Vegetarian restaurants and hotels guide
The worldwide guide for vegetarian, vegan and veggie-friendly restaurants, cafes, hotels, guest houses, pubs and shops. Whether you are looking for a vegetarian restaurant, vegan cafe or veggie friendly hotel this is the site!
We identify restaurants and hotels that make a genuine effort to cater well for vegetarians. We currently have 2328 vegetarian restaurants and hotels listed, together with 2924 reviews
Zero Grazed Milk vs The Free Range Egg
Modern industrial scale farming has produced some incredibly inhumane methods to satisfy the public's demand for cheaper and cheaper meat/animal products. Some of the worst are, thankfully, on the way out. Examples of this include the veal crate and the exceptionally cruel methods of pig production involving farrowing crates.
Battery hens tend to get the sympathy of most people. Even ardent carnivores prefer the idea of eggs from free range birds and indeed the Vegetarian Society insists on their use in any products they endorse. But very little is heard about one of the most chilling 'farming' methods for extracting maximum yields from dairy cows. 'Zero Grazing' refers to the way in which these unfortunate beasts are reared and worked. They live in vast concrete sheds without access to the open air and natural grass. As if living in an artificial environment under cover all the time isn't bad enough constantly walking on concrete leads to widespread hoof problems including frequent abscesses. I read that at least one in three animals treated this way is lame at any one time. I also read that around two thirds of milk produced in the UK comes from zero grazed cows. It's just one of the reasons for my adoption of a vegan diet.
If you don't want to take that step, one way of being sure that you don't support this unpleasant system is to buy organic milk, cheese, butter etc. This guarantees that at least the animals have lived outdoors in something approaching humane conditions and you might have thought this would become a standard that the Vegetarian Society would have endorsed. But when we applied to add The Barn Vegetarian Guest House to the Vegetarian Society's Food and Drink Guild I was surprised to see nothing about it in the list of approved ingredients.
I asked why there were such strict rules over even which brand of free range eggs we could use but nothing (even by way of gentle encouragement) about organic milk products. I realise that there has to be a limit to the specification but the effective support of zero grazing seemed to be out of line with what the Society stands for.
The answer I got was that it would simply be too difficult for the Society and too costly for producers to require a switch to organic dairy goods. So much for principles!
Where do you stand on all this? I'd love to hear from you.......
Comments (7)
Have you tried B'Nice Rice Cream? Beanies Healthfoods sell it (the company that distributes Frys Veggie Foods) - it's even better than Swedish Glace!
Hi Richard,
I agree that its a disturbing trend of suffering which seems to be forgotten or not known by many people. I have a friend who lives and works on a traditional dairy farm in Yorkshire. It was small by farm standards - maybe around 40 acres and he had 25 cows which grazed outside most of the year. The large dairy (supposedly run by farmers for farmers) was paying him 7p/litre for the milk which was putting him out of business. It came to a head when they said they weren't going to collect his milk anymore unless he increased his herd size by going intensive (factory farming). When he refused (a farmer who cared about his animals) they just stopped collecting and he had to sell his herd. The NFU didn't support him even though the dairy was breaching their contract. The farming industry is unfortunately becoming very corporate and squeezing out the little guy. The factory farms generally get over 20p/litre as a comparison...
Hi, After watching with interest last weeks's Countyfile on BBC I was alarmed at the zero grazing for high yield milk production and I want to avoid purchasing this type of milk for my family. Can anyone point me in the right direction for finding out the welfare status of animals of specific companies. The websites for these companies appear to mask the nitty gritty details.
Thanks
Anne
Hi Anne - the simplest way for you to ensure the milk you buy is from a herd that manages the highest standards of animal welfare is to always buy organic. Additionally you could try milk substitutes and/or use less dairy milk generally. Have a look at my latest post to see the truly shocking facts on how the industrial meat and dairy industry is wrecking the planet!
Best - Richard
I have been a vegan since august 2008 and my son and daughter have been vegans for approx 3 years. My husband is still vegetarian at the moment! and so I still buy cows milk for him. However after finding out about zero grazing very recently, and watching the Animal Aid Video - I was sickened and very upset by the so called farming methods, it's not farming it is animal torture - I will only ever buy organic milk for him now.
Previously
Hi Richard,
I quite agree with you on dairy farming and I think we have the increasing vegan voice to thank for raising this issue. Organic milk is easy to purchase. I for one, have cut down considerably on my dairy intake of other sorts - dairy-free spread has a permanent place in our fridge as has soya dream and soya ice cream.
Posted by Debbie J | July 18, 2007 11:10 AM