food. Unless you're a vegetarian you shouldn't find this particularly disturbing either.

Yes, Americans should cut down on the amount of meat, fish and dairy that we eat. Factory farming is a source of carbon emissions and we should work to reduce that dramatically. Completely eliminating ALL dairy is just extremism. Very biased article.

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Why are we AlterNet readers...
Posted by: agapegirl on Oct 2, 2009 2:00 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
so insecure? An article suggests milk is unhealthy for humans to drink. Take it or leave it, or comment on it. However, is so much vitriol toward such a harmless suggestion necessary?

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And then there's....
Posted by: morticia on Oct 2, 2009 2:38 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...this.

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The Principal Protein in Milk
Posted by: BobBrrz on Oct 2, 2009 3:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The principal protein in milk--80% of the protein, say--is casein. If you're a cancer researcher, casein is a godsend; it's the easiest way to turn cancer on or off in an experimental animal. Read
it for yourself at http://www.ezhealthydiet.com/casein-protein.html.

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WHAT WILL I DRINK WITH MY O-R-E-O's doublestuff of course
Posted by: GetItRight on Oct 2, 2009 3:33 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
No milk...oh my lord. Haven't you all heard before... You can milk anything that has nipples.

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Meat and Milk vs. nothing
Posted by: PaulK on Oct 2, 2009 3:34 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Certain rocky, mountainous or dry lands are no good for growing grains or vegetables. The only way to get food out of them is by grazing. Shall we have a blunt policy that excludes one of the world's major food sources? Furthermore, when the deer herds overpopulate they get bold and they eat out of people's vegetable gardens. We humans wiped out the wolves, wildcats and bears, the deer's natural predators. Do we kill the deer ourselves now or do we let them eat our food?

Vegans are notorious over the past few decades for making themselves sick. If you're one of the healthy vegan minority, congratulations. A number of your fellow vegans have a B-12 deficiency. A number of others didn't eat right and have a calcium deficiency. The vegan movement will have its head together a lot better when such trace vitamins and nutrients are routinely a part of every vegan meal. A Vegan arguing that stopping the drinking of milk will make you healthy is a weak argument.

I have a sense that, as a spiritual philosophy, veganism can be quite kind to animals but just as rotten to human beings as anyone else. I realize that the "Hitler was a vegan" rumors are probably untrue, but a nonzero incidence of veganism in Nazi Germany says something about a potential separation of moral ethics in people for political reasons. Refusing to hurt a little bunny but rejoicing at conquering Poland and France is a bit morally inconsistent.

Then there's the "milk makes you fat" thesis. The milk industry has spent millions saying "milk makes you thin". The author may or may not have a point, and it may hinge on a nonfat milk versus whole milk quibble, but simply coming out and announcing that milk makes you fat with little evidence is quite unconvincing. It makes the author sound rather stupid.

There may be good reasons to drink or not to drink milk, but the noise to signal ratio in this article is atrocious.

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» Nothing Posted by: corylus

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Stop eating American-made milk products--not all milk products
Posted by: dayahka on Oct 2, 2009 7:20 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Seriously, now, the case you have made is not against all milk products--but against the American, Capitalist industrial production of food stuffs. Sixty years ago, before these gigantic animal and plant farms dedicated solely to sadism and profit, people could drink good milk, eat good cheese, and so on. One can be against the whole industrial food system without having to give up all milk; Vegans are a little too extreme, methinks.

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I notice you didn't lead with ice cream
Posted by: YogiBear on Oct 2, 2009 11:53 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Because that would be absurd. You stuck it in the middle so it would get lost.

Too much milk? Prolly. Bad for the stomach for many. No ice cream? Go to heckle.

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My Own Personal Experience
Posted by: Xynyx on Oct 3, 2009 12:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cutting out dairy products netted ME the following benefits:
Congestion problems I pretty much had constantly... and which were especially bad whenever I had a cold, were dramatically reduced in severity and in frequency.
Headaches I suffered from early childhood ceased.
Indigestion became far less infrequent.
Severe chest pains I felt from time to time quit altogether.
Lower GI problems I experienced went away... and I learned that I had a completely mistaken impression regarding just what it was to be constipated. More or less... I had ALWAYS been so.
I lost 25 pounds in three months (I also went Vegan for the summer... and I am Vegan now...).
My complexion cleared up... and warts I had on my hands vanished. (This result was completely shocking to me... I never would have connected warts to milk.)
I discovered that I could actually enjoy more subtle tastes and absorb more nutrients from the food I was eating. (I found I had much more energy than I had ever had before.)

There's no guarantee that everyone else would experience the same results... but I am certain many would. I heartily encourage people to at least give it a try.

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Milk Vitamin D
Posted by: femtobeam on Oct 3, 2009 1:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Milk is an important source of Vitamin D and protein is needed for good brain development.

The cattle for beef are the main volume of methane producing cattle, not dairy cows. With digesters available today to turn the waste into energy along with photobioreactors to produce green food, many of these problems can be solved.

Drinking milk and the antibiotic properties of many cheeses are important for human health at all ages, particularly for women. It is essential for bones. It is one of the major food groups that we should have every day, along with green vegetables, fruit, bread, and meat or nuts.

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Whole Milk Baby!!
Posted by: Purple Girl on Oct 3, 2009 8:31 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am 46 and have been an avid whole milk drinkin' baby all my life.
I have never broken a bone- even when I probably should have.
My Cholesterol is within range and my good is higher than my bad.
I may have about 10 extra pounds, and am not a person who exercises as a routine.
I've had an Echo Card and no blockages were evident.
Knock on wood- I have only benefited to this point from the increased Calcium in my diet provided by dairy products.
It would be ridiculous,though, if I ascerted all people would have the same results.
So neither should you. Every persons metabolism, genetics and environmental influences are different- so must be their diets to address those unique factors.
It is ignorant to claim that a person working in a labor intensive job, of large frame would do as well on a Vegan diet as a small framed research/data collector.
As for those Vile and Deadly bovine populations- should we let them die off through attrition, or just go out and shoot them down to stop their Carbon footprint dead in it's tracks?
Lets be clear here- if you keep feeding them they will keep farting and shitting. So if you aren't going to kill them outright, then starvation is the next best alternative - Right?
Ok Wheres the PETA People Now??
As PETA is protesting the slaughter of these animals are the Envirnomentalists cheering them on? One Down! Even more bizarre would be a person who is both! Oh they may like to say they would save the Bovine pop and let them graze on open range- but that angst between cattle ranchers and enviromentalists has it's own long sordid history regarding Grazing rights and ecological destruction.
The Vegan movement is as fantical and irrational as the Evangelicals. They might as well make their next campaign slogan- 'Go Vegan or Go to Hell'.Literally and figuratively. For the sin of Murder, for bringing on global warming and as prediction and a request.
I've Tried your Soy and was mistakenly diagnosed with IBS, instead of the adverse food reaction I was experiencing.
This 'Holier than Thou' attitude is as annoying from the Left as it is from the Right.

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» RE: Whole Milk Baby!! Posted by: Xynyx

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Milk and Vitamin D
Posted by: femtobeam on Oct 4, 2009 1:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Milk is an important source of vitamin D and protein is needed for good brain development. While it is important to stop eating so much beef to lower the amount of deforestation and methane gas, both of those problems can be solved with photobioreactors and digesters.

Milk and particularly cheezes are important foods and one of the major food groups we all require, along with green vegetables, fruit, bread and meat.

The real problem with beef is the offal they are fed instead of grass.

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Milk is not that bad...
Posted by: Dressagechien on Oct 4, 2009 1:50 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What about the benefits of drinking milk?

Avoid osteoporosis, hypertension and colon cancer to just name a few.

