Improving Welfare in the Dairy Industry
Dairy cows operate in a separate industry. If you wondered why vegans don’t drink milk or eat cheese, it’s because around 95,000 male calves each year are shot at birth, as they have no financial value – or are exported for veal.
Shooting calves is decreasing as people become aware (some are now raised for beef). But in nature, mothers would wean their calves for up to 2 years, and often near farms you can hear their haunting calls throughout the night, pining for their babies.
Cows obviously have to give birth to produce milk. Most are artificially inseminated, then produce milk for 3 years before being slaughtered.
Drink Milk? Choose Organic
Most milk is from intensive farms. So if you drink dairy milk, go for organic brands with free-range cows who hopefully don’t have calves removed at a young age. This website lists dairies that let calves stay with their mothers.
Industrial dairy farming also leads to many issues like painful mastitis (udder inflammation) that can affect most of a herd. It’s mostly caused by being housed indoors for long periods, contamination of milking equipment or bedding, and lack of rest.
Injecting dairy cows with regular antibiotics leads to them being less effective (and creates issues for us – some people believe some hormonal cancers are increased in people who eat a lot of dairy).
Or Drink Oat Milk Instead!
Another way to help is to financially support farm sanctuaries (not the same as ‘city farms’) but instead volunteers give loving homes to barnyard friends who have been neglected or abused. Or drink oat milk instead.
Help (not judgement) for Cattle Farmers
Read our post on help for farmers (and their cows & calves), which covers info on preventing bovine TB, mastitis and transfarmation (where dairy farmers transition over to farming oats, and leave animals to live out lives in peace – this can also save long-held family farms).
The Farming Community Network is an umbrella of charities that have helplines for struggling farmers. From providing free feed to livestock to offering help with finances and tenancy.
Books to Make Your Own Non-Dairy Alternatives
Breaking Up with Dairy is a highly-reviewed book of 100 plant-based recipes by an American chef. The book also features the ‘5 stages of breaking up’, to learn about dairy from a health, environmental and animal welfare perspective.
Avoid unpasteurised milks and cheeses for pregnancy/nursing, children and affected medical conditions.
Keep these recipes away from pets (due to unsafe ingredients like garlic, herbs, spices and macadamia nuts). Read more on food safety for people & pets.
To sterilise jars, wash with hot soapy water and rinse, then boil in a large pot for 10 to 15 minutes, remove with tongs and air-dry on a clean towel (also boil lids for 10 minutes).
Or heat clean jars on a tray in the oven for 15 minutes, or run on the highest heat dishwasher cycle, on a full wash (again remove and air-dry).
Recipes include:
- Parmesan & Gorgonzola (‘real ones’ are not even vegetarian, as both contain calf rennet)
- Pepper-Jack & Young Gruyere Cheese
- Baked Truffle Mac
- Breakfast Pizza with Hollandaise
- New York Spelt Bagels with Roast Garlic Cream Cheese
- Mini Quiches
- High-Protein Cottage Cheese
There are colour photos of each recipe, plus swaps to make each recipe allergy-friendly.
No complicated fermentation or hard-to-find ingredients, just easy to make recipes for home cooks of all skill levels.
Bailey Ruskus is a seasoned chef and health coach, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco. She has been a professional chef for 14 years, and an advocate for holistic health, the environmental and animal welfare.
She began to eat plant-based after giving up dairy to heal chronic pain from a 16-year battle with endometriosis after exhausting all other options. She lives in California, USA.
Homemade Plant-Based Milks & Cheeses
The Vegan Dairy Cookbook is a book of homemade plant-based alternatives to milks and cheeses. Ideal for people who avoid dairy for ethical or medical reasons, these recipes taste just as good as the real thing (if not better!)
The book includes info on safe sterilising, then goes onto providing recipes, which include:
- Homemade Plant Milks
- Homemade Vegan Cheese
- Homemade Vegan Cream Cheese
- Homemade Vegan Mayonnaise
- Homemade Vegan Béchamel Sauce
- Homemade Vegan Ice Cream
Marleen Visser is a food stylist and photographer, who likes to create vegan recipes, for everyone to enjoy. She lives in The Netherlands.
The Vegan Creamery: Plant-Based Dairy Recipes
The Vegan Creamery is a beautiful book, to teach home chefs (or professional ones) how to make their own plant-based milks, cheeses and ice-creams. Using mostly nuts and seeds, now you can enjoy your favourite rich desserts, or a batch of fresh strawberry ice-cream, on a summer’s day.
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (keeps nuts away from young children and pets.
The author (an expert on dairy alternatives) has figured out over the last 30 years how to mimic real dairy, and now shares her carefully crafted recipes. Recipes include:
- Cashew Milk and Cream
- French-style Soft Truffle Cheese
- Homemade Ricotta
- Reggie Goat Cheese (for pizza)
- Seed Milk Mozzarella
- Bean Halloumi
- Rancho Rockfort!
- Pumpkin Seed Oat Yoghurt
- Salted Maple Choc Chip Ice Cream
About the Author
Miyoko Shinner is a chef who founded Miyokos, one of the USA’s top vegan butter companies (which uses no palm oil and has surpassed us by creating oat milk butter, something yet not on England’s grocery shelves. Before that, she created cookies that were served on American airlines.
Now having stepped back from business, she has founded Rancho Compasión, a non-profit farmed-animal sanctuary located in Northern California, home to over 100 rescued animals.
