Vegetarian Star

Alicia Silverstone has blogged about the truth behind the dairy industry, even farms labeled “organic” and what it means to millions of dairy cows in the world.

Organic dairy requirements basically require the farmer comply with the following rules:

* All feed must be organic
* Animals must have unrestricted access to pasture
* No antibiotics or hormones are allowed, with the exception that sick animals must be treated as needed and removed from the herd

But, as Silverstone points out, organic does not necessarily mean animals are treated more humanely and ultimately every cow that becomes depleted of the ability to produce milk is sent to slaughter.

Silverstone uses information obtained from Farm Sanctuary, one of the nation’s biggest for abused, rescued and abandoned farm animals, to illustrate how cruelty still  takes place.

“Immediately after giving birth, the mother cow has her calf dragged away from her so that he or she does not drink her milk. If the calf is male, he is immediately chained by the neck in a 2-ft wide crate, so small that he can’t turn around, stretch his limbs, or lie down comfortably. There he spends his entire short life being fed an anemic diet, just to be slaughtered at only a few months of age for veal.”

Experts in environmental, public health, animal welfare and consumer advocacy have argued that the treatment of cows on larger, organic farms is similar to non-organic factory farms and have confirmed these suspicions during investigations at large, organic farms like Horizon Organic.

And of course, some farms just outright lie about their practices.

An investigation of Aurora Organic Dairy found 98% of the cattle grazing in feedlots instead of pasture, as the organic law requires. Aurora was also found to be obtaining cattle from non-organic sources, another violation of regulations.

Photo: PR Photos

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