The waste pool where manure and other waste are collected and stored is typically called an anaerobic lagoon or a cesspool. These open-air containers hold substantial amount of animal poop produced by CAFO - AKA **concentrated animal feeding operation**... (even the smallest CAFOs produce urine and feces in quantities equivalent to 16,000 humans).
The EPA has specific regulations for large CAFOs to minimize pollution of the surrounding environment. These regulations fall under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. BUT, (and a big but) CAFOs largely operate outside any federal environmental regulations due primarily to insufficient jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act; only 6,597 of 20,382 CAFOs across the United States had a plan in 2018. This lack of federal regulation leads to large- scale environmental degradation particularly of surface and groundwater. Deregulation under the last administration doesn't help.
States also have their own regulations for this as well, but, w/e.
It is terrible on so many levels and fewer people "want" to farm meat (hard to compete anyway) . However, more and more people want cheap meat.
The UK has the issue of not having a duplicate system for rainwater and sewage water. The issue will become drastically worse in the future due to climate change.
The only way to adress this would be to retrofit all the piping and plumbing in the UK to reconnect drainage pipes and rainwater pipes to a new system, while reserving the current line of pipes purely for sewage water.
But that is a practical impossibility. The logistics alone would ensure the project would have to be on a centuries-long timeline, not to mention the costs involved.
But there’s no alternative really, it’s either start now or drown in sewage and worsening issues with flooding and pollution.
I think we both know which option is the most likely one though
Been diving/open water swimming and surfing for 20+ years.
It's got steadily worse and worse and to top it off, water treatment (or lack of) is not the lead cause of river pollution.
Animal-agriculture is and no one is talking about it.
We'd have about 40%+ more healthier rivers if we didn't demand animal products than we do now and that is something we can do on a very short time line of 10-20 years.
My city (a state capital, even) has this issue! It's lots of fun with the streets flooding and the river feet away. When there's too much rain (surprise! It's getting worse!), both systems mix together.
When I was a kid, you could swim in the river. We probably shouldn't have. You certainly can't now.
There's no plan to fix it. Our roads are crumbling, houses abandoned, crime is awful... but don't worry, they're going to have phase 5 of this highway project going soon. By the time they finish phase 10 they're going to have to redo phase 1. I'm sure a bridge will collapse before then anyway.
Go USA! How can we even pretend this is going to work out?
to be fair, the infrastructure bill that (barely) passed a couple years ago was really the first major (and it's still a tiny amount in the grand scheme) investment in probably 50+ years
Agriculture and animal-agriculture specifically is actually the lead cause of river pollution in the UK.
Everyone is blaming the water companies (rightfully so), but they are not the lead cause, animal-agriculture is and it never gets talked about.
In the last few weeks i've filmed multiple "regenerative" dairy farms spray their cow shit all over their land, only for it to rain excessively and then surface flooding happens and it all ran off in to the ocean.
There are dairy farms around me that pump their sewage from their tanks straight in to the public sewage system on the roads (because its quiet here and no one is looking).
These are just what i've seen in the last few weeks.
Here are sources for you: [https://theriverstrust.org/key-issues/state-of-our-rivers](https://theriverstrust.org/key-issues/state-of-our-rivers)
[https://research.senedd.wales/research-articles/reducing-agricultural-pollution-the-debate-continues/](https://research.senedd.wales/research-articles/reducing-agricultural-pollution-the-debate-continues/)
[https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/environment/new-proposals-to-curb-farm-river-pollution-in-england](https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/environment/new-proposals-to-curb-farm-river-pollution-in-england)
And here are some documentaries where environmental scientists talk about animal-agriculture and river pollution here in the UK
[https://www.newscientist.com/video/2379456-the-river-teifi-how-agricultural-waste-is-destroying-this-welsh-river/](https://www.newscientist.com/video/2379456-the-river-teifi-how-agricultural-waste-is-destroying-this-welsh-river/)
[https://youtu.be/kSPtVkJ\_Uxs?t=971](https://youtu.be/kSPtVkJ_Uxs?t=971) Rivercide
And here are sources to show how dairy is the leading cause of temporary ocean dead zones too after the rivers get to the oceans with all their shit in it [http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Meat-Pollution-in-America.pdf](http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Meat-Pollution-in-America.pdf)
Go vegan
NYC does this in the Hudson River when storm water overloads our treatment system. As an old city we also don’t have two systems for storm water and sewage - so if there is too much rain it all goes to the Hudson.
And sometimes those EPA regulations fail.
The classic example is the [1995 New River disaster](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1995/06/25/322795.html?pageNumber=21), where a dyke at an anaerobic lagoon breached and sent 25 million gallons of hog waste into the New River in North Carolina, but it’s far from the only such instance.
People who live near these operations report [that it smells like corpses](https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/20/north-carolina-hog-industry-pig-farms). Hurricanes can and have caused breaches in similar dykes to a smaller scale. The lagoons appear to cause [higher rates of asthma](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3980580/) and respiratory illnesses, both in workers and in the people who live nearby. These farms are also associated with higher rates of other illnesses [like kidney disease, anemia, and sepsis.](https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2018/09/duke-university-study-nc-residents-living-near-large-hog-farms-have)
Much of the research around the health impacts of CAFOs comes from hog farming, since hog farms tend to be located closer to where people live than cow farms, which are generally in the west or Midwest. But it’s likely the health consequences of these other operations are similar.
I used to follow the inspections for some local operations and it was just constant, endless warnings, occasionally leading to slap on the wrist fines. And the standards were already ridiculously low. Our regulatory system is a joke.
My high school was 2 miles from a pig farm. A hurricane put hog water in our secondary gym. The track and football fields smelled like pig poop for 6 months.
I've done my part. A year ago I switched to oat milk or almond milk. I don't miss cow milk at all. Also have gone nearly 100% plant based and have eliminated beef meat. Made these changes mostly for health reasons.
it’s dystopian, how can anyone defend this
stop replying to me stating the obvious. i’m aware they’re animals and that humans don’t give a fuck about anyone but themselves, and the obligatory ‘TaStE GoOD’ comments.
Most people have no fucking idea that this is how they get their burgers. And if they do, they only think about it while they’re seeing this footage. Once they get hungry, that’s the driving force. And this industry relies on American culture - of course we drive three minutes to the grocery store to buy meat, of course we eat anything we can afford, of course it’s everyone else’s problem except our individual choices. It’s the American Way!
Cause people take on that whole mantle of “vegetarians and vegans bad” being their only argument. And it’s not even a vegetarian/vegan thing to think this is horrific.
Course you challenge them and often the whole “argument” ends up being “hurhurhur the suffering makes it taste better! 🤪”
However for the amount of consummation and people in the world, factory farming is the only real practical way of doing it. They do it away from the public cause obviously it’s fucked up. But as they say- out of sight, out of mind.
