The Last Dairy

I’m a dairy farmer, and obviously I like milk, cheese, ice cream, and all things dairy. Perhaps this is why I’m still surprised when I see articles like Cows, who needs them.  This one was definitely one of the most extremely radical pieces I’ve read in a mainstream magazine. The writer ignored old and new nutrition studies on milk and basics facts on farm programs. The coup de grâce was comparing milk to toxic chemicals.

While there is no reasoning with someone with so much misaligned hatred for the dairy industry, it does make for an interesting story idea.

A few months ago I started a new story with the premise of what if animal agriculture was denigrated so much that it was phased out of existence. That’s my post-apocalyptic dystopian nightmare. Instead of being bogged down on the how’s, I decided to focus on one farm ten year’s after milk and meat were banned; a slice of life on how it would affect people.

Black and white holstein cows took gentle steps to the  pasture, their shriveled udders swinging like empty grocery store bags. He frowned and shook his head as he had done many times in the last ten years then continued on to the house.

Of course, Mother Nature doesn’t have to abide by man’s rules, and she never does, anyway, and that is where things go awry. How do people act in these situations? What is the impact on their lives? Those are the questions I hope to answer in the tentatively titled The Last Dairy.