Vegetarian Star

Dr. Temple Grandin, scientist who has worked with the animal agricultural industry to bring change to way animals raised for food and handled, spoke with Food Safety News on the Conklin Dairy Farm investigation that uncovered a worker beating and torturing a cow. Grandin feels these incidents are not the norm, as many activist insists.

“Most places are not doing stuff that horrible. To say that every dairy treats their animals that way, no, that’s wrong, they’re not. But on the other hand, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle, between the animal rights advocates that say everything is an atrocity, to the industry who says everything’s just fine. I’ve worked in a lot of places. It’s somewhere in the middle. It’s a constant battle. You can’t under staff and overwork. Tired people are more likely to get angry, and so are overworked people.”

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You’ve heard of Meatless Mondays, a campaign encouraging people to eat vegetarian just one day a week.

Will we soon see a movement promoting less dairy and eggs, called Vegan Thursdays?

Leona Lewis told Modern Dog magazine that she eats vegan one day a week, in addition to being a vegetarian the other six days.

“I am a vegetarian. I don’t eat meat or any fish, and I do try to be a vegan at least once a week where I don’t drink milk or eat cheese or eggs. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was twelve.”

The dairy industry isn’t without environmental impact.

Research on Ireland farms found it takes 3.59 to 6.7kWh per cow each week for milking, with a large part of electricity use going towards cooling milk and heating water.

There are humane arguments to using less dairy, such as the conditions female cows in factory farms must endure when they are unable to move and forced to produce unnatural amounts of milk during their lifetime.

Will your next step in going green be to cut dairy during the week?

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Temple Grandin, scientist who made contributions to the livestock industry praised by those in the business and animal rights activists, says dairy and egg farms need to step up their level of care for the animals.

The subject of a recent HBO movie chronicling her life, Grandin said farmers have gotten used to keeping animals and the conditions they’re kept in unhealthy.

At an organic food industry conference, Grandin said, according to the Des Moines Register. “The bad has become normal.”

Grandin said battery cages used to house hens aren’t large enough to allow the birds to continue their normal behavior, such as scratching, nesting and perching.

But she is concerned that too many regulations will cause farmers to take their business to other countries to save money, thus causing Americans to lose their jobs.

She’s also worried about low-income people being able to afford the price of the cage-free eggs.

One suggestion Grandin has is to use larger cage systems that Europe already has, which allows the birds to do normal behaviors.

Could America be on its way to adopting a similar practice?

Lee Kilmer, a dairy extension specialist at Iowa State University said, “California is five years ahead of the Midwest, and the European Union is five years ahead of California. I’m hoping we can get producers in the Midwest to deal with some of these practices that deal with animal welfare before we have legislation requiring it.”

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