@DoodleLab “Local organic grassfed cows milk (or goats milk) is the most ethical.” that’s not true.
The definition of ethical is “relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these.”
Morally, killing other sentient beings for pleasure is wrong. This is not subjective. If I killed a dog for fun it would be wrong.
Even calf at foot dairies (which are exceptionally rare and expensive) kill the boys. One of the highest welfare I have seen still sends the males to be killed at 18 months when their natural lifespan is 18 years or more. They will be transported and die frightened in a slaughterhouse.
Dairy cows in general have been bred to overproduce milk which leads to an increase in painful conditions like mastitis.
And that’s the best case scenario. Standard milk cartons are products of immense suffering.
In terms of the environmrnt, grass fed dairy is still worse than all plant milks. Veganic oat farming would be the most sustainable
onedegreeorganics.com/products/sprouted-oat-os-2/
None of the pesticides, organic fertilisers, no need to clear wildlife etc, it can be done in another way.
But even the way it is done now is better for the environment because of how bad dairy- even local and grass fed- is.
citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.511.7351&rep=rep1&type=pdf
“Livestock production—including deforestation for grazing land and soy-feed production, soil carbon loss in grazing lands, the energy used in growing feed-grains and in processing and transporting grains and meat, nitrous oxide releases from the use of nitrogenous fertilisers, and gases from animal manure (especially methane) and enteric fermentation44—accounts for about 18% of global greenhouse-gas emissions (figure 2).42 This estimate consists of around 9% of global emissions of carbon dioxide, plus 35–40% of methane emissions and 65% of nitrous oxide, both of which have much greater near-term warming potential over several ensuing decades than does carbon doxide (although they have shorter half-lives in the atmosphere). Similar estimates exist of the contributions of UK farming, live-stock production, and the food chain overall, to national greenhouse-gas emissions.”
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es702969f
“Thus, we suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than “buying local.” Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food.”
www.futureoffood.ox.ac.uk/grazed-and-confused
“This report concludes that grass-fed livestock are not a climate solution. Grazing livestock are net contributors to the climate problem, as are all livestock. Rising animal production and consumption, whatever the farming system and animal type, is causing damaging greenhouse gas release and contributing to changes in land use. Ultimately, if high consuming individuals and countries want to do something positive for the climate, maintaining their current consumption levels but simply switching to grass-fed beef is not a solution. Eating less meat, of all types, is.”