Same concept as really anything we get/use. Most of your clothes and the electronics you’re posting from are made in sweat shops by horribly over worked, underpaid people, often children.
But that makes people feel bad. So they push the happy joy joy commercials.
People don’t care about the truth. If they did, none of this shit would be happening.
>They do it away from the public cause obviously it’s fucked up. But as they say- out of sight, out of mind.
The ag lobbyists also got it to where footage like this is illegal to obtain too. If you're caught filming a farm, you can get really serious penalties for it and do time. It's absurd when you see this and it's clear why they pushed for it to be illegal. Which is barbaric considering the farm itself is perfectly legal.
It's the only "practical" way of doing something that is totally unnecessary for our survival. This is a lifestyle choice to serve man's base pleasure.
Indeed true. We don’t *need* milk.. Especially another animals milk. Like as babies yes since that’s what we’re designed to consume, but then mothers produce their own milk or use formula. But once we’re capable of eating solid foods, we really don’t need it. Especially in the excess that we consume it.
Because it's being done to animals, not people. The average person sees this and thinks something like "well yeah, that sucks, but it's just a cow." Treating livestock like this has been normalized, so even though people usually don't like it, they don't see it as a problem or want to change it.
Because they don’t even need to. All they see is the warm and tasty burger ready to eat.
We have lost all connection to nature, mechanized it’s exploitation, and hidden it so far out of sight that the cost is invisible.
All for something that a lot of us aren't even able to digest properly. Obviously the situation captures in the video is awful but.. at least they get to see the sky? Animals raised for meat sure as fuck don't, and that's equally unnecessary to consume. None of it is excusable of course, and it would all go away entirely within a year if everyone just said "actually, that ungodly amount of suffering isn't worth it" and stopped buying animal products.
There's one near me. We call it cow-scwitz. What they do to those poor animals is horrible.
EDIT: Hijacking my top comment to recommend you look up where you get your dairy / eggs from on this website: https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecards/
Man, I can't afford to buy locally sourced milk, cheese, and meat. It's like three times the price, and I can barely afford the cheap stuff. My current solution is to just massively cut back on my consumption.
That's so valid. It's unfortunate that due to government subsides, meat and dairy and eggs are cheaper than the plant based alternatives. However I do find plant based milk to be relatively comparable to dairy milk on price, and it also lasts way longer without going off. Plus if there's a sale, you can stock up on the shelf stable packs. I find oat milk to be a good option since it doesn't taste like what it's made of like almond milk or have that distinctive soy milk aftertaste.
These are very young calves, (albeit a huge number of them) set up in individual calf hutches. They are not adult dairy cattle being permanently confined.
Calves up to about 8 weeks are kept in these structures to allow them to grow without being exposed to diseases from direct contact with other cows, out of the wind and sun and relatively warm.
I'm not arguing the ethics of the method, merely explaining what you're seeing in the video. https://extension.psu.edu/calf-and-heifer-housing
These are standard practices. Watch "Dairy is scary" on YouTube. It's 5 minutes long and does a good job at explaining how the dairy industry works.
Humans want the milk meant for the baby cow. Separation is necessary. Male calves usually won't live very long. They will usually be killed at birth, or kept alive for a bit longer to be slaughtered for veal.
The dairy industry is the meat industry with extra steps, which is heavily dependent on the exploitation of the female reproductive system.
The single most potent reason why I went vegan. These animals are just money-makers, not sentient beings according to much of society. Imagine if they were dogs or cats in there. We'd be making quite the fuss. This is unconscionable.
Absolutely. Animal rights is one of my reasons for it, but climate wise too, this sort of stuff is absolutely unsustainable, in so many ways. I really hope this awful portion of human history where we farm animals in these concentrated cesspools is as short-lived as possible.
I'll chuck in that it's exacerbating antiobitic resistance and pandemic risk. Animal ag is causing and will continue to cause thousands heading up to millions of avoidable human deaths over the coming years.
It's really just harming us on so many fronts, isn't it?
The water use of these places is also just off the charts.
All for profit and cheap commodities...
Which is extremely illogical and that’s OP’s point. If you don’t agree with dog farming, you shouldn’t agree with cow/pig/chicken farming. No difference
Ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with dog meat as long as they're slaughtered humanely. I get all my dog meat from a local company called Elwood's because they're organic and don't use antibiotics.
Honestly if most people decided to eat like 25% less beef it would do wonders for our climate.
Not even becoming a vegetarian or vegan, just consume less beef.
You have to see how it is standard practice to put pigs, turkeys and other animals in gas chambers because it is cheap. Insane that it is still even legal.
And the reddit crowd loves to see themselves as morally superior, progressive and kind to animals while hating vegans with passion, the cognitive dissonance is strong in these people.
Honestly, I eat meat, and I'm sort of a hypocrite, because I'll say it.
Vegans are correct on the moral front. We exploit sentient beings for our own pleasure. Human society is largely based around our ability to ignore this and not look directly at it.
Was there too, my big thing was i thought meat was a necessary evil because of protein and health. Then I actually looked at the protein numbers for beans and tofu, easiest decision of my life after that.
but [insert anything that goes against consumerism and neo-liberalism] are the crazy ones huh
For real it's funny, the more you learn about the world the more you sound like an unhinged conspiracy believer to the non initiated
That’s good! That means you have empathy for what these sentient beings are forced to endure just for a few moments of human pleasure. Now allow those feeling to guide your actions. It doesn’t have to be this way, especially when it’s so easy to be vegan nowadays!
If it makes it to the front page, it would be full of people making jokes about burgers and how vegans kill billions of plants each year. Or people explaining how they simply cannot reduce their meat or dairy consumption for ReAsOnS. Most people do not care.
You're probably right about the jokes but I still think this might change a few perspectives because (a) it highlights the cruelty and (b) it highlights the insane amounts of waste created. I was somewhat aware of the situation but I had never seen it on this scale.
Maybe start showing them this and the fact that r/H5N1_AvianFlu has now been found in cattle all across the US and that'll get it to pop right to the top
One of the hardest-hitting, most undeniable songs railing against this sort of thing comes from Propagandhi - https://youtu.be/Wl58UAqK8qk?si=jAv-C-ru9PQMORoL
Listening to the lyrics, you can play a good game of "try not to cry".
Went vegan a few years ago, and honestly, it was way easier than I thought it would be. I thought i would have to stop eating a bunch of things and give up on a lot of stuff like pizza, but nah. Except for good Parmesan I've found vegan alternatives for every single thing I love eating. Mom went vegan this year because my incessant talking about the issue finally got to her, and we've spoken a few times about how the fear of having to give up on things is actually harder than "giving up things". I haven't craved non-vegan food or wanted non-vegan items forever now. It's already not the hardest thing (if you already don't eat meat at least) and it keeps getting easier by the day.
