Recently news surfaced that the Fairlife dairy company owned by CocaCola has been abusing their cows, which is awful news and fully worth being angry over. Some are taking action and boycotting Fairlife and even other CocaCola products in protest. But why is this such a big deal? And why are vegans mad that people are boycotting Fairlife? Shouldn't that make animal rights activists happy?
Here's the catch: Fairlife's problem isn't anything new — it's part of a system of hundreds of factory farms of several companies that ALL abuse their animals. It's disappointing to vegans and animal rights activists that everyone could get caught up in this one company and think by not drinking Fairlife milk, we're solving the issue. The real issue isn't one company, it's factory farming as a whole.
Companies like Tyson and Perdue have been abusing, overfeeding, overmedicating, forcefully breeding/impregnating, and slaughtering for as long as demand for animal products has been so high, but it's all overlooked. It's wonderful if anybody wants to help the cause, but it's important to realize what the cause is and who is contributing. If you found out next week Perdue abused their chickens and switched to Tyson chicken nuggets, you're still contributing to exactly what you're trying to avoid.
For more information, I recommend reading articles and watching documentaries such as Food Inc. on factory farming. If we put this anger over Fairlife's animal abuse toward all companies that abuse animals, we can change things for the better.