In all fairness to the dairy industry, it should be pointed out that some
proportion of the commericial (not "organic") cows' milk in the US is indeed
produced by numerous small family farms, where the cows go out to graze on
grass during the day.

I have been to such family farms in Wisconsin, lived just down the road from
one in Texas, and driven by many others in Texas and in California, all
along the Mendocino coast.

That isn't to say that these cows' don't get hormone shots and antibiotics
and some corn in their diets (the milk isn't supposed to be 'organic'), but
I do definitely know of family-based dairy farms where the cows get milked
before dawn, turned out into the pastures for the entire day, and then get
milked again at dusk.  The ones I saw being milked (by machine) in Wisconsin
were eating something during the milking process, to keep them happy and
still.  Perhaps it was corn, and perhaps it was contaminated.  But they'd
just spent the whole day eating grass in the fields, so they weren't too
hungry, and they certainly didn't ever stand around in their own excrement.
In fact, the dairy barn at the farm was MUCH cleaner than the house.

Ditto for the cows at the dairies in Texas -- they are out in the fields all
day, in the barn at night if they want to be, but allowed to go back out
into the fields after milking if they want.  Not ever standing around in
their own excrement.

Kathy Dettwyler

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