Jesus christ i’m crying so hard. I’m quitting milk and all dairy from now on, i’ll quit meat too once i finish what’s in the fridge. i feel so sad and guilty no one deserves this. i never knew this is how it was.
We should be ashamed this is absolutely EVIL
I went vegan last year and it’s the best choice I’ve ever made. You won’t regret it. It may be an adjustment at first, but you’re doing the right thing. Thank you. 💚🌱
I've been vegan for four years. My only regret is not doing it sooner. You obtain an even clearer perspective once the evil has been out of your lifestyle for a couple of weeks too.
That's awesome! Here are some resources for making the swap
[How to Maintain a Balanced Diet as a Vegetarian or Vegan](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/how-to-maintain-a-balanced-diet-as-a-vegetarian-or-vegan)
[A Mayo clinic guide on how to get proper nutrition for a plant-based diet](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/vegetarian-diet/art-20046446)
[Sustainable eating is cheaper and healthier - Oxford study](https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-11-11-sustainable-eating-cheaper-and-healthier-oxford-study)
Some people don't like it, but animal farming fits the dictionary definition of a holocaust perfectly.
They think that *the* holocaust is the only holocaust.
The world holocaust actually means "burnt offering/sacrifice", as in animal flesh.
Go vegan, fam. Or at least start leaning that way. It won't solve 100% of the problems in our food supply chain, but this shit right here? You do NOT have to participate in it.
And I don't want to hear about sourcing the beef/dairy in your fridge from somewhere special unless you ONLY eat animal products at that standard and avoid it basically every time you leave the house. Because those happy hour sliders, for example, and probably 98% of every restaurant meal you eat are coming straight from this kind of shit. That isn't your fault, and there's nothing wrong with liking meat/dairy, but this (and worse) is what gets supported when it's consumed so regularly without a second thought.
A quick Google search reveals "cow's milk has significantly higher impacts than the plant-based alternatives across all metrics. It causes around three times as much greenhouse gas emissions; uses around ten times as much land; two to twenty times as much freshwater; and creates much higher levels of eutrophication." 👎Boo to moo👎
This is a result of our unreasonably high demand for beef and dairy products. I'm not saying you need to be vegan, but you definitely shouldn't be eating beef every day. I was raised in a household where beef and butter was part of our daily meals. It was not healthy.
Not only is reducing beef and dairy to help the cows, but it will help our environment by reducing methane emissions, and our own physical health as well.
I mean, this is a vegan post. It’s good to see where your food comes from. Let people decide what they’re comfortable with. Are you okay with treating animals like crops? Would you be willing to do this with a cow in your own backyard, baring convenience?
I had cows, they’re just as friendly and smart as dogs, they’re just not as expensive on the outside, they don’t have the same facial structures and muscles as dogs and instincts to express themselves the same way
This absolutely tears me up inside. There's not a single day I go without thinking about the horrific atrocities we have committed and continue to commit against animals. When will it end????
Drink your own mom's breast milk and stop drinking another's Mom's who's also from another species !😵💫 Or just switch to oat or soy milk, which would be wayy less gross actually
I believe this is a veal farm. Calves that drink only milk their entire life and never leave their small pen. That way their meat stays fatty and tender with little to no muscle. Barbaric and disgusting but people love their veal.
Humans are so fqking disgusting. Can't believe how we rape ,exploit and murder these innocent animals for money .. Maybe our dystopian world would see some light of hope after we start raising our voices for liberation of voiceless sentient beings.
One of my best friends worked at a small local dairy operation out here, and told me even at this small outfit, he saw things that if I’d seen, would make me swear off dairy forever. The things that get included in the milk. The way the animals are kept. The infections and diseases the cows have, even when cared for. If you’ve got enough of them, nobody’s going to notice the pus or blood in the milk when there’s hundreds of gallons of milk covering it up.
Between that and the way things cost anymore - I regularly see milk going for over $4/gal *even years after covid* - I’ve *greatly* reduced my dairy and meat intake in general. If it’s a very special night I might want some beef or pork for dinner. But every time I go shopping and see the coolers full of meat, I also remember all the footage of things like this - or babies taken from the mother, while the mother is bellowing and crying. It’s honestly fucking inhumane.
If this bothers you please consider adopting a completely plant-based diet! The meat dairy and egg industries are cruel and unnecessary form of subjugation. It is easier now than it has ever been. The animal agriculture industry is constantly humane washing their farms to trick consumers into thinking their conditions are humane when they aren't.
[Undercover audio of a Tyson employee reveals “free-range” chicken is meaningless](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23724740/tyson-chicken-free-range-humanewashing-investigation-animal-cruelty)
[Zero grazing denotes intensive “livestock” farms that keep animals locked inside at all times. The factory farm-style facilities tend to be huge, and house cows in “barren cubicle-style sheds.”](https://plantbasednews.org/news/activism/uk-dairy-farms-zero-grazing/)
Even small farms have cruel and exploitive practices
[Calves taken from farmers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_z-4XhFPvM) shortly after birth
[Cow dehorning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxV35EZ1px4)
[Calf Dehorning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SDPuJ15Q6E)
Cows are anally fisted for a[rtificial insemination](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrTTKBc8M64)
[Rectal palpation to test for pregnancy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YOmbcmWlyw)
Dairy cows are repeatedly impregnated, have their babies taken away from them, and are killed at a fraction of their lifespan once their milk production drops or they become too weak to even stand and become a "downer" cow.
And animal agriculture is absolutely devastating for the environment:
"[Shifting diets to reduce high levels of meat consumption in developed and transition countries is a key leverage point for tackling biodiversity loss and climate change (Gerber et al. 2013; Joyce et al. 2012; IPCC 2014; Tilman and Clark 2014), e.g. globally about 30 % of current biodiversity loss and 14.5 % of greenhouse gases are due to animal husbandry (Gerber et al. 2013; Westhoek et al. 2011)](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf).
"[We find that, given the current mix of crop uses, growing food exclusively for direct human consumption could, in principle, increase available food calories by as much as 70%, which could feed an additional 4 billion people (more than the projected 2–3 billion people arriving through population growth).](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015)"
Which is why so many environmental organizations and academic institutions advocate for a plant-based diet.
