Saturday 9 August 2008

The milkman of human kindness

I've been browsing a vegan blog by Soul Veggie, where he describes his 'vegan tipping point' - i.e. what finally made him decide, after 22 years of vegetarianism, to go vegan. It was a column by the No Milk Man, also known as Robert Cohen:

'Robert, bless his feisty soul, pulled out statistics from the U.S. government detailing the average measured amount of pus cells per liter of milk by State. 400 millions cells is the European limit (little over half of ours). He wrote: "...we learn that pus cell counts continue to rise in America. They have been doing so since the advent of genetically engineered milk. Stressed cows become sick and their milk contains more pus. It's as simple as that."

Robert pointed out that the U.S. numbers were ALL over recommended European levels.

Sick cows. Pus cells. It wasn't the hormones, it wasn't the fat, it wasn't the relationship to many bodily disorders, it wasn't that it was Mother's Milk from another species. It wasn't these truths and the inhumane conditions the cows were raised in, that tipped me over. It was the cold, hard, and unassailable fact: you drink milk, you eat cheese, you consume cow pus cells. They are concentrated in cheese and our government allows this to be.

It was like eating an Apple at the Garden of Eden. Once ya know, ya can't forget.
Pus cells...... "I be Vegan!" I declared to myself. And that was that.'

2 comments:

Domo said...

Kerry your my MP and your a vegan - what then do you make of the fact Sosmix is being bought out by the HAIN corp the company who bought the LInda McCartney range and ruined our DEEP COUNTRY PIES ! stuffing them full of GM soya like a foul pot noodle in a pastry.
they wont verify 'New' Sosmix will be vegan I will guarantee it will be horrible

Domo
St George

Kerry said...

I didn't know about it, but have just looked on some vegan forums. I generally have concerns about big business muscling in on the health food market purely as a money-making opportunity. (Although not sure you could call Sosmix health food!) I'd much prefer to know my veggie food was being made and marketed by vegetarians/ vegans.

Key thing is labelling, isn't it - so that people know what they're getting. It's worrying that people would be misled into assuming New Sosmix would still be vegan (remember a while ago when Mars Bars stopped being vegetarian, and they kept it quiet, but then the public got wind of it and they backed down?)

Haven't had the new Linda McCartney deep country pies so can't comment on whether they've changed for the worse. I'm a fan of Clive's creamy mushroom pies myself!