I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about what it is that dairy cows
eat. True, there are a handful of small dairy farms in this country which
produce hormone free milk from cows who actually do *graze* freely on grass.
This is not where the dairy product used in commercial formulas comes from.
Dairy cows never even SEE grass, they are fed a diet of corn - the second
most heavily sprayed crop (after cotton) - and there is no way of even
knowing if this corn all comes from the US or from countries which still use
DDT. Left to their own, no cows would eat corn, in fact they don't eat a
grain based diet at all, only grasses. The cows are kept in tiny pens,
knee-deep in their own excrement and so completely doped up on antibiotics,
BGH, and tranquilizers all the time. Also, cows do NOT eat low on the food
chain. Much of the dairy cow diet comes from so-called "animal by-products"
- meaning, they eat parts of other farm animals left over from slaughter.
According to the Humane Society website, poultry manure is included in dairy
cow feed. Take it or leave it. This is not meant in any way as a post on
animal cruelty, only as a commentary on the fallacy of the "vegetarian, low
on the food chain" bovine diet.

I have an extremely hard time believing that these sick, stressed, HEAVILY
drugged animals could produce a milk any less contaminated than even the
most junk-food addicted human, living near a nuclear reactor. But then I'm
pretty stubborn. I *do* see the point of bringing this to attention in order
to expose the terrific levels of pollution we now have to endure, but
unfortunately that is never how it is perceived - instead the headlines read
"Contaminated Breastmilk!"

Michelle DePesa
(who had to share an office with the campus PETA chapter
while an editor for the UMASS feminist newspaper)

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