As you might have read in my intro post… I am a barista by day, working in a cafe serving coffee and handling milk. I spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week making something for humans using a product I’m so against

MILK!

Now, I am the type of human to change something if it isn’t making me happy, but unfortunately I’m in a tough situation. My parents own the cafe and they really need me right now. We have a family business where my mom, dad, sister, girlfriend and myself work. We are in a small town in New Zealand, called Omokoroa, and it's really hard to come by good staff. We have had a lot of trouble with chefs and kitchen hands in the past and its been really tough for my parents…they are really stressed to say the least. If i walked away from the business now, I would be letting them down big time and putting them in a really bad situation. So I'm sucking it up for a couple more months until I move back to Melbourne with the love of my life!

It’s really starting to get to me... I still can’t believe that people are choosing to drink milk, and see nothing wrong with the whole dairy industry. Maybe people aren’t educated enough or simply don’t want to know. I believe this information should be given to children in school at a young age. Instead through commercials and adverts everywhere you look it gets pumped into them that they NEED milk.

My mom has been vegetarian for almost 20 years and she will soon make the transition into veganism, when she is ready. I was talking to her about dairy the other day and she told me that when my sister was first born, she was actually highly allergic to dairy! She would come out in a horrible rash, which as parent would be really scary. My sister was basically vegan for the first year of her life here on earth. As she started getting older, the doctors told my mom to slowly introduce dairy back into her diet….. which is so completely absurd to me! Why would you tell one of your patients to slowly introduce dairy into a baby’s diet when it could potentially kill her? That just shows how brainwashed doctors are, even on the whole dairy situation!

Why is dairy pushed on us so much? Does it make you stronger? Does it help you grow? Why are so many of us lactose-intolerant?

Here are some facts about dairy for you...

• 21,000,000 dairy calves are slaughtered for veal or cheap beef every year globally.

• Due to extensive biological manipulation, today’s dairy cows produce up to 12 times more milk than they would naturally produce to feed a calf.

• Virtually all dairy calves are stolen from their mothers within hours of birth in order to maximise profit. 97% of newborn dairy calves are forcibly removed from their mothers within the first 24 hours. The rest are removed in a matter of days.

• To keep them lactating at maximum yields, cows are artificially, repeatedly and forcibly impregnated year after year.

• Calves typically spend the first 2 to 3 months of life confined in lonely hutches, fed a diet of milk replacer while humans drink the milk intended for them.

• Trapped in a cycle of forced impregnation, perpetual lactation and near constant confinement, most dairy cows’ overworked bodies begin producing less milk at around 4 to 5 years of age, at which point they are slaughtered. In natural conditions, cows can live 20 to 25 years.

• Over 90% of U.S. dairy cows are confined in primarily indoor operations, with more than 60% tethered by the neckinside barren stalls, unable to perform the most basic behaviours essential to their well-being.

Feeding the cows some fresh greens at my parents house.

Milk is NOT for humans! It is there to help calves grow, just like the milk of a human is there for the baby human to grow and get the nutrients it needs from its mother! Why do we think it's normal to drink it? We are NOT calves! We are the only species that chooses to drink the milk of another species. You don't see calves drinking human breastmilk, or any other animal for that matter. Today, there are so many alternatives! It's the debate I always have with meat and dairy eaters and drinkers! They always say “we’ve been eating meat since cavemen”, but that was hundreds of years ago for survival! We don’t have to eat meat to survive any more! You are not a caveman, we live in well insulated warm homes, drive cars to the supermarkets and get our meat and dairy all chopped up and prepared for us… that’s not survival! There are so many other ways to get the nutrients your body needs without taking a life to get them!

Here’s a few quick tips to get started that I found from PETA but I encourage to research it further for yourselves.

PROTEIN
Foods in the LEGUME family are good sources of vegan protein, and peas are no exception: One cup contains 7.9 grams—about the same as a cup of milk. Most grains contain a small amount of protein, but QUINOA, technically a seed, is unique in that it contains more than 8 grams per cup, including all nine essential amino acids that the body needs for growth and repair, but cannot produce on its own.
OMEGA 3
Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for heart, brain, skin, and joint health. Fortunately, you can get them without all the cholesterol and toxins found in fish. Flaxseeds, walnuts, and chia seeds are good vegan sources of the omega-3 ALA. It’s also a good idea to take vegan DHA capsules, which contain omega-3s derived from algae (which is where fish get it from!)
B12
Leading health experts encourage everyone to take a multivitamin or supplement to get ample amounts of vitamin B12. It’s also found in fortified nutritional yeast, some supermarket cereals, and fortified soy and rice milks as well as in some vegan meats.
VITAMIN D
Sunshine is one of the best sources of vitamin D. Many brands of nondairy milks contain some calcium and vitamin D, as do some brands of fortified orange juice. Tofu and mushrooms are also rich in this necessary vitamin.
IRON
Spinach is rich in iron, so eat it heartily. Other iron-rich foods include beans, black-eyed peas, lentils, chickpeas, oatmeal, dried fruits, nuts, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, molasses, and grains such as quinoa and millet. Vitamin C helps increase iron absorption, so for optimal health benefits, consume foods that are rich in both, such as dark-green leafy vegetables.

There is unlimited amounts of info on the dairy and meat industry that is there for you to read! No one is hiding it, it's right in front of your eyes! People just choose not to educate themselves. By the way, when I refer to meat, that means all types, not just cow, pig, chicken etc but also fish, crab, prawn, lobster etc. I won’t go into too much info on our sea friends in this post but I am currently reading a book called “What a Fish Knows” by Jonathon Balcombe so I will definitely be making a post in the near future of the effects of fishing and what we are doing to our oceans! I’m no scientist, but as i said this information is available for everyone on the internet if you want to research it yourself. I’m just bringing light to a new platform so more people can see it!

Thanks for reading and next time think about the pain and suffering of the animals you are choosing to put on your plate or in your tea and coffee! Do they deserve losing their life for a couple minutes of human pleasure?

Cody James over and out!