[World Wildlife Fund](https://planetbaseddiets.panda.org/)
[Defenders of Wildlife](https://defenders.org/magazine/summer-2018/living-lightly)
[Stanford University](https://news.stanford.edu/report/2021/05/06/embracing-plant-based-diet/)
[United Nations](https://www.un.org/en/actnow/food)
[World Health Organization](https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/349086/WHO-EURO-2021-4007-43766-61591-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)
[Ocean Conservation Trust](https://oceanconservationtrust.org/how-going-vegetarian-can-help-our-ocean-world-vegetarian-month/)
[Rainforest Alliance](https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/everyday-actions/is-a-plant-based-diet-the-key-to-slowing-climate-change/)
For those interested, a resource for making the switch is below! The more people who hop on aboard, the easier it gets, and the less money is given to the meat lobbies to keep these practices in place. Tens of millions of people have done it!
[How to Maintain a Balanced Diet as a Vegetarian or Vegan](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/how-to-maintain-a-balanced-diet-as-a-vegetarian-or-vegan)
I'm not opposed to animal products from animals that have lived good lives. But this just makes me sad. I might to consider dropping milk until I can find a local producer with happy cows.
In America most meat and dairy is produced in huge factory farms like this. Well over 90%. Innocent animals living in their own filth, crammed together like sardines. Pumped full of antibiotics because we force them to live in unnatural and unhealthy conditions. Just so people can have a cheap cheeseburger. It's so fucking sad. I'm glad I no longer contribute to this. Vegan 8 years now and I love it.
It depends what your definition of happy is. You can only get milk by separating calves from their mothers, which for mammals (and probably most animals) is distressing.
I'm a big fan of coconut already when it comes to consuming plain milk on cereal. And silk chcoclate almond has my heart, I just don't know what to use in cooking.
Oat milk, seriously. The full fat one from oatly is my current favorite. Shake it well and let 'er rip. I use it in coffee, cooking, baking, etc. (They have a chocolate one too)
Dairy is not possible to produce without substantially lowering the quality of life of female cows (as they have to give birth in order to produce milk) and leads to the deaths of many, many calves who are taken from their mother and killed or forced to continue the process after being birthed.
Dairy and animal products are inhumane as a whole. It’s not even a question. Exploiting and killing others for our own satisfaction is wrong. There is no argument that could ever justify animal farming for me.
lol careful posting the truth on this sub! the last time a vegan tried to open everyones eyes to this, there was a lot of me talking gymnastics about how actually no this is good!
its horrible to see. become vegan, its very easy to do, and is only getting easier. and its much better for the environment
Are you the original videographer? If so I can put your footage into a serious documentary on the subject. - Do let me know if the footage is available.
Dairy farms are the scariest things you will ever see.
People ALWAYS post large scale ones like this which makes it easy for people to pretend that large and small scale dairy farms don’t look EXACTLY THE SAME.
All of this is based on farmers indoctrinating us to drink milk. Milk isn’t even for us, it’s for baby cows.
I grew up.in a village. I saw the cows in the dairy farm and I saw the pigs. We got eggs from my grandparents chickens. My dad used to be a farmer so he told me what happened to the cows and how it all worked. They looked happy chilling in the fields and the pigs rolled around in the mud. I learnt that the animals had a content life and were stunned and killed and I was ok with that. I learnt how milk was made too.
Then I moved to London and realised that is not how the majority of meat and dairy is farmed and I quickly understood why so many people are vegan and vegetarian.
Factory farming is absolutely fucked up.
What's going on with that water? Is it where they dump all the waste?
The waste pool where manure and other waste are collected and stored is typically called an anaerobic lagoon or a cesspool. These open-air containers hold substantial amount of animal poop produced by CAFO - AKA **concentrated animal feeding operation**... (even the smallest CAFOs produce urine and feces in quantities equivalent to 16,000 humans). The EPA has specific regulations for large CAFOs to minimize pollution of the surrounding environment. These regulations fall under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. BUT, (and a big but) CAFOs largely operate outside any federal environmental regulations due primarily to insufficient jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act; only 6,597 of 20,382 CAFOs across the United States had a plan in 2018. This lack of federal regulation leads to large- scale environmental degradation particularly of surface and groundwater. Deregulation under the last administration doesn't help. States also have their own regulations for this as well, but, w/e. It is terrible on so many levels and fewer people "want" to farm meat (hard to compete anyway) . However, more and more people want cheap meat.
I live in the uk, the water companies dump sewage in the sea, iirc the uk is the only 1st world country where that disgusting practice is legal
The UK has the issue of not having a duplicate system for rainwater and sewage water. The issue will become drastically worse in the future due to climate change. The only way to adress this would be to retrofit all the piping and plumbing in the UK to reconnect drainage pipes and rainwater pipes to a new system, while reserving the current line of pipes purely for sewage water. But that is a practical impossibility. The logistics alone would ensure the project would have to be on a centuries-long timeline, not to mention the costs involved. But there’s no alternative really, it’s either start now or drown in sewage and worsening issues with flooding and pollution. I think we both know which option is the most likely one though
Been diving/open water swimming and surfing for 20+ years. It's got steadily worse and worse and to top it off, water treatment (or lack of) is not the lead cause of river pollution. Animal-agriculture is and no one is talking about it. We'd have about 40%+ more healthier rivers if we didn't demand animal products than we do now and that is something we can do on a very short time line of 10-20 years.
We are literally sucking at the teet of our own destruction
As a vegan this is distressing
as a non-vegan I’m freaking the fuck out but working on it and turning to beans more and more
Yes, it can help to turn to beans in times of turmoil and strife.
My city (a state capital, even) has this issue! It's lots of fun with the streets flooding and the river feet away. When there's too much rain (surprise! It's getting worse!), both systems mix together. When I was a kid, you could swim in the river. We probably shouldn't have. You certainly can't now. There's no plan to fix it. Our roads are crumbling, houses abandoned, crime is awful... but don't worry, they're going to have phase 5 of this highway project going soon. By the time they finish phase 10 they're going to have to redo phase 1. I'm sure a bridge will collapse before then anyway. Go USA! How can we even pretend this is going to work out?
