I have considered myself like, an 80% vegan, for a long time now. It’s nothing intentional, it’s just the way I lean. It probably has a lot to do with my Ayurveda roots which stretch all the way back to the mid-90’s. What I learned and experienced is that meat has no nutritional value and for me, there is the ethical side of it. The mistreatment and down-right disgusting conditions in which animals are processed.

Then there comes the question of dairy products. In Ayurveda, ghee is very beneficial as is milk if it is prepared properly. I should mention that the cows in India that are used for ghee and milk are not like the dairy cows here in the western world. And you won’t find cheese in any Ayurvedic remedy.

These days though I find it to be a good idea to consider the source of our food. As we know, just the milking of a cow is not harmful. The harm comes when the baby is taken away and either discarded or forced to live through prolonged torture and ultimately meet its demise as it becomes someone’s main course. And yes, animals do have feelings. You bet they do! And so, a baby is being taken away from its mother is also tortuous for the mother and for what? So we can have milk and cheese?

I use a lot of ghee and have always bought as locally as possible. One day I decided I needed to learn how much milk does a cow produce provided that it lives in normal conditions and is allowed to run, prance around and feed its baby and also, how much of that milk does that baby need before it is on its own.

One thing I did was contact one of the companies that I buy butter from, a major organic label, and asked them how they treat their baby cows. They responded with a long explanation which I thought was decent. Probably just a copy and paste. I think they said that they let the baby feed for the first week and then they move to the artificial mother’s milk so they can start producing profits. Well, they didn’t say it like that. I may have taken some liberties with the description.

So I thought I would contact my sister who farms cows down in Texas on her ranch. I know that she treats her animals very well, in fact she is very passionate about it. I had her tell me two things: 1) How much milk does a cow produce every day and 2) How much milk does a baby cow actually need.

While the production does vary based on the type of cow, what I had gathered is that a mother will produce more than the baby needs for longer than the baby needs it. So are there any farms out there that let the babies feed to their heart’s content and THEN start milking? Probably not.

All the more reason to get a farm and have my own cows so I can make my own ghee! Right?