The Ethics of Eating

First off I want to thank the over 13,000 people who have checked this out. I hope I'm a bit entertaining. There's a book coming out soon called Big Trips: More Good Gay Travel Writing coming out and I was thinking about getting in there but it seems to be only for heartfelt emotional pieces. I'll get the book and check it out. If there's not a book with humorous light-hearted gay travel stories and the occasional moment of clarity, which I hope to provide, then there should be. I'll start one in my free time.
I saw an ad today:

And although I don't know Paul McCartney at all, I completely agree and checked out Peta.org. I was still eating dairy products as I thought cows had to be milked and was not aware of any adverse conditions in their captivity, although I suspected the conditions were not good. Well I read up on it and it turns out I was right, and the thing is once you know something, you can't unknow it. How can you live an ethical life and ignore the ethics of eating?

Human beings are the only species (other than house cats) to consume milk past childhood. We are also the only species to consume the milk of another species. Yet, at about the age of four, most people around the world begin to lose the ability to digest lactose, the carbohydrate found in milk. This results in a condition known as lactose intolerance that causes a range of unpleasant abdominal symptoms, including stomach cramps, flatulence and diarrhea.
Lactose intolerance is a reality for 75% of the world's population.
Allergies to dairy products can cause a wide range of symptoms including irritability, restlessness, hyperactivity, depression, abdominal pain, cramps or bloating, gas, diarrhea, bad breath, headaches, lack of energy, constipation, poor appetite, mal-absorption of nutrients, nasal stuffiness, runny nose sinusitis, asthma, shortness of breath, rashes, and eczema.

In order to produce milk, a dairy cow must give birth. To maximize their milk supply they are artificially inseminated every year, meaning they are pregnant for a physically demanding 9 months out of every 12. Their calves are traumatically taken from them shortly after birth. The resulting surplus of calves feeds the veal industry.
With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, Canadian cows produce an average of 9,519 kg of milk per year (2003) — seven times more than they would produce naturally. When their milk production wanes after about four years, dairy cows are sent to slaughter where their worn out bodies are ground up into hamburger.
Helpfully Peta has a 2 week meal planner here which looks excellent and I can't wait to try these recipes. Again, once you know something you can't unknow it, and in today's society we have alternatives to products that destroy the life of another living thing. How can we as a society not choose them?