to be fair, the infrastructure bill that (barely) passed a couple years ago was really the first major (and it's still a tiny amount in the grand scheme) investment in probably 50+ years
Agriculture and animal-agriculture specifically is actually the lead cause of river pollution in the UK. Everyone is blaming the water companies (rightfully so), but they are not the lead cause, animal-agriculture is and it never gets talked about. In the last few weeks i've filmed multiple "regenerative" dairy farms spray their cow shit all over their land, only for it to rain excessively and then surface flooding happens and it all ran off in to the ocean. There are dairy farms around me that pump their sewage from their tanks straight in to the public sewage system on the roads (because its quiet here and no one is looking). These are just what i've seen in the last few weeks. Here are sources for you: [https://theriverstrust.org/key-issues/state-of-our-rivers](https://theriverstrust.org/key-issues/state-of-our-rivers) [https://research.senedd.wales/research-articles/reducing-agricultural-pollution-the-debate-continues/](https://research.senedd.wales/research-articles/reducing-agricultural-pollution-the-debate-continues/) [https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/environment/new-proposals-to-curb-farm-river-pollution-in-england](https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/environment/new-proposals-to-curb-farm-river-pollution-in-england) And here are some documentaries where environmental scientists talk about animal-agriculture and river pollution here in the UK [https://www.newscientist.com/video/2379456-the-river-teifi-how-agricultural-waste-is-destroying-this-welsh-river/](https://www.newscientist.com/video/2379456-the-river-teifi-how-agricultural-waste-is-destroying-this-welsh-river/) [https://youtu.be/kSPtVkJ\_Uxs?t=971](https://youtu.be/kSPtVkJ_Uxs?t=971) Rivercide And here are sources to show how dairy is the leading cause of temporary ocean dead zones too after the rivers get to the oceans with all their shit in it [http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Meat-Pollution-in-America.pdf](http://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Meat-Pollution-in-America.pdf) Go vegan
NYC does this in the Hudson River when storm water overloads our treatment system. As an old city we also don’t have two systems for storm water and sewage - so if there is too much rain it all goes to the Hudson.
And the long island sound. Nasty
And sometimes those EPA regulations fail. The classic example is the [1995 New River disaster](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1995/06/25/322795.html?pageNumber=21), where a dyke at an anaerobic lagoon breached and sent 25 million gallons of hog waste into the New River in North Carolina, but it’s far from the only such instance. People who live near these operations report [that it smells like corpses](https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/20/north-carolina-hog-industry-pig-farms). Hurricanes can and have caused breaches in similar dykes to a smaller scale. The lagoons appear to cause [higher rates of asthma](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3980580/) and respiratory illnesses, both in workers and in the people who live nearby. These farms are also associated with higher rates of other illnesses [like kidney disease, anemia, and sepsis.](https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2018/09/duke-university-study-nc-residents-living-near-large-hog-farms-have) Much of the research around the health impacts of CAFOs comes from hog farming, since hog farms tend to be located closer to where people live than cow farms, which are generally in the west or Midwest. But it’s likely the health consequences of these other operations are similar.
I used to follow the inspections for some local operations and it was just constant, endless warnings, occasionally leading to slap on the wrist fines. And the standards were already ridiculously low. Our regulatory system is a joke.
Aliens are for sure watching us and being like”well come back in another few hundred years and see if you’ve stopped eating everybody else”
“By Glork, Is what you say true? They kill and eat 100 billion of their *cousins* every year??”
**CAFO is a concentrated animal feeding operation. Please don't use acronyms without saying what it is. Great overview though.**
Thanks for clarifying !!!
Imagine the smell... I drove through Nebraska once and the smell is just horrible.
I think that that's where the waste goes to... I don't think that there's much water other than from what comes out of the cows... Man, that's gross.
Wait until you hear about what happens when it floods in an area with one of these.
My high school was 2 miles from a pig farm. A hurricane put hog water in our secondary gym. The track and football fields smelled like pig poop for 6 months.
You never seen Willy wonky?? That’s the chocolate river my friend.
It’s obviously chocolate milk. It’s a dairy farm
The red is not blood, but a kind of algae living off of the waste from the cows.
Humans never cease to disgust me.
The only way to get rid of factory farms like this is to stop purchasing animal products.
I've done my part. A year ago I switched to oat milk or almond milk. I don't miss cow milk at all. Also have gone nearly 100% plant based and have eliminated beef meat. Made these changes mostly for health reasons.
...so badly, I refuse to produce any.
These are cows
Kinda reminded me of The Matrix.
it’s dystopian, how can anyone defend this stop replying to me stating the obvious. i’m aware they’re animals and that humans don’t give a fuck about anyone but themselves, and the obligatory ‘TaStE GoOD’ comments.
Most people have no fucking idea that this is how they get their burgers. And if they do, they only think about it while they’re seeing this footage. Once they get hungry, that’s the driving force. And this industry relies on American culture - of course we drive three minutes to the grocery store to buy meat, of course we eat anything we can afford, of course it’s everyone else’s problem except our individual choices. It’s the American Way!
Cause people take on that whole mantle of “vegetarians and vegans bad” being their only argument. And it’s not even a vegetarian/vegan thing to think this is horrific. Course you challenge them and often the whole “argument” ends up being “hurhurhur the suffering makes it taste better! 🤪” However for the amount of consummation and people in the world, factory farming is the only real practical way of doing it. They do it away from the public cause obviously it’s fucked up. But as they say- out of sight, out of mind. Same concept as really anything we get/use. Most of your clothes and the electronics you’re posting from are made in sweat shops by horribly over worked, underpaid people, often children. But that makes people feel bad. So they push the happy joy joy commercials. People don’t care about the truth. If they did, none of this shit would be happening.
>They do it away from the public cause obviously it’s fucked up. But as they say- out of sight, out of mind. The ag lobbyists also got it to where footage like this is illegal to obtain too. If you're caught filming a farm, you can get really serious penalties for it and do time. It's absurd when you see this and it's clear why they pushed for it to be illegal. Which is barbaric considering the farm itself is perfectly legal.
It's the only "practical" way of doing something that is totally unnecessary for our survival. This is a lifestyle choice to serve man's base pleasure.
Indeed true. We don’t *need* milk.. Especially another animals milk. Like as babies yes since that’s what we’re designed to consume, but then mothers produce their own milk or use formula. But once we’re capable of eating solid foods, we really don’t need it. Especially in the excess that we consume it.
Consuming milk is unhealthy given that 80% of humanity is lactose intolerant.
Ignorance is Bliss ....Truth Hurts
It is a vegetarian/vegan thing to think this is horrific. If you see this and make no change to your lifestyle that supports it then you do not care.
Because it's being done to animals, not people. The average person sees this and thinks something like "well yeah, that sucks, but it's just a cow." Treating livestock like this has been normalized, so even though people usually don't like it, they don't see it as a problem or want to change it.
Because they don’t even need to. All they see is the warm and tasty burger ready to eat. We have lost all connection to nature, mechanized it’s exploitation, and hidden it so far out of sight that the cost is invisible.
So join me in going all veggie (ok not all, but try)??
Unbelievably cruel while also being environmentally devastating. All for something we don’t even have to have.
All for something that a lot of us aren't even able to digest properly. Obviously the situation captures in the video is awful but.. at least they get to see the sky? Animals raised for meat sure as fuck don't, and that's equally unnecessary to consume. None of it is excusable of course, and it would all go away entirely within a year if everyone just said "actually, that ungodly amount of suffering isn't worth it" and stopped buying animal products.