Regards,


Dressagechien

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I suppose the next big thing to be "FART FREE MILK"
Posted by: Caleb Darkstar on Oct 4, 2009 5:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If we can send spaceships to Mars, Surely we can create "Beano" for cattle. Or we could just equipt them with catalytic converters. Now there is a mental picture.

I think I will have a White Russian an ponder this further.

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Soymilk/NO!
Posted by: Candleinheart on Oct 4, 2009 8:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have been a health food devotee for years, breast fed babies, made their food, bought certified raw milk,made whole grain breads, pancakes with organic flours. Efforts paid off for years my kids and I were seldom sick as opposed to their peers and mine! Prevention was always my motto. However, after age 65 a few problems arose. I had always avoided Soy milk, why I don't know but I began drinking it daily. Within a month I was having violent cramps at night, my legs 'freezing up.' It was ghastly. 4x to ER they were clueless. Fortunately, I knew an Asian healer. She asked me what I was eating differently within month or so. I said, soymilk. Eliminate immediately, she said, it was giving me estrogen dominance when at my age I did not need that!I quit and sleep became dreamy again. I made a concerted effort to eliminate any foods with soy (mayonnaise) so the gentleman above who said it screwed up his male hormones in some way was right.Stay away from it! No matter what age. No to babies! Another crop making billions forcing a product on us. Also, it is true the B blood people can handle dairy, the rest (type 0, A, AB cannot) Many people lose much weight on an Atkins type diet because as O people, wheat,potatoes and dairy are anathema to our blood type. Good meat, veggies fruits, nuts,squashes etc. best for O. Again, meat in moderation for O types have a high acid stomach and need the meat as it digests it well. Type A people do better on (as my sons call then, the Sproutheads)diet, though they can have some fish, etc. Check out James DAdamo's book 4 Diets, 4 Blood types. Back to the old adage ,"What's good for the goose ain't good for the gander." AMEN!

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My two cents ...
Posted by: Eluned on Oct 4, 2009 4:57 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As someone who is slightly lactose-intolerant (but apparently not enough to stop me from eating cheese and ice cream on occasion), I realize that cutting out on dairy would likely be good for me. However (and I think I'm not alone, here), I don't respond well to what could be construed as "fear tactics" to promote a particular point of view against others (and I've been vegan before and have vegan friends, so absolutely *nothing* against vegans ... promise!)

My real problem is how the majority of animals are treated in the 'food industry' (and to the former small dairy farmer who posted earlier, you rock!) I grew up on a farm as well, and learned to appreciate where what was on my place came from (I did eventually learn to stop naming the chickens, though).

I don't eat much meat and I don't eat much dairy - but I have some of each, sometimes, and I try to make sure that what I eat comes from a better source than 'factory farms'. I want to cry when I think about it, yet I still eat the stuff sometimes :-/ ... I think there are many (many) people who will NEVER become vegan, no matter what. So, perhaps all of us (vegans, dairy drinkers, vegetarians, meat eaters) could get together and work towards a more sustainable, kind industry for the beautiful animals out there? I don't think there'd be many people who'd disagree with that agenda, so we could go ahead and get something done instead of arguing! :-)

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Are you weaned?
Posted by: frantaylor on Oct 5, 2009 7:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Milk is for infants whose digestive systems can't handle anything else.

Drinking milk after infancy is a clear sign of some sort of unhealthy breast fixation.

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» RE: Are you weaned? Posted by: Caleb Darkstar

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Wow, just wow...
Posted by: ThomasJefferson on Oct 5, 2009 2:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
massive massive colossally massive ignorance.

Farm raised grass fed non-factory farm raw milk is what you want.

just read up on the Weston Price Foundation on raw milk and it's benefits and its impact on the environment.

in the mean time, take your massively ignorant vegan insanity elsewhere.

so exhausting.

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drink the water
Posted by: phair on Oct 5, 2009 2:18 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is no global warming. Earth temp has gone down for the last 11 years in a row. Ice is returning to the arctic. All those cows, years ago, would have been replaced by bison, wolves, bighorn sheep. How many naturally occurring animals have been reduced to near extinction by human development that would be thriving in untold numbers if parts of the earth were left to nature. The "cows" have just replaced them as a source of CO2. This is a situation of great technology+illogical thinking+false deduction based on a small premise expanded to a bigger premise. They take a computer model and want to base law on it and tax everyone not to mention eugenics to reduce the population by 90%. They measure a square foot of air in a spot that they know will have a high CO2 content, then have the computer fill in the blanks and multiply by some gazillion number to make up the entire earth's atmosphere from that one square foot of air that they measured and deduce that the entire atmosphere has too much CO2 based on their "test" of 1 square foot of air that they knew would contain a high CO2 reading. Also you can avoid most milk "problems" by making sure the milk is organic. Thus it will contain no harmones, no pesticides, and no anti-biotics and no vaccine poisons. People in Russia and India live into their 100s eating yogurt and cheese. Real Italians (those who actually live there not American-Italians) ride their bikes up and down mountains to get their daily meals of fresh food in their 90's. Go there and see it sometime. They eat cheese, drink milk (alfredo sauce, florentine sauce, parmesan, romano, asiago, provolone, mozzarelli). They also eat lunceon meats and sausage, that is produced fresh everyday without chemical preservatives and harmones and they are as a people stronger and healthier than us couch potatoes worrying about the number of cow farts and should we commit suicide and not have kids because too many people wreck the earth. Greed wrecks the earth. Period.

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» RE: drink the water Posted by: phair
» RE: drink the water Posted by: phair

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Not all cows are on bad farms
Posted by: Mary Anne on Oct 5, 2009 2:59 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I happen to be friends with the people who run a fairly large dairy farm. I've been to their place a few times and watched how they treat their cows. Their cows were clean and happy.

Maybe the large dairy farms that don't treat their cows well should be banned from doing business!

http://maryannecarter.com/

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The "vegetarians" I know
Posted by: Beck on Oct 6, 2009 1:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here are some.

The one who said he's one at home, while eating meat.

The one who repeatedly claimed to be one, then forgot and told about the good sausage sandwich she had at a park.

The one who was always known to me as a vegetarian, always connecting that with herself, who just ate turkey in front of me, still calling herself that.

The one who told me we needed to work on getting all people to be vegetarians, then a few months later told about a great fish dinner she had on vacation, then said she bought skinless chicken.

The one who berated me for eating meat, then said she did like a certain brand of turkey breast.

The one who eats meat every lunch and dinner date we have, even though she's a "vegetarian".

I saw a survey a couple of years ago on a vegetarian website with the question, "When was the last time you ate meat?" A huge percentage answered, "Within the last 24 hours."

I know exactly one person who says she is a vegetarian and truly seems to be one. Oh, no, I can think of another. I'm sure she has an unhealthy diet because she looks horrible, terribly thin, alarming looking. All the rest seem to eat meat about as much as us omnivores: some, in small amounts, almost every day.

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No more of this
Posted by: troubleinmind254 on Oct 6, 2009 2:42 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Just like a post above. I don't wast time reading these things. I have uite meat, smokes, drugs (illegal), alcohol and porn.
So Im doing what I can, and so should a lot of people Im rooting for.

As far as milk is concerned all I can say is. FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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If you live beside a dairy farm....
Posted by: postconsumer-consumer on Oct 6, 2009 4:40 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...you get a first hand view of what's involved. Contamination of air, ground water and soil with pesticides, herbicides, liquid manure. Manure lagoons leaking into ground water and streams.

Plowing, discing, planting, spraying, baling, harvesting, threshing - and endless number of tasks requiring the burning of fossil fuels.

And that's just to feed the cows so they give the milk.

