What if

Disclaimer: I am not racist. I mean no offence to any readers. But discrimination should not be supported in any form; you can't say that one type is acceptable (speciesism) and another (racism) is not.

An ad for formula in some junk mail the other day got me thinking (the formula was listed as casein-based).
What if we decided that the mammary secretions of a species entirely separate to our own was not cutting it nutritionally? That if our children needed to be formula-fed, then it should at least be as nutritionally sound as their own mother's breastmilk? And what if we decided that in order to get that formula, we'd target helpless inhabitants of refugee camps in war-torn African countries and mechanically rape and impregnate all women of child-bearing age? We'd look after them and feed them while they were gestating for nine long months, while they were preparing mentally and emotionally for the arrival of their child. And what if, once the child was born, we tore the newborn away from his mother, ignoring her protests and her grief, ignoring the baby's confusion and suffering? What if we took the milk that was destined for that little baby and we collected it from the mother, pasteurised and dehydrated it and used it to make formula for Western babies? What if we murdered the male babies and kept the little girls captive so that they could grow up and be routinely mechanically raped and contribute their own milk once they came of child-bearing age? And what if we kept their mothers imprisoned and constantly bearing children she wasn't allowed to hold until she was no longer able to produce adequately profitable amounts of milk, at which point, at best, we'd leave her to her poverty.

And mothers in first-world countries could breathe sighs of relief that despite not breastfeeding for whatever reason, at least their children were able to be raised to be big and strong on nutrient-full human milk. "Thank goodness for formula", they'd say.

What if?

Thank god for milk.

History continued...

So yes, I took the not uncommon path of being a vegetarian before a vegan. Actually, I will freely admit, I used to make fun of vegans. When explaining my new dietary choices to friends and relatives, I would often have to make a distinction between vegetarianism and veganism, often by saying something along the lines of, "Yes, I still eat cheese. I'm not a bloody hippie/crazy vegan/one of those people." I thought vegans were weird, over the top, fanatical. What the hell was wrong with eating honey? Cows need to be milked or their udders will get sore, etc. etc. I had no intention of cutting the deliciousness that is dairy products out of my diet. Those that know me best know I would happily survive on a diet of cheese, chocolate, icecream, pasta, bread, chocolate and cheese. Oh and some more cheese.

It wasn't until one day I was explaining myself yet again ("No, I'm not a crazy vegan, yes, I still have dairy") that my brother asked me if I was aware of bobby calves and the role they play in the dairy industry. "Look it up," he told me. I still remember discussing it with my partner before we did any research. We were holding off because we didn't know if we would like what we'd find. I knew one thing: I did not want to be a vegan. I just liked dairy way too much. But we knew that we were choosing to live in denial if we didn't enlighten ourselves. So, one day, I sat down at the computer and I typed 'bobby calves' into the search engine... and that was the beginning of the end of my vegetarianism. As much as I didn't want to cut food that tasted good out of my life, the truth was staring me in the face: there were so many more harmful processes that I was buying into.

In all honesty, becoming vegan was a gradual process for me, even after I knew everything I did about bees, chickens, cows and the industries related to their produce. My resolve grew as time passed... I know I would have become as strict as I am now (in other words, just plain vegan) eventually. But the two things that pushed me across the threshold? The China Study, and Earthlings.