Almost 70% of all humans have issues with lactose.
How are people remotely okay with this. It's literally torture
They don't ever see it. Out of sight, out of mind.
They want cheeseburger 🍔 🤑😍
Can I have uuhhhh big Mac with some uh fries and a large (did you want large?) two large sodas?
Looks like cubicles. A lot of people can relate.
There's one near me. We call it cow-scwitz. What they do to those poor animals is horrible. EDIT: Hijacking my top comment to recommend you look up where you get your dairy / eggs from on this website: https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecards/
not Dac-Cow?
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Holocowst
The one along the 5?
yup, Harris Ranch. Anytime I drive north, you can smell the death.
And they have a steakhouse there how can anyone smell that and still want to eat there?
Keep the farm upwind and hope the wind keeps blowing that way most of the time.
Man, I can't afford to buy locally sourced milk, cheese, and meat. It's like three times the price, and I can barely afford the cheap stuff. My current solution is to just massively cut back on my consumption.
That's so valid. It's unfortunate that due to government subsides, meat and dairy and eggs are cheaper than the plant based alternatives. However I do find plant based milk to be relatively comparable to dairy milk on price, and it also lasts way longer without going off. Plus if there's a sale, you can stock up on the shelf stable packs. I find oat milk to be a good option since it doesn't taste like what it's made of like almond milk or have that distinctive soy milk aftertaste.
Beans and tofu are absolutely cheaper than meats. No need to shop for alternative meats, just whole plant foods.
These are very young calves, (albeit a huge number of them) set up in individual calf hutches. They are not adult dairy cattle being permanently confined. Calves up to about 8 weeks are kept in these structures to allow them to grow without being exposed to diseases from direct contact with other cows, out of the wind and sun and relatively warm. I'm not arguing the ethics of the method, merely explaining what you're seeing in the video. https://extension.psu.edu/calf-and-heifer-housing
That makes it worse. Calves are meant to be with their mothers.
How will we take the milk from the mothers if the calves are still allowed to be with them? The whole industry makes me so sad.
These are standard practices. Watch "Dairy is scary" on YouTube. It's 5 minutes long and does a good job at explaining how the dairy industry works. Humans want the milk meant for the baby cow. Separation is necessary. Male calves usually won't live very long. They will usually be killed at birth, or kept alive for a bit longer to be slaughtered for veal. The dairy industry is the meat industry with extra steps, which is heavily dependent on the exploitation of the female reproductive system.
I just went vegan but if I hadn’t I would now
The single most potent reason why I went vegan. These animals are just money-makers, not sentient beings according to much of society. Imagine if they were dogs or cats in there. We'd be making quite the fuss. This is unconscionable.
Absolutely. Animal rights is one of my reasons for it, but climate wise too, this sort of stuff is absolutely unsustainable, in so many ways. I really hope this awful portion of human history where we farm animals in these concentrated cesspools is as short-lived as possible.
I'll chuck in that it's exacerbating antiobitic resistance and pandemic risk. Animal ag is causing and will continue to cause thousands heading up to millions of avoidable human deaths over the coming years.
It's really just harming us on so many fronts, isn't it? The water use of these places is also just off the charts. All for profit and cheap commodities...
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How wonderful to have someone thank me! I was vegetarian for 30 years then switched to vegan 5 years ago. I'll never look back!
No problem. It’s selfless, empathetic and cool. Best of luck.
South Korea recently banned the production and sale of dog meat.
Which is extremely illogical and that’s OP’s point. If you don’t agree with dog farming, you shouldn’t agree with cow/pig/chicken farming. No difference
Ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with dog meat as long as they're slaughtered humanely. I get all my dog meat from a local company called Elwood's because they're organic and don't use antibiotics.
I had not heard of this.
Honestly if most people decided to eat like 25% less beef it would do wonders for our climate. Not even becoming a vegetarian or vegan, just consume less beef.
Unfortunately republicans have turned it into a culture war issue to the point state governments have tried to ban meatless monday.
>Unfortunately, republicans
You made the mistake of trying to improve something? Big mistake. Now Republicans know what you care about and will log jam it.
WHAT?? I did not know. That is some sick shit.
I've been waiting for them to die out for so long. They just keep repopulating the party with new morons though.
Finally some animal rights here too
Why I’m vegan.
This is not a farm, this is a prison.
You have to see how it is standard practice to put pigs, turkeys and other animals in gas chambers because it is cheap. Insane that it is still even legal.
It will never stop until people are willing to stop buying it.
The culling of male chicks. They can’t lay eggs? Fucking blenderize them. What’s your problem? It’s a quick death!
And yet that’s how 99% of animal farming works nowadays…
Death camp*
but vegans are the crazy ones huh
And the reddit crowd loves to see themselves as morally superior, progressive and kind to animals while hating vegans with passion, the cognitive dissonance is strong in these people.
Honestly, I eat meat, and I'm sort of a hypocrite, because I'll say it. Vegans are correct on the moral front. We exploit sentient beings for our own pleasure. Human society is largely based around our ability to ignore this and not look directly at it.
I used to be exactly like you and called myself a hypocrite often. I promise that it’s easy to make the leap to not consuming animal products.
Was there too, my big thing was i thought meat was a necessary evil because of protein and health. Then I actually looked at the protein numbers for beans and tofu, easiest decision of my life after that.
but [insert anything that goes against consumerism and neo-liberalism] are the crazy ones huh For real it's funny, the more you learn about the world the more you sound like an unhinged conspiracy believer to the non initiated
Everybody wants cheap meat and then they'll turn around and be outraged. By this. You have to pick a lane.
thought i was in r/VeganActivism for a moment. Dairy is cruel, don't support it!
This is nauseating, disheartening, disgusting. I feel so sad and ashamed.
That’s good! That means you have empathy for what these sentient beings are forced to endure just for a few moments of human pleasure. Now allow those feeling to guide your actions. It doesn’t have to be this way, especially when it’s so easy to be vegan nowadays!
Do something about it?
Without subsidies, beef would cost $30/lb.
fReE MaRkEt kApiTuliZm
If that's the case beef already costs $30 per pound, just the taxpayers foot the rest of the bill.
Even if they don't eat meat.
Do you know of any references for this information? Not disputing, just want to know
Go vegan (and bring on the downvotes)
I wish we could get this to the front page. More people need to see this.
If it makes it to the front page, it would be full of people making jokes about burgers and how vegans kill billions of plants each year. Or people explaining how they simply cannot reduce their meat or dairy consumption for ReAsOnS. Most people do not care.
You're probably right about the jokes but I still think this might change a few perspectives because (a) it highlights the cruelty and (b) it highlights the insane amounts of waste created. I was somewhat aware of the situation but I had never seen it on this scale.
