Should we all be vegans?

Activist groups like PETA often promote the message that we should all be vegan and that farm animals would be more healthy and happy if they were allowed to wander unfettered through sun-lit pastures rather than being farmed. Is this really the future that we want to see?

Ok. Let’s think about this from an animal welfare point-of-view. Leaving aside the increased risk of predation (coyotes killing sheep, foxes killing lambs, chickens as road-kill), there’s no doubt that animal health can be at risk in such an environment. Investigation of the recent avian flu outbreaks showed that the spread and prevalence of the disease was widespread among outdoor and backyard chicken flocks, with no disease found on farms where chickens were housed in barns. Allowing animals to wander free totally negates biosecurity, putting the entire US herd or flock at risk, especially when notifiable diseases such as avian flu or foot-and-mouth occur. While it’s nice to imagine ‘happy’ Holstein cows peacefully grazing lush spring pastures, what happens when that pasture is buried under 48 inches of snow, or is bare and brown after only 1 inch of rain has fallen in the past four months? More to the point, where’s this pasture going to come from? If a producer doesn’t need to use their land to produce animal feed, how long will it be before it’s covered with concrete and houses?

However, this brings me to my main point, the one that the idealistic vegans seem to miss: if we all went vegan tomorrow, there would be no farm animals. No cute little chickens for the kids to hand feed, no baby lambs to pet at farm days, no doe-eyed Jerseys for 4-H kids to raise and take care of… just a big pile of 9.2 million slaughtered dairy cows.

Welfare-friendly? I think not.

Myth..... BUSTED!

By Jude L. Capper


NEXT MYTH: The American Medical Association and American Dietetic Association have both stated that saturated fat consumption leads to increased cholesterol levels and heart disease. Does consumption of dairy products predispose us to heart disease?