From Steve Morton, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK
You report the suggestion of using CRISPR gene editing to limit the number of male calves (9 February, p 13). This is surely another example of agribusiness addressing the wrong problem.
To produce milk, a cow must give birth every year. During her productive life, she could give birth to seven or eight calves – although cows are now usually killed off much earlier as being “unproductive”. Only one of these calves is required to replace her: the others, male or female, are surplus to industry requirements.
Even for those of us who aren’t vegans – and I am not – a better approach from the viewpoint of the environment, animal welfare and our own health would be to switch to a largely plant-based diet with only occasional dairy products and beef produced by grass-fed, all-purpose cows.
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