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> whey itself does not necessitate killing anything. This is assuming that people would eat calves if they weren't killed so that we can take their milk.
by npoc 2y ago
> whey itself does not necessitate killing anything.
This is assuming that people would eat calves if they weren't killed so that we can take their milk.
- jvanderbot 2y agoYou're right, but I think about it the other direction. We currently _do_ eat the calves that _are_ killed so we can take their milk. We _could_ (probably) figure out a way to not require killing them, I just don't know what that would be.
- GrantMoyer 2y agoBack of the envelope math: cows live for about 20 years, but dairy cows are killed after about 4 years when their milk production slows. Assuming they are impregnated 4 times, that's (5 cows * 20 years per cow) / (4 years) = 25 times as costly. And this 25 times as costly milk has to compete with the 1 times as costly milk in a market that's already so competative that milk is sold below cost with government subsidies. It's impossible for practical purposes.
- jvanderbot 2y agoIf you're comparing today's market, practices, and subsidies (which are all just measurements of the same signal) to a fictional world where we didn't want to kill any calfs, but using today's subsidies and prices, then I think that's not a fair comparison. If god appeared and said that the Hindus were right all along and cows are sacred and milk is their gift to us - we'd do it just fine.