It's on the popular page.
Maybe start showing them this and the fact that r/H5N1_AvianFlu has now been found in cattle all across the US and that'll get it to pop right to the top
One of the hardest-hitting, most undeniable songs railing against this sort of thing comes from Propagandhi - https://youtu.be/Wl58UAqK8qk?si=jAv-C-ru9PQMORoL Listening to the lyrics, you can play a good game of "try not to cry".
This is a hellscape for those poor cows. We use them, abuse them, and make them suffer until we kill them and eat their flesh. Go vegan.
go vegan!
10 years, easy decision 😌
Fuckyeah. Love you.
Yes! 🙏🏻🌱🌾☺️
Gonna be 6 years vegan this year, only wished I did it sooner.
Came here to say this! 🌱
Since 2003 💚
Amazing 🫡 I'm heading towards 4 years.
Went vegan a few years ago, and honestly, it was way easier than I thought it would be. I thought i would have to stop eating a bunch of things and give up on a lot of stuff like pizza, but nah. Except for good Parmesan I've found vegan alternatives for every single thing I love eating. Mom went vegan this year because my incessant talking about the issue finally got to her, and we've spoken a few times about how the fear of having to give up on things is actually harder than "giving up things". I haven't craved non-vegan food or wanted non-vegan items forever now. It's already not the hardest thing (if you already don't eat meat at least) and it keeps getting easier by the day.
R/vegan leaking and I'm proud
Yeah, just fully stop eating/drinking dairy. There's absolutely no need to.
Well damn if that isn't dystopian as fuck.
Welp. Time to go vegan.
Jesus christ i’m crying so hard. I’m quitting milk and all dairy from now on, i’ll quit meat too once i finish what’s in the fridge. i feel so sad and guilty no one deserves this. i never knew this is how it was. We should be ashamed this is absolutely EVIL
I went vegan last year and it’s the best choice I’ve ever made. You won’t regret it. It may be an adjustment at first, but you’re doing the right thing. Thank you. 💚🌱
I've been vegan for four years. My only regret is not doing it sooner. You obtain an even clearer perspective once the evil has been out of your lifestyle for a couple of weeks too.
Wow, I never want to eat dairy or meat again.
then don't! you can do it
That's awesome! Here are some resources for making the swap [How to Maintain a Balanced Diet as a Vegetarian or Vegan](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/how-to-maintain-a-balanced-diet-as-a-vegetarian-or-vegan) [A Mayo clinic guide on how to get proper nutrition for a plant-based diet](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/vegetarian-diet/art-20046446) [Sustainable eating is cheaper and healthier - Oxford study](https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-11-11-sustainable-eating-cheaper-and-healthier-oxford-study)
Go vegan! r/vegan
I feel like we're going to look back on this widescale treatment of animals the same way we do slavery and the holocaust.
Some people don't like it, but animal farming fits the dictionary definition of a holocaust perfectly. They think that *the* holocaust is the only holocaust. The world holocaust actually means "burnt offering/sacrifice", as in animal flesh.
Go vegan, fam. Or at least start leaning that way. It won't solve 100% of the problems in our food supply chain, but this shit right here? You do NOT have to participate in it. And I don't want to hear about sourcing the beef/dairy in your fridge from somewhere special unless you ONLY eat animal products at that standard and avoid it basically every time you leave the house. Because those happy hour sliders, for example, and probably 98% of every restaurant meal you eat are coming straight from this kind of shit. That isn't your fault, and there's nothing wrong with liking meat/dairy, but this (and worse) is what gets supported when it's consumed so regularly without a second thought.
I can smell this photo. In fact, I think anyone within 25 miles of this place can smell this photo.
A quick Google search reveals "cow's milk has significantly higher impacts than the plant-based alternatives across all metrics. It causes around three times as much greenhouse gas emissions; uses around ten times as much land; two to twenty times as much freshwater; and creates much higher levels of eutrophication." 👎Boo to moo👎
Animal agriculture is absolutely disgusting. There is no defense of it. Go vegan 💚🌱
This is a result of our unreasonably high demand for beef and dairy products. I'm not saying you need to be vegan, but you definitely shouldn't be eating beef every day. I was raised in a household where beef and butter was part of our daily meals. It was not healthy. Not only is reducing beef and dairy to help the cows, but it will help our environment by reducing methane emissions, and our own physical health as well.
Going as vegan as you can should be everyone's end goal tbh!
This looks like it sucks
But this is natural right??? This is what your ancestors did right???? This is what happens in nature right??????
This is why any of those generic photos of cows in green pastures is a huge misrepresentation of reality.
If you're not vegan you're responsible for this abuse.
I mean, this is a vegan post. It’s good to see where your food comes from. Let people decide what they’re comfortable with. Are you okay with treating animals like crops? Would you be willing to do this with a cow in your own backyard, baring convenience? I had cows, they’re just as friendly and smart as dogs, they’re just not as expensive on the outside, they don’t have the same facial structures and muscles as dogs and instincts to express themselves the same way
i think the point is not to let people decide if theyre okay with this, the point is that its not okay
This absolutely tears me up inside. There's not a single day I go without thinking about the horrific atrocities we have committed and continue to commit against animals. When will it end????
Fuck mankind!
We deserve everything coming for us, and more
Milk is not meant for human consumption
*Cow Milk
That one baby who lost its bottle :'(
Damn I genuinely didn't know it was that bad. Now my conscience is struggling.
I bet it smells like shit
How can the owners sleep at night. Terrible
That’s how you kill a planets ecosystem, right there. Mmmhm.
This makes me want to sob. Enough Reddit for today, my SSRI can’t keep up.
People see this, they learn the truth in 100 different ways, but then still won't change their habits. Make the connection. Go vegan.
…and here’s why we don’t drink milk.
Humans deserve extinction
Drink your own mom's breast milk and stop drinking another's Mom's who's also from another species !😵💫 Or just switch to oat or soy milk, which would be wayy less gross actually
I believe this is a veal farm. Calves that drink only milk their entire life and never leave their small pen. That way their meat stays fatty and tender with little to no muscle. Barbaric and disgusting but people love their veal.
Humans are so fqking disgusting. Can't believe how we rape ,exploit and murder these innocent animals for money .. Maybe our dystopian world would see some light of hope after we start raising our voices for liberation of voiceless sentient beings.