The cows are pumped up on growth hormones and antibiotics. They stand their whole lives in one spot in a barn doing nothing but eating and giving milk. The have foot problems, their tails are cut off, some of their udders are so large they can't walk anyway. If they get sick they are just shot because the farmer won't spend money on vet fees. Calves are separated from their mothers and chained with a short chain to a hut outdoors so they won't drink the mothers milk.

I don't care what anyone says, I can't look at a glass of milk without thinking of the environmental and animal welfare cost of producing it. Don't buy the stuff.

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There's milk the wrong way--
Posted by: souffrantfleur on Oct 7, 2009 6:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And there's milk the right way. I own a cow share. The farmer keeps 2 Jerseys. They are grass-fed, year-round. For 30 bucks a month, I one get 1 gallon of real milk per week. I make cheese, butter, and yogurt from this milk, every single week. My teeth are remineralizing, my knees don't hurt so much anymore, and my skin has never been better. The cows are well-loved, and the farmer is making good money. For millennia this was how dairy was done, and it could be done this way again.

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» Sounds like you're on the right track... Posted by: postconsumer-consumer

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This article is not based on reality
Posted by: usermisty618 on Oct 8, 2009 12:58 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Everything about this article is ridiculous. Since when did those crazy a@@ holes at PETA get involved with Alternet? This article sounds like it was written after one of those animal snuff movies they like to watch so well. I was raised on a dairy farm and every inch of the part about how cows spend their lives is completely inaccurate.

I must say, a little disappointed in Alternet for printing such crap...

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Yes, some people are lactose
Posted by: fredtowson on Oct 16, 2009 10:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, some people are lactose intolerant and should stay away from some dairy, but by and large, the proteins and beneficial calcium and phosphorus from dairy is very good in one's diet. There are people who are nut intolerant, so should stay away from nut products, but that doesn't mean nuts are unhealthy to the vast majority of omnivores.

I do believe in treating animals humanely. Our cows were bred for both milking and creating new replacement stock. Breeding was not an annual event. Gigantic dairy farms, as in any huge mega-animal production facility, could take note that treating animals as though they have no worth beyond milk/meat production is immoral. Cows are thinking, feeling beings. Maybe not the brightest bulbs in the pack, but certainly social critters who feel something for their offspring and herd mates. Treating these animals with some respect would mean keeping постеры постеры к сериалам путешественникам путешествия true blood posters true blood tv show posters seropol5 them clean, allowing them to graze naturally and supplementing grass with digestable grains.

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hi from blackpool accommodation
Posted by: Blackpool Hotels on Oct 31, 2009 5:06 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have just read this story and I recently stayed at a Blackpool hotel the Norbreck Castle Hotel and enjoyed my hotel stay in Blackpool. Norbreck Castle is part of Britannia Hotels which has many popular hotel accommodation such as the Britannia Hotel Manchester.

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Alternet Comments:

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You have got to be kidding....
Posted by: dstauff on Oct 2, 2009 12:54 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
lol please don't be ridiculous...

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» Fallacies galore! Posted by: ffrf.org
» "Human beings not designed" Posted by: ffrf.org
» Sadly, no. Posted by: Walt K

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Drinking too much milk can easily lead to an excess of protein
Posted by: akai ringo on Oct 2, 2009 2:05 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Reasons 1 to 4 read to me as reasons closely related to the organization of the dairy industry, so are applicable only to a varying degree to where I live, i.e. Japan.
However, during a recent health check, I had my blood tested, and it was clear that the protein percentage content was excessively high. A chat with my doctor identified milk, of which I had been drinking a lot, as the most likely culprit. I cut back on it severely, with beneficial results. To me, the piece in general makes good medical sense.

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RE: More bullshit vegan propaganda from Alternuts.
Posted by: colinmeister on Oct 2, 2009 4:33 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, more of the same. I havn't drank any milk at all since I was a boy, but I do use it occasionally in cooking. I refuse to give up butter and cheese. I always buy imported cheese from Europe, and I have noticed lots of cows actually eating grass in Europe, where corn is not a heavily government subsidised crop like it is in the USA. Go and buy yourself some Camembert, Gruyere or Stilton and enjoy it.

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More insults and cowardice from
Posted by: corylus on Oct 2, 2009 5:02 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
a presumptuous nitwit who calls himself Antichrist. I guess this makes Mickey Z christ?

Tell us what's "bullshit." What's propagandistic, and why should any individual be kept from practicing what corporations and government, and unthinking neanderthals, are so free to do? What is "Alternuts," or are you trying to say something about your gonads? Who's the clown, and what are YOUR credentials?

Nothing to say remotely thoughtful or reasonable? Let's hurl some invective, a tried and true escape for dullards who'd rather attack someone else than use the brains they were born with, and a disturbing trend in public discourse in the land of the free to smear shit in public.

Your mind has turned to cottage cheese, AC, and it's got a bright blue mold growing on it.

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only somewhat cowshit
Posted by: mgmyers79 on Oct 6, 2009 6:33 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I like Mickey Z's articles for the most part, but this does contain some bologna.

The dairy industry is guilty as charged for the above. All milk however is not produced the same. A tiny fraction, a growing fraction, is produced green-ly and not subject to the charges above.

Humans have been drinking milk and eating dairy products since before the agricultural revolution, with good results. Fermented milk products are especially good when made at home, not so good in the store. Humans succeeded on this planet primarily due to our gastrointestinal finesse.

All that said, 310 million Americans drinking milk everyday, the USDA's wet dream, is unsustainable. The dairy industry will crash in predictable fashion as a result.

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Numerous peer reviewed scientific studies have shown the muscle growth fat loss benefits of dairy
Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com on Oct 2, 2009 2:16 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Shame on Alternet.

If you want to make the case that cows are bad for the environment because of the waste and food they require, that is one thing, but to say dairy is bad for your health is just plain wrong.

Numerous peer reviewed scientific studies have shown the muscle growth fat loss benefits of dairy.

That study clearly says 40% more muscle growth and 2lbs fat loss for those who got their protein through dairy.

An Organic Stonyfield Plain Fat Free 32oz container of yogurt has 440 total calories, no fat, 40 grams of protein (80% of your daily requirement) and none of the anti-biotics and growth hormones from regular factory farmed cows.

Add some multivitamins, omega 3 fish oil, grape seed extract, and you essentially have the goop mentioned in the first Matrix movie that gives you everything the body needs.

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Why not drink...
Posted by: ronniejw on Oct 2, 2009 2:22 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why not drink rat milk? It’s about as natural as drinking a cows milk. It’s gross!!! Humans are supposed to drink human mother’s milk not milk from other animals.

Ronnie Wright

World Change Café

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» the technical difficulties Posted by: aislinnluv
» RE: Why not drink... Posted by: wagner
» RE: Why not drink... Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line

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Depends on blood type
Posted by: Carts on Oct 2, 2009 3:05 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"B" blood can eat dairy

All other blood types cannot

www.dadamo.com

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» I call BS Posted by: BlueTigress

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Drink Raw milk
Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line on Oct 2, 2009 3:22 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
produced on small farms who care about what they are doing? Illegal in your state? Keep demanding it. It is one of the most healthful foods out there... I do not have any studies to back up this claim, but there is ample evidence if you are interested.

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» RE: Drink Raw milk Posted by: progressiveview
» RE: Drink Raw milk Posted by: 3rdI
» RE: Drink Raw milk Posted by: cpotter

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Dairy cow waste
Posted by: raine1 on Oct 2, 2009 3:30 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As a former farmer and milker of my own beautiful dairy cows (who lived into their early twenties), I can tell you first hand that cows DO NOT make 120 pounds of waste a day. Yea, they poop and pee, but lord love a duck, NOT in that volumn. That would be the equivalent of roughly 25% of their body weight daily.

