Gavin Bryson’s Letter to the Editor “Celebrating Mother’s Day by eating vegetarian” in the Recorder (5-11-18) characterized dairy farmers as “cruel and inhuman practitioners of medieval atrocities toward bovine innocents.” Bryson cited as evidence calves being “torn from their mothers at birth and turned into veal cutlets,” cows being denied “access to the outdoors” and being “milked by machines twice a day” only to be “ground into hamburgers” when their milk production drops.
His indictments smack of Nazi war crimes. While inhuman practices do occur primarily in mega farms, largely in the Midwest, Mr. Bryson should have made a distinction between privately owned and operated New England dairy farms, with long histories of sound and accepted animal practices, and the gargantuan cattle factories in other parts of the country that crank out milk and meat for maximum profit to meet Wall Street standards.
New England dairy farmers have a long and noble history of hard work and sound animal husbandry. Many herds have individual names, are fed well, graze openly, and are proudly shown in agricultural events; farm kids often hand-feed calves and display heifers and rows at 4-H competitions. Some might argue that to grow up on a New England dairy farm is to live a Rockwellian childhood.
Brad Brigham
Colrain