15/07/2025
Did you know this about the dairy industry?
It does vary by operation, but this is a fact that is unique to cows in a non exclusive grass fed setting. Generally speaking, many dairy cows are fed a TMR (a total mixed ration) which is a mix of corn silage, grass silage, and byproducts from other industries like the almond hulls, cottonseeds, dried distillers grains, and even citrus pulp and peels.
It’s estimated that 80% of what a cow eats CANNOT be consumed by humans, and around 40% of a cows diet is byproducts from the human food supply chain that would otherwise end up in a landfill (CLEAR center, UC Davis). Very very few other industries have use for these byproducts and by feeding them to cows, you cut down on food waste as well as the environmental impact of trucking them to a landfill and allowing them to decompose there.
Cows ultimately turn other industries into low waste or no waste industries and turn those products into something that can nourish human… but the fact that cows tends to get left out of their own sustainability story.
