‘Ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products?

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raj00
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2017 8:58 pm

‘Ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products?

Post by raj00 » Sat Jul 22, 2017 10:40 pm

Hi,

I live in Joensuu. I am interested in buying ‘ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products around here. To get an idea of what I am talking about, see https://www.ciwf.org.uk/your-food/dairy/, a site that talks about such products. Is there any brand or food label that I should look out for? I normally shop at S-market and Prisma.

Thanks in advance for any leads!
Raj



‘Ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products?

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betelgeuse
Posts: 4353
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:24 am

Re: ‘Ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products?

Post by betelgeuse » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:35 am

raj00 wrote:I am interested in buying ‘ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products around here.
When you account for the effects methane produced by cows on the climate, I doubt there are any ethical dairy products.

http://timeforchange.org/are-cows-cause ... ethane-CO2

Maybe you could have methane capture but then you couldn't let the cows out on the fields.

AldenG
Posts: 3353
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:11 am

Re: ‘Ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products?

Post by AldenG » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:34 am

betelgeuse wrote:
raj00 wrote:I am interested in buying ‘ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products around here.
When you account for the effects methane produced by cows on the climate, I doubt there are any ethical dairy products.

http://timeforchange.org/are-cows-cause ... ethane-CO2

Maybe you could have methane capture but then you couldn't let the cows out on the fields.

Maybe some clever engineer will develop some kind of 2-wheeled caboose for cows to make them eco-friendly and possibly even more economically productive.

I'm sure they'd be delighted.
As he persisted, I was obliged to tootle him gently at first and then, seeing no improvement, to trumpet him vigorously with my horn.

Jukka Aho
Posts: 5237
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:46 am
Location: Espoo, Finland

Re: ‘Ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products?

Post by Jukka Aho » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:33 pm

AldenG wrote:Maybe some clever engineer will develop some kind of 2-wheeled caboose for cows to make them eco-friendly and possibly even more economically productive.

I'm sure they'd be delighted.
I think Mythbusters conducted some studies, but on humans — and Kari Byron, in particular (to keep it ethical, I guess.) Google for Un-Air-able Banned Mythbuster Fart Episode... if you dare.

Back onto the original question, Juustoportti (a well-known Finnish dairy company) markets something that they call Vapaan lehmän maito (“milk of a free(-range) cow”). Their criteria for choosing the dairy farmers for this label is that the cows need to be able to freely come and go between the shed and the field at their will, feed mainly on clover (or have it available for them in abundance), and the farmer needs to subscribe the cows to a preventive vet care plan, aiming at long, good-quality life. The vet should also use anaesthetics etc. where applicable.

Here’s a YLE story on the topic from 2015:
There may be some other dairies with different labels and criteria. The article says there’s no national certification for this at the moment.
znark

raj00
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2017 8:58 pm

Re: ‘Ethical/compassionate’ milk and dairy products?

Post by raj00 » Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:24 pm

Hi all,

Thanks so much for those responses! The local prisma has Juustoportti milk and yogurt so it looks good.

I admit that the 'real ethical' option is to go vegan but unfortunately I am not there yet :(.

Thanks again all!
Raj.


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