I regularly made cheese,butter, ice cream and yogurt, plus had milk to sell and consume on the farm. It was part of an overall healthy diet.

Yes, some people are lactose intolerant and should stay away from some dairy, but by and large, the proteins and beneficial calcium and phosphorus from dairy is very good in one's diet. There are people who are nut intolerant, so should stay away from nut products, but that doesn't mean nuts are unhealthy to the vast majority of omnivores.

I do believe in treating animals humanely. Our cows were bred for both milking and creating new replacement stock. Breeding was not an annual event. Gigantic dairy farms, as in any huge mega-animal production facility, could take note that treating animals as though they have no worth beyond milk/meat production is immoral. Cows are thinking, feeling beings. Maybe not the brightest bulbs in the pack, but certainly social critters who feel something for their offspring and herd mates. Treating these animals with some respect would mean keeping them clean, allowing them to graze naturally and supplementing grass with digestable grains.

None of my small family farm cows went for hamburger either. We appreciated their contributions to the farm and family and used their poop waste to fertilize our gardens. It was shoveled up by hand, piled away from water sources and later incorporated into the soil with composted hay and other vegetable matter. This is the way dairy cows are supposed to live in a farm setting.

If you want to discourse on CO2 emissions from livestock, 9 billion farting, pooping humans make a lot of waste. Perhaps we need fewer of them.

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» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: Nightowl
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: raine1
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: Jethro2112
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: WhuThe?!?
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: EncinoM
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: WhuThe?!?
» RE: Dairy cow waste Posted by: EncinoM
» Cows must give birth to lactate Posted by: pancakebunny

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Skinny folks beware
Posted by: Perry Logan on Oct 2, 2009 4:04 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Not an expert on diet here, but I have a skinny physique, and I find a vegan diet quickly causes me to disappear, no matter how much of it I consume.

Avoiding dairy products might work well for normal-sized or big people, but those of slight build should hesitate before dropping dairy products from their regime. Different bodies have different needs.

Ayurveda--traditional east Indian medicine--has advice for consuming milk safely. They recommend milk be boiled to make it easier to digest, and they sometimes say to add spices.

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» RE: Skinny folks beware Posted by: Higher Reptile
» Perhaps you didn't eat well Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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G.K. Chesterton
Posted by: sunnywater on Oct 2, 2009 4:17 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I ate a bit of Blue Stilton with pear last night, it was delicious.

I love Stilton, it produces intriguing dreams.

Check it out.

Stoneyfield Farm yogurt is great too!

Thank God for cows!

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» RE: G.K. Chesterton Posted by: Higher Reptile

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I am from Wisconsin, I ought to know.
Posted by: AJR Journal on Oct 2, 2009 4:27 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Some things to note:
California's milk prroductiion is the result of government-induced distortions in the Western water market. Artificially low water prices lead alfalfa production to be found in Utah, Arizona, and southern California. Alfalfa is in no way, ever, ever, going to be found naturally in those areas. Wisconsin, on the other hand, is naturally "Alfalfa Heaven",with 3 crops harvested every year.
Milk, cheese, yogurt, etc are very delicious. People love them. Especially those from America's Dairyland.
Wisconsin's dairy cows are loved and treasured. Disease IS NOT rampant, exploitation is non-existent, and cows are pampered. This is because milk production is actually a very delicate procedure. Cows production will plummet if everything is not perfect. Cows can be high-producers for 10-12 years, in good hands.
Eat more dairy products, especially those from Wisconsin!

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But What do I Put on My Cereal
Posted by: ProgressiveManiac on Oct 2, 2009 5:16 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Those vegan recipes may be great, but really, they don't substitute for the situations where Americans typically consume milk. There actually are some good alternatives to put on your cereal - I actually prefer almond milk to cow's milk for this purpose. Years ago when I found out that cow's milk is statistically linked to several forms of cancer I switched to soy milk and then to almond milk; they taste a bit strange for a few days, but now I find cow's milk to taste equally strange.

Still, everything in moderation. I still enjoy a bit of cheese now and I just can't seem to keep permanently off of ice cream.

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» RE: But What do I Put on My Cereal Posted by: ProgressiveManiac
» RE: But What do I Put on My Cereal Posted by: purpleheart

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Would the real Mickey Mouse please Fuck Off!?!
Posted by: Augustus_818 on Oct 2, 2009 5:23 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Mr. Mickey Mouse, or whatever the fuck your name is, NO!
NO, I'm not gonna stop drinking milk, I'm not gonna stop eating meat, I'm not even gonna stop breathing the fucking air, just because your college professor that you get high with, told you a scary story about the evil's of such things. I'm sorry he blew your high and got you all freaked out, MAN! That don't mean you gotta start in on everybody else.
For the love of everything fucking sacred, Alternet. Just STOP!

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» Yea! Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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COWS are meant to eat GRASS
Posted by: snowhound on Oct 2, 2009 5:33 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think the person who wrote this short sighted article is smoking it.

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» RE: COWS are meant to eat GRASS Posted by: Higher Reptile

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Great article, right up until the end
Posted by: nullipara on Oct 2, 2009 5:42 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hey Editor, was your little note at the end really necessary? This is the problem with the enviro movement. It's full of self-righteous jerks who delude themselves by saying, 'Oh well I eat *less* meat so that's GREEN and besides I drive a Prius so I'm saving the Earth!' If you really cared about the earth an its inhabitants, you'd eat no animal products at all. Period.

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Life is Short
Posted by: kad on Oct 2, 2009 6:14 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
to short in fact, too not eat good cheese, drink good wine and whiskey, have sex outside, and eat ice cream and chateaubriand . So bugger off with you buzz kill vegan bullshit.

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» RE: Life is Short Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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Those GOT MILK stupid ads....
Posted by: exnazipope on Oct 2, 2009 6:29 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ever since those dumb ads appeared in TV and print, milk consumption had dwindled. I guess folks are a lot smarter than the dairy industry would dare to believe.

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WTF will I dunk my cookies in?
Posted by: thekidde on Oct 2, 2009 6:37 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
.

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Wait
Posted by: Robba29 on Oct 2, 2009 6:41 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
let me just finish my bowl of cereal...slurp...

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I'm still waiting for Alternet to post an article on "8 Reasons You Should Stop Having So Many Kids"
Posted by: Quist on Oct 2, 2009 6:48 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The BIGGEST environmental and overall health issue is not cows or people drinking milk, it is too many damn people on this planet.

...but lets keep ignoring that big fat elephant in the room.

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» Amen! Posted by: WhuThe?!?

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Wow
Posted by: wzsteen on Oct 2, 2009 6:57 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had no idea! But a glass of ice cold milk is SO good!

RT
Ultimate Anonymity

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» RE: Wow suggestion Posted by: Higher Reptile

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IT'S ALL TRUE
Posted by: smf1403 on Oct 2, 2009 7:24 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you want to stay healthy and if you have any compassion at all for the suffering of others (yes, animals feel pain and suffer):

Please consider reducing dairy and animal product consumption or at least buy from local small farms or Organic Valley which treat the animals humanely.

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» RE: IT'S ALL TRUE Posted by: Higher Reptile

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Moderation is the key
Posted by: wonkywriter on Oct 2, 2009 7:31 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It seems to me that a few vegetarians and, especially, vegans have a psychological desire to instill shame and guilt in those of us who eat meat and/or dairy in order to assuage their own sense of deprivation. My vegan friend looks like death-warmed-over most of the time. I, on the other hand, have been drinking milk for over six decades--as much as a gallon per day when I was a child--and eating ice cream with relish for almost as long. I respect cows and think they should be treated humanly. I'm not proud of some of the things the dairy industry does but the fault lies with capitalism and not those who eat the fruits of the dairy industry. If every person who eats meat or dairy would stop tomorrow, what would happen to all those cows? I doubt if vegans would adopt them as pets.

