Argument: Veal farming is a good alternative to the slaughtering of unwanted calves

Support

• Juliette Jowit, environment editor. “Veal back on a guilt-free British menu”. The Observer. January 20 2008 – “The source of veal is the dairy industry: cattle are encouraged to give birth to bring on milk, but an estimated half a million male calves born each year are not needed by dairy farmers, and are mostly considered to make bad beef.

Veal was once popular in Britain, but Second World War rationing made it seem wasteful to kill young animals, and anti-cruelty campaigns in the 1990s caused public revulsion. Unable to sell male calves for veal or beef in Britain, farmers exported most of them to Europe until the ban after the BSE crisis, which was only lifted in 2006.

The group Compassion in World Farming now estimates that half to two thirds of the young males are killed shortly after birth, fewer than one in five are reared for beef in Britain, and only about 2,000 reared for veal in this country. Exports are now around 60,000 to 70,000 a year, but forecast to rise to at least 200,000.”