In Is rennet, a cheese ingredient, made from calves’ stomachs?, Cecil discusses whether cheese has an ingredient made from baby cows.
Many cheeses do not have rennet.
Kosher cheese is always free of stomach, and of all animal parts. The only animal products in it are milk (and possibly eggs and/or honey). So anyone concerned about eating parts of baby animals could just buy kosher cheese.
The problem is even bigger than what was discussed in the column.
#1 Even if you buy cheese which isn’t made with rennet, you’re still contributing to the misery of the cows and the calves by virtue of the fact that, in order to keep the cows producing milk, the cow has to be impregnated and give birth, repeatedly. You can’t have milk without calves. And those calves have to go somewhere, e.g. veal.
#2 Even if you buy vegan cheese (made from soy or rice), it often contains casein, which is derived from milk. So, indirectly, you’re still contributing to the production of veal.
Here’s my $0.02: If you can’t give up cheese completely, at least cut back to smaller amounts of it.
But keep in mind that there’s no such thing as food which doesn’t negatively affect other animals in some way. Suppose you decided to eat nothing but corn. Think of all the mice killed by mousetraps at the grain silo. Think of all the squirrels who were run over by the tractor when it plowed the field. Think of all the deer who used to graze in that open field before it was plowed and now they go hungry. You can’t eliminate animal suffering, you can only try to minimize it.
It was unclear from the article if the calves were killed to make rennet, or whether they would be dead anyhow. Does this product require more deaths, or just using more parts from animals that are being slaughtered anyhow?
All parts of the animal are used. Nothing* is wasted. Dairy produces excess male calves: they aren’t beef cattle, so they aren’t raised to full age.
With egg-laying hens, there is a move towards methods of production that don’t include raising chicks until they are old enough to sex, then killing all the male chicks. I wonder if anything similar is suggested for dairy?
Are the calves tortured before death? I note that veal factory production, like other forms of factory animal production, has been condemned by animal-rights organisations, but I don’t know how that relates to cheese production.
*I generalize.
These days, sixteen years and a bit on, I believe it’s more like lots of yeast, fungus, and/or bacteria are killed. It’s cheaper.
So? Veal is great, I had it for dinner last night, this stuff might be a “problem” for you, but like that’s just your opinion man.