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» RE: Moderation is the key Posted by: Jethro2112

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Does this include grass fed milk?
Posted by: MichaelGoodhart on Oct 2, 2009 7:34 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's a big difference between drinking grass fed milk and the regular version. Another issue to consider is that the milk-based products especially milk chocolates are the problem that must be addressed at.

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Ah!!!!!! Domestication is unnatural!!!! Run!!! Light your hair on fire!!!!
Posted by: ABetterFuture on Oct 2, 2009 7:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, shriekers: if rats grew to be 1300 pounds and had udders, a docile temperament, and a palette friendly flavor of milk, we'd have inevitably turned Rattus rattus into R. domesticus*.

What's the author's point again? Cow milk isn't human milk, and isn't needed by adults, in either case? Yeah, well, neither are books, skyscrapers, concrete, paintings, or any of a hundred thousand things we produce or consume. Milk is, of course, on the list of things we don't technically need...I'd place it behind wars, debt, servitude-orieted national policies, and ignorance...

...but you've got to be discriminating re: what you choose to shriek over. Only so much oxygen to go around, eh?

*no, not that one :)

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Drink raw milk!
Posted by: wireup on Oct 2, 2009 7:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I moved to Pennsylvania a few years ago and last month, at the famers' market, I discovered certified organic, non-pasteurized, non-homogenized raw milk!!!!!!

I am DELIGHTED! When the milk sits in the refrigerator, the cream rises to the top. You have to shake the container! So, I know it's definitely NOT homogenized (which is another health problem so you should try to avoid anything that is homogenized)

Where I previously lived it was unavailable. So, I was buying organic pasteurized milk but couldn't get it down because of the digestive problems it caused. But with RAW milk, this is no longer a problem.

If you have access or certified organic milk you avoid all the problems the go with feedlot cows. As far as I know, it's green all the way!

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» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: dstauff
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: dingham
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: Imanibr2
» RE: Drink raw milk! Posted by: progressiveview

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Dairy Causes climate change?
Posted by: Ayla87 on Oct 2, 2009 8:34 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Humans have domesticated and milked cattle for thousands of years. Climate Change has been occuring for the past two hundred years, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the use of fossil fuels as energy.

Does anyone else see the discrepency?

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Notice how the author conveniently and blatantly leaves out the facts on
Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Oct 2, 2009 9:08 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
factory farming vs small farms when he bashes diary. Up until 50 years ago, most milk was raw and grassfed rather than corn fed. Milk back then had all the vitamins and minerals as a result and actually kept one healthy. The culprit is not milk but the changed way it is produced for the last 50 years that is the problem. Allow cows to roam free on the pasture and stop raping Mother Earth of water and fossil fuels just to produce processed cornfeed and anti-biotics to force down cow's throats and we will get healthy milk.

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Tired of it
Posted by: Ignatz deFyre on Oct 2, 2009 9:19 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I decline to read this article. The headline re-kindles my dismay at seeing, with great frequency, articles exhorting people to stop eating this, that, or the other thing.

Fact 1: mankind has been eating the tissue and secretions of animals for millenia.

Fact 2: mankind has been eating plant matter for millenia.

Some choose one, the other, or a combination thereof. Methods of ingestion vary: Some eat raw, some eat cooked, some imbibe, inhale or inject. This is reality. These kinds of articles are a waste of space. These facts will not change.

The issues are moderation, balance, sustainability. That's is where the thinking and effort should be going.

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» Amen Posted by: pancakebunny
» RE: Tired of it Posted by: corylus

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As Lenny Bruce Said...
Posted by: talapuspete on Oct 2, 2009 9:21 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"The word 'should' is a lie. Should implies a moral imperative, which usually leads to a guilt-trip, which is an attempt to control the behavior of others. That is authoritarian; as authoritarian as the flipping Christians that want the government to become Christian. Thanks, but no thanks.

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get rid of the cows
Posted by: workman586 on Oct 2, 2009 9:43 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
so cows are causing all the pollution ? so do we get rid of the cows ? how ? slaughter for beef ? How come cows only started producing dangerous green house gasses in the last decade or so. AND since there are probably less cows now than there were in say the 1950's cause they produce more milk per cow now than in the 1950's we probably had more cows then than now- producing more greenhouse gases than now ? So haven't we probably reduced total greenhouse gasses from cows ?

Less hair on fire rhetoric and more thought please.

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you can have my cheese
Posted by: hurricane hugo on Oct 2, 2009 10:04 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

#@!

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From a working dairy farmer--the similarties between the extreme vegetarians and Right to Life
Posted by: frantic1971 on Oct 2, 2009 10:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Please folks--disregard this incredibly distorted and hysterically inaccurate piece of vegetarian propaganda.

I am a lifetime dairy farmer, like my dad before me, with 50 cows. They are well treated and do NOT spend their lives confined in a lot! They are out on pasture all summer long, and then in the winter they freely graze the stubble in my cornfields and soybean fields.

The waste from cows is largely vegetable matter. It goes back onto my fields as fertilizer.

I don't "heartlessly sell my cows for hamburger" but keep them as long as they are productive. Which can be 8 years or more until the natural aging process starts to take hold (cows don't live forever, you know).

I could go on and on about the points raised in the article. Please believe me that NONE OF THIS IN THE ARTICLE IS TYPICAL OF ANY DAIRY FARM WHERE I LIVE! IT IS NOT DONE IN WELL MANAGED DAIRIES---EVEN THE LARGER ONES!

This article is sooo incredibly distorted--has the author ever BEEN to a dairy farm where I live? Has he been within 50 miles of one in his life?

I have noticed also--the curious similarities between the anti-abortion movement and the extreme vegetarians, as illustrated by this author. Each resorts to wildly inaccurate distortions of the facts, and the willingness to demonize those who don't believe as they do. If you don't agree with them, you are not only wrong but EVIL!

Alternet--I know some of these people probably donate alot to you, but don't let your website become a tool for propaganda. Leave that to Fox News.

I am just a farmer and I know I can't compete with the eloquence and those on this website who are much better at writing than I am. This article is a disgrace and totally discredits Alternet. And I am sure there will be others who will slap me down with a "shut-up you stupid dairy farmer! What the hell do YOU know about it!"

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In moderation, and with some education
Posted by: geekman on Oct 2, 2009 10:51 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cheese and other dairy products are part of some of the most healthy diets on the planet. But like anything you eat, don't overdo it, and find out where your food comes from. I'm lucky enough to live in WI, where there is a lot of local produce and local meat and dairy. Many of these producers are not just organic, but let their animals be the critters they are. Pasture grazed critters that aren't filled up with hormones and antibiotics. Get the animals out of confinement and they don't NEED antibiotics! So learn about your food. Learn about your producers. Help support local, organic, naturally raised meat and dairy products. Factory farming is cruel to animals, AND to humans!

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We have been given the opportunity to actully see proof
Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Oct 2, 2009 10:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
of there being GREEN assholes.

this group of neurotic greenweenies is ONLY concerned with their green shit.
They don't give one little fuck about anyone's health.

Let me tell of a way to actually shit green.
Eat an entire packet of spinach.
You WILL shit green the next day.
I eat it often and shit greenish brown.

I am soooooo impressed with their garbage.

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» Name-calling Posted by: corylus
» RE: Name-calling Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN

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And what about goat, sheep,buffalo, camel milk?
Posted by: MotherLodeBeth on Oct 2, 2009 10:58 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I drink local organic raw milk and will continue to do so.

Heck even Mongolian herdsmen and the desert people of Persian and African drink and use milk products.

Which shows the authors ignorance since milk doesn't come from just cows! There is goat, sheep, buffalo, camel milk.

