Hi Nanie, good article. I kind of hate to be the devil's advocate here since you are obviously gracious and have mentioned the many differences between small farms (when they are higher welfare) and industrial animal ag (which tends to be pitifully low welfare. I also have to admit to motivated reasoning; my family of five and I get our meat (what little of it we eat) from a small local farm with very high animal welfare standards.

But I'll move forward with my minor pushback here because it's clear you have a loyal and growing following, that you are a voice in the vegan community and, I would think, we could consider ourselves allies in our desire to see a significant reduction in meat and dairy consumption around the world. I feel it's important how we do that.

Okay, with that giant disclaimer, lol, the pushback:

First, I see no distinction in your article between small farms, family farms, and smallholdings. "Dairy farms" can be any one of these, and with different practices. I'll be talking only about "small local farms," that is, farms that could be by size considered smallholdings (less than two hectares) but do produce more food than just to feed their immediate family, but some of the surrounding community.

Second, it's dubious to rest ethical position of veganism on the lifespan of the animals. (I do realize that's not your only criticism, but it seems to be chief among them). It gets pretty philosophical, but while I certainly consider a cow to be a sentient being, there is little to no evidence to suggest it has any kind of an idea how old it is. A cow's emotional life might be social in nature, and certainly familial and maternal, but it's highly unlikely there is any sense of longevity. I.e., the cow does not have a sense of time in terms of years, or months, or even weeks or hours. So whether the cow lives two years or twelve years seems arbitrary, at least to the cow. What's happening is we're placing a value on the lifespan of a cow that is completely anthropocentric: WE place a high premium on longevity, but cows almost certainly do not.

What we know a cow CAN experience is suffering. And the welfare of the animals is the highest priority of the few small farmers I know in my region. This is the "positive animal welfare" you speak of. You're absolutely right that these farms are less profitable and typically more expensive (even though they are often subsidized by grants from the USDA, etc.) But this might even be a good thing, especially in the wealthy west: we don't need so much cheap meat available to us all the time. The price should reflect the value: an animal life well-lived, local people doing the hard work of farming.

This is all why I think it's important to shift that ethical meter squarely onto the welfare side. That way we're not alienating people who are prioritizing animal welfare (not to mention more sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices) by calling the farms they patronize unethical because of some arbitrary human-conceived value we place on years lived.

TJ