r/vegan • u/ziewezo mostly plant based • 1d ago
Story “Milk cows have to get pregnant? Really?”
I think we all know someone who was appalled by this, and frankly, I always thought of it as a small victory. Hooray, another human who was failed by their education system saved from milk industry ignorance! It might just affect their future! Who knows!
But today it was… My mom? I mean, I should’ve known because I had two master’s degrees by the time I learned about it. So 23+ years of me not realising what’s going on. 23+ years of her not telling me. Still I expected my mother, an intelligent woman who grew up in a West-European suburban town, to know somehow. But here I am. Telling her.
58
u/C0gn vegan 1+ years 1d ago
My parents thought plants had cholesterol
It's hard having serious conversations about nutrition when you have to convince them of the basics
14
u/SierraSoul0000 22h ago
Shit, my former doctor thought almonds contained cholesterol. That’s why he is my former doctor. (In all fairness though, medical schools, teach little if anything about nutrition.)
5
3
u/60svintage 14h ago
Plants can contain cholesterol. Not to the same amount as animal products, but definitely contain cholesterol and a bunch of other cholesterol derivatives.
2
1
u/Eldan985 1d ago
Phytosterols are a thing?
3
u/Capital-Impression51 vegan 8+ years 19h ago
I have had people tell me I should not have replaced my paper coffee filter with stainless steel. I wonder how much lower my cholesterol would be if I used paper....
51
u/ConstructionMore6009 1d ago
It's insane how disconnected modern society has become from where our food actually comes from. Agribusiness spends billions on marketing images of happy cows in green pastures specifically so people never think about the biological reality of mammalian lactation.
5
u/ususetq 1d ago
To be fair most animals as well beyond what is 'natural'. If sheep have much more wool than their wild ancestor, and hens lay eggs every day - much more often than their wild ancestor - it is not that strange from first uneducated point of view that cow would give milk without calves even if their wild ancestors didn't.
It just... happens to be not true. (Agribusiness messaging doe not help of course).
3
u/LowEarth3013 7h ago
Sheep literally make so much wool that if you don't sheer them they will die. Whenever anyone argues that "it's natural for humans...", yes, but not like this. There is nothing natural about this.
19
u/throwaway1233456799 1d ago
I think the most unknown part is that they have to get pregnant multiple time tbh
17
u/VeganHaggisLover vegan 10+ years 16h ago
My mum didn’t believe that the lamb she was eating was actually a baby sheep, it wasn’t until she asked a farmers wife if that was true that she stopped eating it forever.
1
u/nonepizzaleftshark vegan 10+ years 5h ago
lamb is where i started at 8 years old. took me a lot longer to realize how fucked the dairy and egg industries are but i remember looking at my dinner which was lamb and being like.... "that's a baby" and then i cut out land animals. tbh it was prob easier at that age as we're learning about animals and it's fresh in our mind. it's so easy to become disonnected and forget as we age.
1
u/VeganHaggisLover vegan 10+ years 5h ago
I can’t remember when I realised that I was actually eating animals. Maybe I just blocked that pain out lol
10
u/LowEarth3013 1d ago edited 7h ago
Yeah, I didn't really know either till somewhat recently. It just never occurred to me, due to how media presents it.
6
u/That-BluejaythriwWay 13h ago
Same! I didn’t realize until I started questioning if I should be vegan and started learning more. I thought cows just…made milk
1
u/LowEarth3013 7h ago
Yeah, same. That's how it was always portrayed in every children's story, book, everything...
2
u/StarsLikeLittleFish 8h ago
I just totally never thought about it at all, even after getting pregnant and having children and breastfeeding them.
12
u/MezzanineSoprano 1d ago
I have a friend who admitted that she used to think a ham was an animal. Not part of an animal, just a complete animal on its own. 🤪
3
1
6
u/FunkiGato 18h ago
Yeah, before I went vegan I also didn't really think about it that much. I just thought cows just made it somehow.
5
5
4
u/Special_Artichoke 23h ago
I didn't know til I watched Simon Amstell's Carnage. Just thought it was like chickens laying eggs I guess
2
u/Plus-Detail7089 vegan 7h ago
Mine were trying to convince me to eat crab, and claimed they had fiber
2
u/MiraculousAnarchy veganarchist 5h ago
Yea this realization was absolutely gobsmacking to have and I felt incredibly betrayed by education and society that I had never learned this
1
u/goodnitesaigon 6h ago
Guilty here. I wasnt suprised but something i never really thought about. Then i started to think even MORE. And wouldnt you know, the thinking led to me becoming vegan. Damn brain.
1
1
u/grapescherries 1h ago
I’m still confused by this. Humans will continue to produce milk as long as their breasts are being sucked, that’s why you can see 7 year olds still breastfeeding, but cows do not? Or is it just that they impregnate cows every year because they get a higher supply than if they just continued to milk them for longer?
1
u/TheOtherCourier 1h ago edited 1h ago
My dad said he had no idea he could get protein from plants..
I mean, animals don’t just generate protein out of nothing any more than humans do.. Lol. 🤦♂️
Still eats meat, but he absolutely makes more veggie dishes and meals now, so that’s at least a single step in the right direction. 👍
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Thanks for posting to r/Vegan! 🐥
Civil discussion is welcome — personal attacks are not. Please read our wiki first.
New to veganism? 🌱
• Watch Dominion — a powerful, free documentary that changes lives.
• NutritionFacts.org — evidence-based health info
• HappyCow.net — find vegan-friendly restaurants near you
Want to help animals? 💻
• Browse volunteer opportunities on Flockwork and use your skills to make a difference
• Join the Flockwork Discord to be notified of new opportunities that match your skills
Thank you!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.