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Some have suggested Soy milk
Posted by: dingham on Oct 2, 2009 11:13 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I can't prove it but, Soy(milk) messes up your manly hormones. If you are manly, don't partake.

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» not to mention... Posted by: undrgrndgirl
» RE: not to mention... Posted by: WhuThe?!?
» RE: Some have suggested Soy milk Posted by: progressiveview
» ..WESTON PRICE schills are here! Posted by: truly scrumptious

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Why Would Anyone in Their Right Mind Consume Milk?
Posted by: Saiva on Oct 2, 2009 11:34 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When there are so many more healthful, sustainable, and compassionate choices? How about milk made from soy, rice, almonds, oats, and the best yet ... coconut milk!

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» Habit before Reason? Posted by: Saiva
» RE: hyperbole before reason? Posted by: ffrf.org
» round up ready reason? Posted by: ffrf.org

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vegetarianism vs. veganism
Posted by: vasumurti on Oct 2, 2009 12:11 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Regarding vegetarianism vs. veganism, man is the only species that drinks the milk of another species. All other species drink the milk of the mothers of their own species until they are weaned. Cow's milk is the perfect food—if you're a baby calf!

To mass produce cow's milk on a large scale via factory farming, cows have to be kept continually pregnant, giving birth, and lactating. The cows are genetically bred to produce excess cow's milk for humans. Male cows (bulls) are useless to the dairy industry, so they become veal. By supporting the dairy industry, one indirectly supports cow killing.

Vegetarians do cause far less animal cruelty than meat-eaters, but a nonviolent philosophy would carry greater weight if it came from vegans rather than from vegetarians.

The meat-eaters, especially, exactly, are ready to find fault with us in this regard: do we love all animals, or only some animals (e.g., cows) and not others? And if we really do love the cows, why do we contribute to their death and suffering just to drink their milk?

Can children be raised without cow's milk? YES! Half the world's population (blacks and Asians in particular) are lactose intolerant, and can't digest milk after infancy. Dr. Michael Klaper has written books on vegan nutrition, pregnancy, and childbirth.

One of the first books I read on the subject of vegetarianism while in college was A Vegetarian Sourcebook by Keith Akers (1983). Describing the environmental damage caused by raising animals for food: topsoil erosion, deforestization, loss of groundwater, etc. as well as the economic inefficiency and waste of energy and resources in raising animals for food in an age of exploding human population growth, Keith Akers foreshadowed John Robbins' Diet for a New America (1987), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

In A Vegetarian Sourcebook, Keith Akers writes:

"Using grasslands for livestock agriculture creates great environmental problems, which greatly limit its usefulness. Grazing systems require ten times more land than feedlot agriculture, in which animals are simply given feed grown on cropland. Grazing systems have to be extensive in order to avoid the catastrophic consequences of overgrazing—which renders a piece of land unsuitable for any purpose.

"Overgrazing and the consequent soil erosion are extremely serious problems worldwide. By the most conservative estimates, 60% of all U.S. rangelands are overgrazed, with billions of tons of soil lost each year. Overgrazing has also been the greatest cause of man-made deserts.

"Even if we grant grazing a role in a resource-efficient, ecologically stable agriculture, milk should be the end result, not beef. Milk provides over 50% of the protein and nearly four times the calories of beef, per unit of forage resources from grazing.

"'When only forage is available, then egg, broiler and pork production are eliminated and only milk, beef, and lamb production are viable systems,' state David and Marcia Pimentel, scientists and authors of Food, Energy and Society. "Of these three, milk production is the most efficient.'

"An ecologically stable, resource-efficient system of grazing animals for human food could not be anything faintly resembling today's livestock agriculture," concludes Akers. "It would be a smaller, decentralized, less intensive system of animal husbandry devoted to milk production."

So it may be possible to have animal agriculture (devoted solely to milk production) on a small scale—e.g., religious groups like the Amish. But the rest of humanity, with an exploding population in the billions, will have to be vegan.

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» Revealed ignorance Posted by: Walt K

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Raw Cream
Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line on Oct 2, 2009 12:20 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is just about as good as anything on this planet...anything else is just a cheap imitation. In fact I agree...milk sucks..(milk that is so processed that it is just white water)... Drink raw milk for health..AND superior flavor.

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I suffer from depression and ibs
Posted by: noalternative on Oct 2, 2009 1:30 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I benefit from fish oil, since the epa is beneficial for my condition, and helps keep my mental health on an even keel, and the yogurt keeps my digestive system in good order. It also helps me to eat things that have b12 in them, since that is associated with mental health as well. I know alternet can't stand it that not all liberals can be vegans, but it is just tough!

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The cows are not REPEATEDLY impregnated
Posted by: pancakebunny on Oct 2, 2009 1:34 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This article makes it sound like the cows are raped daily. The cows are impregnated once a year. If there were such a thing as a wild cow it would assuredly get pregnant every year anyhow. This is the natural scheme of life.

When they give birth the unwanted calves are no doubt slaughtered and used for food. Unless you're a vegetarian you shouldn't find this particularly disturbing either.

Yes, Americans should cut down on the amount of meat, fish and dairy that we eat. Factory farming is a source of carbon emissions and we should work to reduce that dramatically. Completely eliminating ALL dairy is just extremism. Very biased article.

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Why are we AlterNet readers...
Posted by: agapegirl on Oct 2, 2009 2:00 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
so insecure? An article suggests milk is unhealthy for humans to drink. Take it or leave it, or comment on it. However, is so much vitriol toward such a harmless suggestion necessary?

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And then there's....
Posted by: morticia on Oct 2, 2009 2:38 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...this.

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The Principal Protein in Milk
Posted by: BobBrrz on Oct 2, 2009 3:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The principal protein in milk--80% of the protein, say--is casein. If you're a cancer researcher, casein is a godsend; it's the easiest way to turn cancer on or off in an experimental animal. Read
it for yourself at http://www.ezhealthydiet.com/casein-protein.html.

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WHAT WILL I DRINK WITH MY O-R-E-O's doublestuff of course
Posted by: GetItRight on Oct 2, 2009 3:33 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
No milk...oh my lord. Haven't you all heard before... You can milk anything that has nipples.

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Meat and Milk vs. nothing
Posted by: PaulK on Oct 2, 2009 3:34 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Certain rocky, mountainous or dry lands are no good for growing grains or vegetables. The only way to get food out of them is by grazing. Shall we have a blunt policy that excludes one of the world's major food sources? Furthermore, when the deer herds overpopulate they get bold and they eat out of people's vegetable gardens. We humans wiped out the wolves, wildcats and bears, the deer's natural predators. Do we kill the deer ourselves now or do we let them eat our food?

Vegans are notorious over the past few decades for making themselves sick. If you're one of the healthy vegan minority, congratulations. A number of your fellow vegans have a B-12 deficiency. A number of others didn't eat right and have a calcium deficiency. The vegan movement will have its head together a lot better when such trace vitamins and nutrients are routinely a part of every vegan meal. A Vegan arguing that stopping the drinking of milk will make you healthy is a weak argument.

I have a sense that, as a spiritual philosophy, veganism can be quite kind to animals but just as rotten to human beings as anyone else. I realize that the "Hitler was a vegan" rumors are probably untrue, but a nonzero incidence of veganism in Nazi Germany says something about a potential separation of moral ethics in people for political reasons. Refusing to hurt a little bunny but rejoicing at conquering Poland and France is a bit morally inconsistent.

Then there's the "milk makes you fat" thesis. The milk industry has spent millions saying "milk makes you thin". The author may or may not have a point, and it may hinge on a nonfat milk versus whole milk quibble, but simply coming out and announcing that milk makes you fat with little evidence is quite unconvincing. It makes the author sound rather stupid.