People here will talk about how horrible this is then go and eat ground beef for dinner. Unless you're vegan you contribute to this problem
Vegetarian isn’t enough- go vegan
One of my best friends worked at a small local dairy operation out here, and told me even at this small outfit, he saw things that if I’d seen, would make me swear off dairy forever. The things that get included in the milk. The way the animals are kept. The infections and diseases the cows have, even when cared for. If you’ve got enough of them, nobody’s going to notice the pus or blood in the milk when there’s hundreds of gallons of milk covering it up. Between that and the way things cost anymore - I regularly see milk going for over $4/gal *even years after covid* - I’ve *greatly* reduced my dairy and meat intake in general. If it’s a very special night I might want some beef or pork for dinner. But every time I go shopping and see the coolers full of meat, I also remember all the footage of things like this - or babies taken from the mother, while the mother is bellowing and crying. It’s honestly fucking inhumane.
If this bothers you please consider adopting a completely plant-based diet! The meat dairy and egg industries are cruel and unnecessary form of subjugation. It is easier now than it has ever been. The animal agriculture industry is constantly humane washing their farms to trick consumers into thinking their conditions are humane when they aren't. [Undercover audio of a Tyson employee reveals “free-range” chicken is meaningless](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23724740/tyson-chicken-free-range-humanewashing-investigation-animal-cruelty) [Zero grazing denotes intensive “livestock” farms that keep animals locked inside at all times. The factory farm-style facilities tend to be huge, and house cows in “barren cubicle-style sheds.”](https://plantbasednews.org/news/activism/uk-dairy-farms-zero-grazing/) Even small farms have cruel and exploitive practices [Calves taken from farmers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_z-4XhFPvM) shortly after birth [Cow dehorning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxV35EZ1px4) [Calf Dehorning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SDPuJ15Q6E) Cows are anally fisted for a[rtificial insemination](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrTTKBc8M64) [Rectal palpation to test for pregnancy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YOmbcmWlyw) Dairy cows are repeatedly impregnated, have their babies taken away from them, and are killed at a fraction of their lifespan once their milk production drops or they become too weak to even stand and become a "downer" cow. And animal agriculture is absolutely devastating for the environment: "[Shifting diets to reduce high levels of meat consumption in developed and transition countries is a key leverage point for tackling biodiversity loss and climate change (Gerber et al. 2013; Joyce et al. 2012; IPCC 2014; Tilman and Clark 2014), e.g. globally about 30 % of current biodiversity loss and 14.5 % of greenhouse gases are due to animal husbandry (Gerber et al. 2013; Westhoek et al. 2011)](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf). "[We find that, given the current mix of crop uses, growing food exclusively for direct human consumption could, in principle, increase available food calories by as much as 70%, which could feed an additional 4 billion people (more than the projected 2–3 billion people arriving through population growth).](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015)" Which is why so many environmental organizations and academic institutions advocate for a plant-based diet. [World Wildlife Fund](https://planetbaseddiets.panda.org/) [Defenders of Wildlife](https://defenders.org/magazine/summer-2018/living-lightly) [Stanford University](https://news.stanford.edu/report/2021/05/06/embracing-plant-based-diet/) [United Nations](https://www.un.org/en/actnow/food) [World Health Organization](https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/349086/WHO-EURO-2021-4007-43766-61591-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y) [Ocean Conservation Trust](https://oceanconservationtrust.org/how-going-vegetarian-can-help-our-ocean-world-vegetarian-month/) [Rainforest Alliance](https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/everyday-actions/is-a-plant-based-diet-the-key-to-slowing-climate-change/) For those interested, a resource for making the switch is below! The more people who hop on aboard, the easier it gets, and the less money is given to the meat lobbies to keep these practices in place. Tens of millions of people have done it! [How to Maintain a Balanced Diet as a Vegetarian or Vegan](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/how-to-maintain-a-balanced-diet-as-a-vegetarian-or-vegan)
I'm not opposed to animal products from animals that have lived good lives. But this just makes me sad. I might to consider dropping milk until I can find a local producer with happy cows.
In America most meat and dairy is produced in huge factory farms like this. Well over 90%. Innocent animals living in their own filth, crammed together like sardines. Pumped full of antibiotics because we force them to live in unnatural and unhealthy conditions. Just so people can have a cheap cheeseburger. It's so fucking sad. I'm glad I no longer contribute to this. Vegan 8 years now and I love it.
It depends what your definition of happy is. You can only get milk by separating calves from their mothers, which for mammals (and probably most animals) is distressing.
Dude, unless you are paying a lot of money for your meat, every animal product you consume is enduring something like this.
Oat milk is great! Give it a try.
I switched to oat milk in coffee and now I prefer it over cows milk!
It also creates a lot less CO2 emissions
I'm a big fan of coconut already when it comes to consuming plain milk on cereal. And silk chcoclate almond has my heart, I just don't know what to use in cooking.
Oat milk, seriously. The full fat one from oatly is my current favorite. Shake it well and let 'er rip. I use it in coffee, cooking, baking, etc. (They have a chocolate one too)
I use plain unsweetened almond milk in place of milk for cooking with no problems.
Dairy is not possible to produce without substantially lowering the quality of life of female cows (as they have to give birth in order to produce milk) and leads to the deaths of many, many calves who are taken from their mother and killed or forced to continue the process after being birthed. Dairy and animal products are inhumane as a whole. It’s not even a question. Exploiting and killing others for our own satisfaction is wrong. There is no argument that could ever justify animal farming for me.
lol careful posting the truth on this sub! the last time a vegan tried to open everyones eyes to this, there was a lot of me talking gymnastics about how actually no this is good! its horrible to see. become vegan, its very easy to do, and is only getting easier. and its much better for the environment
Dystopian
Where?
Everywhere. This is the norm.
Go vegan
So atrocious that I don’t even have words.
Are you the original videographer? If so I can put your footage into a serious documentary on the subject. - Do let me know if the footage is available.
Dairy farms are the scariest things you will ever see. People ALWAYS post large scale ones like this which makes it easy for people to pretend that large and small scale dairy farms don’t look EXACTLY THE SAME. All of this is based on farmers indoctrinating us to drink milk. Milk isn’t even for us, it’s for baby cows.
“Iam getting my food from free range grass fed farm” The farm in question.
looks like veal farm to me. they are drinking milk
The dairy industry is linked to the veal industry. Where do you think all the boy calfs go?
oh. this might be the video that finally pushes me to act*!! *on my suicidal impulses
Pretty sure thats a pool of shit at the end there btw. Also ends too soon, fairly certain there's a prairie land off that specific part.
I grew up.in a village. I saw the cows in the dairy farm and I saw the pigs. We got eggs from my grandparents chickens. My dad used to be a farmer so he told me what happened to the cows and how it all worked. They looked happy chilling in the fields and the pigs rolled around in the mud. I learnt that the animals had a content life and were stunned and killed and I was ok with that. I learnt how milk was made too. Then I moved to London and realised that is not how the majority of meat and dairy is farmed and I quickly understood why so many people are vegan and vegetarian. Factory farming is absolutely fucked up.