International Calf & Cow Mother’s Day

In the dairy industry, calves are taken from their mothers for one reason only: to profit from the sale of their milk. There’s literally nothing in it for the calf. And why should this surprise anyone? “Producers” and calves are in direct competition for a mother’s milk, and given the grossly unequal power dynamic, the producer always wins.

Contrary to what we might like to believe, cows do not produce more milk than their calf needs. After their milk is diverted for profit, their calf is fed so-called “milk replacers” — cheap substitutes made from dairy powders and added fats that cannot replace a mother’s living milk. And the calves are fed these replacers only as long as necessary; male calves are typically slaughtered for veal at the age of twenty weeks.

Another pernicious myth is that cows produce milk even when they don’t have a calf to feed, and that milking them therefore provides relief. Like any other mammal, however, cows only lactate when they are pregnant. To sustain production, therefore, the dairy industry artificially inseminates cows to keep them in a nearly perpetual state of pregnancy. The fate of female calves is to replace their mothers on the dairy line.

This is not an exception. It is the business model.

There is no ethical version of an industry that depends on separation, control, and loss. A wholly plant-based way of living is the only path that fully honors motherhood and aligns with nonviolence.