7 Percent of American Adults Believe Chocolate Milk Comes From Brown Cows
An alarming number of folks believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, and that has us all kinds of concerned.
A recent survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy revealed that 7 percent of American adults—roughly 16 million people—think that brown cows produce chocolate milk. The same survey reported that 48 percent of American adults don’t know how chocolate milk is made, according to Food & Wine.
The Truth About Milk
Chocolate milk isn’t chocolaty because it comes from brown cows—just as strawberry milk isn’t obtained from pink cows, in case that also needed clarification. Chocolate milk is simply regular milk that’s flavored with cocoa.
Milk is produced by cows raised for the dairy industry. They’re intensively confined, leaving them unable to fulfill their most basic desires. Treated like milk-producing machines, they are genetically manipulated and may be pumped full of antibiotics and hormones in order to produce more milk. Cows produce milk for the same reason humans do—to nourish their young—but calves on dairy farms are taken away from their mothers when they’re just 1 day old. They’re fed milk replacers (including cattle blood) so that their mothers’ milk can be sold to humans.
Female cows are artificially inseminated shortly after their first birthdays. After giving birth, they lactate for 10 months and are then inseminated again, continuing the cycle. Some spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors, while others are confined to massive, crowded lots, where they’re forced to live amid their own feces.
We may call the cows who produce milk “mothers,” but they never actually get to be mothers because their babies are taken away from them after birth. And we certainly don’t treat them with the respect that mothers deserve. Cows and other farmed female animals endure being raped repeatedly, and their babies are torn away from them before they’re all killed.
While cows suffer on factory farms, humans who drink their milk increase their chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and many other ailments. Click here to discover the 11 reasons you should stop drinking cow’s milk.
#SuckLess With This Vegan Chocolate Milk Recipe
Simply put, milk is bad for you, animals, and our planet. The good news is that you don’t need to harm cows—or any other animal—to satisfy your chocolate milk craving. Click here to learn how to make thick, creamy, and frothy raw chocolate milk—no white, brown, or pink cows necessary!
If you find yourself out of raw cacao powder or without a blender, don’t panic—Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup is “accidentally vegan“! Just choose your favorite plant-based milk, stir in your desired amount of syrup, and voilà!
But Why Stop at Milk?
Cows aren’t the only animals abused and killed for human consumption. Going vegan can help save all animals used for food. Luckily, it’s easier than ever, thanks to PETA’s vegan starter kit. Click the button below to order your free kit, and start saving lives now.