There may be good reasons to drink or not to drink milk, but the noise to signal ratio in this article is atrocious.

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» Nothing Posted by: corylus

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Stop eating American-made milk products--not all milk products
Posted by: dayahka on Oct 2, 2009 7:20 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Seriously, now, the case you have made is not against all milk products--but against the American, Capitalist industrial production of food stuffs. Sixty years ago, before these gigantic animal and plant farms dedicated solely to sadism and profit, people could drink good milk, eat good cheese, and so on. One can be against the whole industrial food system without having to give up all milk; Vegans are a little too extreme, methinks.

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I notice you didn't lead with ice cream
Posted by: YogiBear on Oct 2, 2009 11:53 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Because that would be absurd. You stuck it in the middle so it would get lost.

Too much milk? Prolly. Bad for the stomach for many. No ice cream? Go to heckle.

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My Own Personal Experience
Posted by: Xynyx on Oct 3, 2009 12:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cutting out dairy products netted ME the following benefits:
Congestion problems I pretty much had constantly... and which were especially bad whenever I had a cold, were dramatically reduced in severity and in frequency.
Headaches I suffered from early childhood ceased.
Indigestion became far less infrequent.
Severe chest pains I felt from time to time quit altogether.
Lower GI problems I experienced went away... and I learned that I had a completely mistaken impression regarding just what it was to be constipated. More or less... I had ALWAYS been so.
I lost 25 pounds in three months (I also went Vegan for the summer... and I am Vegan now...).
My complexion cleared up... and warts I had on my hands vanished. (This result was completely shocking to me... I never would have connected warts to milk.)
I discovered that I could actually enjoy more subtle tastes and absorb more nutrients from the food I was eating. (I found I had much more energy than I had ever had before.)

There's no guarantee that everyone else would experience the same results... but I am certain many would. I heartily encourage people to at least give it a try.

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Milk Vitamin D
Posted by: femtobeam on Oct 3, 2009 1:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Milk is an important source of Vitamin D and protein is needed for good brain development.

The cattle for beef are the main volume of methane producing cattle, not dairy cows. With digesters available today to turn the waste into energy along with photobioreactors to produce green food, many of these problems can be solved.

Drinking milk and the antibiotic properties of many cheeses are important for human health at all ages, particularly for women. It is essential for bones. It is one of the major food groups that we should have every day, along with green vegetables, fruit, bread, and meat or nuts.

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Whole Milk Baby!!
Posted by: Purple Girl on Oct 3, 2009 8:31 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am 46 and have been an avid whole milk drinkin' baby all my life.
I have never broken a bone- even when I probably should have.
My Cholesterol is within range and my good is higher than my bad.
I may have about 10 extra pounds, and am not a person who exercises as a routine.
I've had an Echo Card and no blockages were evident.
Knock on wood- I have only benefited to this point from the increased Calcium in my diet provided by dairy products.
It would be ridiculous,though, if I ascerted all people would have the same results.
So neither should you. Every persons metabolism, genetics and environmental influences are different- so must be their diets to address those unique factors.
It is ignorant to claim that a person working in a labor intensive job, of large frame would do as well on a Vegan diet as a small framed research/data collector.
As for those Vile and Deadly bovine populations- should we let them die off through attrition, or just go out and shoot them down to stop their Carbon footprint dead in it's tracks?
Lets be clear here- if you keep feeding them they will keep farting and shitting. So if you aren't going to kill them outright, then starvation is the next best alternative - Right?
Ok Wheres the PETA People Now??
As PETA is protesting the slaughter of these animals are the Envirnomentalists cheering them on? One Down! Even more bizarre would be a person who is both! Oh they may like to say they would save the Bovine pop and let them graze on open range- but that angst between cattle ranchers and enviromentalists has it's own long sordid history regarding Grazing rights and ecological destruction.
The Vegan movement is as fantical and irrational as the Evangelicals. They might as well make their next campaign slogan- 'Go Vegan or Go to Hell'.Literally and figuratively. For the sin of Murder, for bringing on global warming and as prediction and a request.
I've Tried your Soy and was mistakenly diagnosed with IBS, instead of the adverse food reaction I was experiencing.
This 'Holier than Thou' attitude is as annoying from the Left as it is from the Right.

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» RE: Whole Milk Baby!! Posted by: Xynyx

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Milk and Vitamin D
Posted by: femtobeam on Oct 4, 2009 1:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Milk is an important source of vitamin D and protein is needed for good brain development. While it is important to stop eating so much beef to lower the amount of deforestation and methane gas, both of those problems can be solved with photobioreactors and digesters.

Milk and particularly cheezes are important foods and one of the major food groups we all require, along with green vegetables, fruit, bread and meat.

The real problem with beef is the offal they are fed instead of grass.

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Milk is not that bad...
Posted by: Dressagechien on Oct 4, 2009 1:50 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What about the benefits of drinking milk?

Avoid osteoporosis, hypertension and colon cancer to just name a few.

Regards,


Dressagechien

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I suppose the next big thing to be "FART FREE MILK"
Posted by: Caleb Darkstar on Oct 4, 2009 5:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If we can send spaceships to Mars, Surely we can create "Beano" for cattle. Or we could just equipt them with catalytic converters. Now there is a mental picture.

I think I will have a White Russian an ponder this further.

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Soymilk/NO!
Posted by: Candleinheart on Oct 4, 2009 8:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have been a health food devotee for years, breast fed babies, made their food, bought certified raw milk,made whole grain breads, pancakes with organic flours. Efforts paid off for years my kids and I were seldom sick as opposed to their peers and mine! Prevention was always my motto. However, after age 65 a few problems arose. I had always avoided Soy milk, why I don't know but I began drinking it daily. Within a month I was having violent cramps at night, my legs 'freezing up.' It was ghastly. 4x to ER they were clueless. Fortunately, I knew an Asian healer. She asked me what I was eating differently within month or so. I said, soymilk. Eliminate immediately, she said, it was giving me estrogen dominance when at my age I did not need that!I quit and sleep became dreamy again. I made a concerted effort to eliminate any foods with soy (mayonnaise) so the gentleman above who said it screwed up his male hormones in some way was right.Stay away from it! No matter what age. No to babies! Another crop making billions forcing a product on us. Also, it is true the B blood people can handle dairy, the rest (type 0, A, AB cannot) Many people lose much weight on an Atkins type diet because as O people, wheat,potatoes and dairy are anathema to our blood type. Good meat, veggies fruits, nuts,squashes etc. best for O. Again, meat in moderation for O types have a high acid stomach and need the meat as it digests it well. Type A people do better on (as my sons call then, the Sproutheads)diet, though they can have some fish, etc. Check out James DAdamo's book 4 Diets, 4 Blood types. Back to the old adage ,"What's good for the goose ain't good for the gander." AMEN!

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My two cents ...
Posted by: Eluned on Oct 4, 2009 4:57 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As someone who is slightly lactose-intolerant (but apparently not enough to stop me from eating cheese and ice cream on occasion), I realize that cutting out on dairy would likely be good for me. However (and I think I'm not alone, here), I don't respond well to what could be construed as "fear tactics" to promote a particular point of view against others (and I've been vegan before and have vegan friends, so absolutely *nothing* against vegans ... promise!)

My real problem is how the majority of animals are treated in the 'food industry' (and to the former small dairy farmer who posted earlier, you rock!) I grew up on a farm as well, and learned to appreciate where what was on my place came from (I did eventually learn to stop naming the chickens, though).

