OK, Farmer Speakeasy

Here's an explanation about why people are vegans.

Veganism in a Nutshell -- The Vegetarian Resource Group

Veganism doesn't have anything to do with anti-breast feeding. As far as I know.

I do currently work for the dairy industry and have seen my fair share of farms these past few months.
Oh, I understand the idea behind veganism. I also have a vegan friend who I've discussed the issue with many times. Although, she's a vegan for a very different reason at this point. She was initially into veganism because of the above stated reasons. After she got older and started researching a bit, she found out that most of the reasons she based her veganism on were false. The dairy industry wasn't as evil as was described and chickens really don't give a crap if their eggs are made into an omelet. However, by this time, she had been a vegan for so long that she had simply outgrown the taste for non-vegan foods. So, to this day she remains vegan, simply because vegan food tastes 'normal' to her.

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The thing is, is that infants internals aren't yet fully functioning. The liver (your bodies chemical processing plant) hasn't established all of the reactions and pathways to process things yet. There are some pretty critical things needed in these early days.

Stomach, intestines ... all of it. Needs pretty gentle input of the right stuff.

Like someone said (sammy I think ?) breast milk is the most fine tuned for this. Some of the better formulas do well also. I haven't looked at the vegan ways to create homemade formula for infants but I would be very very skeptical of them. Their guts aren't yet fully functioning. Maybe there are some "recipes" worth while. I wouldn't guinea pig MY infant with them though.

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Something wicked this way comes.

I was thinking.

If most of us decided to be at least 90 % vegan our health WOULD most likely improve :-)

Most of us eat way to much overprocessed garbage and meat. Because it tastes good.

When you eat less of that shit you DO feel better. Makes it worth it :-)

Most of us NEED more fruits and veggies in our diet anyways.

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Ummm... no? Calves are generally weaned pretty quickly, and then fed milk/enhanced formula artificially.

And cows get milked twice a day.

Re: thread topic. It doesn't really have anything to do with veganism. It has to do with a high level of douchebaggery. All the vegans I know are generally vegans because they believe it is a) nice to critters and b) the most HEALTHY option possible. As such, they all believe in breast feeding too. Breast feeding IS better.


I for one would be miserable without dairy (cow ) products.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
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Yeah, I don't drink milk, but I sure as shit couldn't live without cheese :-)

No damn way

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Milk is proof that God loves us, Chocolate milk is proof that God wants us to be happy.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

No. That's mozzarella cheese on a nice pizza. With extra sauce :-)

Chocolate milk

LOL

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Something wicked this way comes.

How big a farm are you talking? How many cows?

And while I'm not so much 'on the ground' at every farm we work with, I have seen calves feeding from their mothers numerous times...

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“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” - Carl Sagan

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Hmmm... I'm not sure. Between 25-200 cows? They do mommy-feed for a while, but not as long as they would "naturally."

Maybe you're dealing with industrial farms though.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

There are some excellent books on Vegan Nutrition that explain how to raise healthy children on a Vegan diet. Speakeasy is right, the Vegan Diet is a red herring in this instance.

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I have to wonder why the Mother wasn't still nursing a 6 week old baby.

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From a nutritional standpoint cow's milk is far inferior to human milk for human babies.

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The apocalypse is coming... we're gonna need more ammo.

I have never met a vegan who doesn't breastfeed. I didn't read the OP as Thane is on my ignore list - but I think there is a bit of a problem with making generalisations about vegans because some people think veganism is living on lettuce and carrots.

If these people starved their child to death, didn't notice it was happening and it wasn't intentional - my suspicion is that the problem is that they were stupid - not that they were vegans.

having spent a lot of time on a dairy farm my experience was

- calves are taken from their mothers very soon after birth and hand fed - initially from a bottle, but then encouraged to drink from a bucket.

- they usually stay with their mothers only a short term - not even for the full period before she begins to produce normal - saleable - milk.

- the 'first milk' from new mothers is kept separate and hand fed to the calves

- once she begins to produce 'real milk' it goes into the vat, and a few buckets are kept aside for calves.

- cows are milked twice a day (approx 120 cows twice a day - hard work)

- the calves are fed twice a day (which is a lot less than they would be fed if they were with their mothers).

- they are always hungry and try to suck your fingers, your clothes, anything they can get their mouths on

- beef cattle have it better. they stay with their mothers.