Recently, a video was released by the Animal Rescue Mission (ARM) about the disgusting and malicious animal abuse at Fair Oaks Farm. Grocery retailers are beginning to pull the Fairlife brand of milk off their shelves and the farm, along with Coca-Cola as Fairlife is a joint venture of the company, is now under fire by the media and the general public. To summarize the more recent events, many suspects of the abuse are popping up left and right, some have (allegedly) been arrested, and according to a Chicago Sun-Times article, the Fairlife company does not plan on making any cutbacks due to the fact that they have 30 other farms that supply their milk. They have supposedly terminated all business with Fair Oaks Farm and are going to increase their random audits from one a year to 24. Why it was only once a year, to begin with, is beyond me, but that is a side of the farming world I would never like to get to know. However, this leads me to what I really want to discuss: why are people still drinking cows milk?

While cow's milk is a good way to obtain calcium, there are so many other foods that supply calcium as well. Seeds, spinach, almonds, kale, whey protein, oranges, beans, lentils, and so many others. Milk also has a negative effect on the skin. Studies show that drinking milk and/or consuming dairy products correlates with increased breakouts. This is due to the added hormones in milk such as androgen hormones, a hormone that has been long associated with the development of acne, and DHT. Cows are also given additional hormones to help the production of milk, therefore making milk high in IGF-1. IGF-1 is a highly present growth factor in adolescents, a time in which acne is normally at it's worst. All of these additives combined are believed to worsen the state of your skin by causing more severe breakouts.

It would be ignorant of me to believe that everyone is going to stop drinking milk, but truthfully any bit helps! There are so many alternatives out there. As ignorant of me it would be to believe that everyone will stop drinking milk eventually, it would be just as ignorant to say that there is no other milk out there for you. There are 15 different types of plant-based milk, all containing their own set of nutrients, some of which you can't get in regular milk. Not to mention, approx. 65% of humans stop producing enough lactase to digest milk after early childhood (ages 2-5). Milk, regardless of what animal it's coming from, is meant for the offspring. Humans are the only species that drink milk that comes from mammals after infancy. So after learning all this new information, if you are over the age of five and are still drinking cow's milk, grow up. It's time to try some almond milk.