I don't eat much meat and I don't eat much dairy - but I have some of each, sometimes, and I try to make sure that what I eat comes from a better source than 'factory farms'. I want to cry when I think about it, yet I still eat the stuff sometimes :-/ ... I think there are many (many) people who will NEVER become vegan, no matter what. So, perhaps all of us (vegans, dairy drinkers, vegetarians, meat eaters) could get together and work towards a more sustainable, kind industry for the beautiful animals out there? I don't think there'd be many people who'd disagree with that agenda, so we could go ahead and get something done instead of arguing! :-)

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Are you weaned?
Posted by: frantaylor on Oct 5, 2009 7:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Milk is for infants whose digestive systems can't handle anything else.

Drinking milk after infancy is a clear sign of some sort of unhealthy breast fixation.

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» RE: Are you weaned? Posted by: Caleb Darkstar

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Wow, just wow...
Posted by: ThomasJefferson on Oct 5, 2009 2:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
massive massive colossally massive ignorance.

Farm raised grass fed non-factory farm raw milk is what you want.

just read up on the Weston Price Foundation on raw milk and it's benefits and its impact on the environment.

in the mean time, take your massively ignorant vegan insanity elsewhere.

so exhausting.

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drink the water
Posted by: phair on Oct 5, 2009 2:18 PM   
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There is no global warming. Earth temp has gone down for the last 11 years in a row. Ice is returning to the arctic. All those cows, years ago, would have been replaced by bison, wolves, bighorn sheep. How many naturally occurring animals have been reduced to near extinction by human development that would be thriving in untold numbers if parts of the earth were left to nature. The "cows" have just replaced them as a source of CO2. This is a situation of great technology+illogical thinking+false deduction based on a small premise expanded to a bigger premise. They take a computer model and want to base law on it and tax everyone not to mention eugenics to reduce the population by 90%. They measure a square foot of air in a spot that they know will have a high CO2 content, then have the computer fill in the blanks and multiply by some gazillion number to make up the entire earth's atmosphere from that one square foot of air that they measured and deduce that the entire atmosphere has too much CO2 based on their "test" of 1 square foot of air that they knew would contain a high CO2 reading. Also you can avoid most milk "problems" by making sure the milk is organic. Thus it will contain no harmones, no pesticides, and no anti-biotics and no vaccine poisons. People in Russia and India live into their 100s eating yogurt and cheese. Real Italians (those who actually live there not American-Italians) ride their bikes up and down mountains to get their daily meals of fresh food in their 90's. Go there and see it sometime. They eat cheese, drink milk (alfredo sauce, florentine sauce, parmesan, romano, asiago, provolone, mozzarelli). They also eat lunceon meats and sausage, that is produced fresh everyday without chemical preservatives and harmones and they are as a people stronger and healthier than us couch potatoes worrying about the number of cow farts and should we commit suicide and not have kids because too many people wreck the earth. Greed wrecks the earth. Period.

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» RE: drink the water Posted by: phair
» RE: drink the water Posted by: phair

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Not all cows are on bad farms
Posted by: Mary Anne on Oct 5, 2009 2:59 PM   
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I happen to be friends with the people who run a fairly large dairy farm. I've been to their place a few times and watched how they treat their cows. Their cows were clean and happy.

Maybe the large dairy farms that don't treat their cows well should be banned from doing business!

http://maryannecarter.com/

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The "vegetarians" I know
Posted by: Beck on Oct 6, 2009 1:19 PM   
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Here are some.

The one who said he's one at home, while eating meat.

The one who repeatedly claimed to be one, then forgot and told about the good sausage sandwich she had at a park.

The one who was always known to me as a vegetarian, always connecting that with herself, who just ate turkey in front of me, still calling herself that.

The one who told me we needed to work on getting all people to be vegetarians, then a few months later told about a great fish dinner she had on vacation, then said she bought skinless chicken.

The one who berated me for eating meat, then said she did like a certain brand of turkey breast.

The one who eats meat every lunch and dinner date we have, even though she's a "vegetarian".

I saw a survey a couple of years ago on a vegetarian website with the question, "When was the last time you ate meat?" A huge percentage answered, "Within the last 24 hours."

I know exactly one person who says she is a vegetarian and truly seems to be one. Oh, no, I can think of another. I'm sure she has an unhealthy diet because she looks horrible, terribly thin, alarming looking. All the rest seem to eat meat about as much as us omnivores: some, in small amounts, almost every day.

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No more of this
Posted by: troubleinmind254 on Oct 6, 2009 2:42 PM   
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Just like a post above. I don't wast time reading these things. I have uite meat, smokes, drugs (illegal), alcohol and porn.
So Im doing what I can, and so should a lot of people Im rooting for.

As far as milk is concerned all I can say is. FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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If you live beside a dairy farm....
Posted by: postconsumer-consumer on Oct 6, 2009 4:40 PM   
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...you get a first hand view of what's involved. Contamination of air, ground water and soil with pesticides, herbicides, liquid manure. Manure lagoons leaking into ground water and streams.

Plowing, discing, planting, spraying, baling, harvesting, threshing - and endless number of tasks requiring the burning of fossil fuels.

And that's just to feed the cows so they give the milk.

The cows are pumped up on growth hormones and antibiotics. They stand their whole lives in one spot in a barn doing nothing but eating and giving milk. The have foot problems, their tails are cut off, some of their udders are so large they can't walk anyway. If they get sick they are just shot because the farmer won't spend money on vet fees. Calves are separated from their mothers and chained with a short chain to a hut outdoors so they won't drink the mothers milk.

I don't care what anyone says, I can't look at a glass of milk without thinking of the environmental and animal welfare cost of producing it. Don't buy the stuff.

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There's milk the wrong way--
Posted by: souffrantfleur on Oct 7, 2009 6:43 AM   
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And there's milk the right way. I own a cow share. The farmer keeps 2 Jerseys. They are grass-fed, year-round. For 30 bucks a month, I one get 1 gallon of real milk per week. I make cheese, butter, and yogurt from this milk, every single week. My teeth are remineralizing, my knees don't hurt so much anymore, and my skin has never been better. The cows are well-loved, and the farmer is making good money. For millennia this was how dairy was done, and it could be done this way again.

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» Sounds like you're on the right track... Posted by: postconsumer-consumer

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This article is not based on reality
Posted by: usermisty618 on Oct 8, 2009 12:58 PM   
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Everything about this article is ridiculous. Since when did those crazy a@@ holes at PETA get involved with Alternet? This article sounds like it was written after one of those animal snuff movies they like to watch so well. I was raised on a dairy farm and every inch of the part about how cows spend their lives is completely inaccurate.

I must say, a little disappointed in Alternet for printing such crap...

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Yes, some people are lactose
Posted by: fredtowson on Oct 16, 2009 10:13 AM   
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Yes, some people are lactose intolerant and should stay away from some dairy, but by and large, the proteins and beneficial calcium and phosphorus from dairy is very good in one's diet. There are people who are nut intolerant, so should stay away from nut products, but that doesn't mean nuts are unhealthy to the vast majority of omnivores.

I do believe in treating animals humanely. Our cows were bred for both milking and creating new replacement stock. Breeding was not an annual event. Gigantic dairy farms, as in any huge mega-animal production facility, could take note that treating animals as though they have no worth beyond milk/meat production is immoral. Cows are thinking, feeling beings. Maybe not the brightest bulbs in the pack, but certainly social critters who feel something for their offspring and herd mates. Treating these animals with some respect would mean keeping постеры постеры к сериалам путешественникам путешествия true blood posters true blood tv show posters seropol5 them clean, allowing them to graze naturally and supplementing grass with digestable grains.

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hi from blackpool accommodation
Posted by: Blackpool Hotels on Oct 31, 2009 5:06 AM   
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I have just read this story and I recently stayed at a Blackpool hotel the Norbreck Castle Hotel and enjoyed my hotel stay in Blackpool. Norbreck Castle is part of Britannia Hotels which has many popular hotel accommodation such as the Britannia Hotel Manchester.

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