http://www.hulu.com/watch/3533/saturday-night-live-the-olympia-restaurant
Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) is the largest
and most powerful dairy group in America.
On Monday (July 26, 2010), Jim Montel, DMI’s
executive vice president of strategic initiatives
issued a press release. The subject was cheeseburgers.
According to DMI, during the past 12 months, the
number of cheeseburgers served in America’s fast
food restaurants increased by a Whopper-ing 9
percent.
Since Montel works for the dairy industry, he focused
on what that meant for liquid milk. Translation: 122
million more pounds of milk were needed to be made
into cheese for those burgers.
Montel called this increase:
“…a great return on investment for our dairy farmers.”
What a crock of bull!
Was this really such a great return?
At today’s wholesale price, that represents about
$18 million dollars in increased cash flow. A farmer
with 100 cows on his farm would see a windfall profit
of about $200 for his share of the “great return on
investment.”
On average, an American cow produces 19,800 pounds of
milk per year. An increase of 122 million pounds of
milk is produced by 6,100 cows. Presently, 9.2 million
cows are in America’s dairy herd.
On average, 35 percent of the cows in America’s dairy herd
are sent to slaughter each year. Each of those cows has
birthed a calf. Assuming that 50 percent of the calves
are male, they become veal.
So…in order to produce that additional 122 million pounds
of milk, 6,100 calves had to be separated at birth from
their mothers. If that pain could be bottled, it would make
the most woeful moo…
So, for the 9 percent increase in the milk for the cheese
for the burgers…
An additional 3,000 calves were sent to slaughter.
An additional 2,100 cows were sent to slaughter.
Multiply the above numbers by 11 to determine the
total amount of cows who die to supply the Cheese
for America’s cheeseburgers.
In 2010, 36,000 calves will have their throats
slashed and choke on their own blood, and 33,000
cows will die in a similar manner.
All for cheeseburgers, cheeseburgers, cheeseburgers. ..
Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
