Godless Dave

Cola and beer are not directly subsidized, but the primary ingredients (corn and sugar beets) are.

Wyz_sub10

Yes, that's what I was getting at with the steel --> auto example.

Mad Kally

Look what I found at The PETA website.

Read the link. They were serious about replacing milk with beer as their official state beverage!

JohnR

While milk is a ingredient in many products, but not a raw material. It can be sold as a drink or an ingredient. Why does it need to be subsidized? Allow the market forces to do their work. Right now with subsidies there is a surplus of milk produced. So American tax payers are paying for milk produced but not used.

ferrocene

The primary purpose of cow milk is to turn a baby cow into a huge bovine. When milking naturally, you are getting some cow hormones in your system, which probably aren't a good idea for small children. It can make them more sick, lactose intolerant or not because of an increase in mucus caused from the caseins and other allergens.

Now, in that scenario, Milk isn't too bad, but it's not that great. If any of you have been to a dairy farm and have seen how milk is made and produced and stored, none of you would ever drink it. Those cows are injected with so much crap to make them produce unnatural ammounts of milk ALL THE TIME, regardless if they're pregnant or not. They have a huge bulging utter which sometimes drags on the ground and develops sores, so the farmers inject them with a load of antibiotics as well as hormone crap. Because of this milk contains blood and puss from infacted udders as well. Pretty gross. Pasteruization doens't kill 100% of everything in there, and homogenization does nasty things besides kill crap that shoulodn't be there in the first place simply so the milk can have a longer shelf life.

I used to drink gallons of milk a week as a kid, my brother and I. I'm Irish and 6'7"

But I won't drink it again. I went a year w/o milk, and now when I have a bowl of cereal, it makes me physically ill. I can get my nutrition in other healthier ways.

Mad Kally

ferrocene,
Please provide links for your information.

Thank you,
Kally

JohnR

Well there are several dairy farms around here and I have taken kids to them. They didn't seem all that bad. The cows were huge and we were told they were given some hormones. There are drugs to increase milk production, http://<b>http://www.fda.gov/opacom/...s/bst.html</b>
as noted here. I believe I have read that a healthy human does not need milk after 7 years of age. I have also heard that the US drinks more milk than any other country. I am not agianst milk just price supports.

fried beef sandwich

Well, I do agree with PETA that the grain diet fed to bovines is unnatural - produces a crapload of gas and messes up their insides.

In other news, what do you all drink as milk substitute? I'm used to Asian soy milk, so the American stuff sort of weirds me out. It always tastes not quite soy and not quite milk. What's the best milk substitute out there, in your experience? Vitasoy? Rice Dream? Silk?

Godless Dave

When I buy milk I always get the hormone-free kind. Not because of concerns about my health, but about what the hormones do to the cows.

I've never enjoyed a glass of milk though. I don't like the taste. But on cereal it tastes fine, and I use it for cooking as well.

alek0

Rice dream is nice, as are other rice based varieties of milk replacement. At least for drinking and putting on cereal, not for cooking. Almond milk is also not bad. For cooking, coconut milk is great.