OPERATION: MIND OVER MILK
DAIRY IS OPPRESSIVE TO ANIMALS, HUMANS, AND THE ENVIRONMENT — AND WE WANT IT OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS.
WHY DAIRY?
Cow’s milk is the ONLY reimbursable beverage option at over 100,000 US public schools through the National School Lunch Program. Dairy is an inherently harmful product for animals, human and non-human, and the environment. We’re facing this issue head-on with “Operation: Mind Over Milk.”
Through Operation: Mind Over Milk, Ravens are raising awareness about the horrors of the dairy industry and working to increase access to student, climate, and animal-friendly plant-milk for the 30 million students who rely upon the National School Lunch Program.
DAIRY IS A COLLECTIVE LIBERATION ISSUE.
THE NSLP ONLY EXISTS FOR THE GOV’T’S MONETARY BENEFIT.
The National School Lunch Program was founded specifically to boost declining milk sales in the US by creating a market in public school children. TLDR: They’re using our students for profit, at the cost of their health.
THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T WANT STUDENTS DRINKING PLANT-BASED MILK.
Legally, a plant-based milk alternative is ONLY required if a student has a doctor’s note proving they are unable to digest lactose. This option is often inaccessible to marginalized students who need it.
Without that, schools are not required to provide the alternative, even with a parent’s note. Schools aren’t even allowed to offer any other beverage as an alternative to milk.
THIS IS AN ISSUE OF DIETARY RACISM.
About 70% of the students who receive their lunch through the NSLP are Black, Indigenous, and People of the Global Majority. These populations are far more likely to be lactose normal than their white counterparts. Meaning they have a normal inability to digest the milk of another mammal. Head here for more information on the term “lactose normal”, courtesy of our friends at The Food Empowerment Project.
DAIRY IS A WASTE.
As much as 45 million gallons of cow’s milk were wasted in US schools in 2019 alone, at a cost of 300 million in taxpayer dollars. Learn more.
A PANDEMIC WORSE THAN COVID?
Bird flu is a virus that normally only affects birds but has been mutating and spreading across other mammals including humans.
Where is it popping up in the states? Dairy farms.
While cases are low and spread between people is difficult at the moment, there is a very real possibility that all of this could change.
And bird flu is no joke. It currently boasts a case fatality rate around 50%, which while not the same as the likelihood of death considering potential undiagnosed cases, is still frightening and very much dangerous. Remember, Covid only has a mortality rate of roughly 1%.
We have the ability to stop this before it gets too late. Dairy needs to go.
DAIRY MILK IS A COLONIAL PROJECT.
Dairy milk wasn’t in the Americas until the colonists brought it here — and they used it as a tool of oppression against native peoples. Milk marketing has a history of associating dairy milk with whiteness and “purity.”
DAIRY IS SYNONYMOUS WITH RAPE, MURDER AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE.
Dairy cows are artificially inseminated and forced to repeatedly give birth to babies who are immediately taken away so that humans can drink their milk instead. Male calves are typically sold to the veal industry and slaughtered soon after. Female calves usually suffer the same fate as their mothers.
SCARY DAIRY IN THE SQUARE
In 2023, your donation dollars helped us dream up and host Scary Dairy in the Square, a Halloween-party-turned-activism-hub and vegan food paradise at Pioneer Square in the heart of Portland, Oregon. The event featured animal sanctuaries and vegan food vendors alike, guest speakers (including our own Ravens), and gifts for all attendees sponsored by Oatly and Lush.
