You are right, visiting India and having a look would not provide data to base policy decisions on or anything like that. I didn't mean to imply that. It would be enough for me to form an opinion based on experience, is all.
As I said, I don't know how milk is obtained by Indian dairy farmers. I believe you straight away that it is way better than in "efficient" factories. I assume they leave the babies with the mothers and let them have the milk and take whatever is left over. That'd be dope.
However don't you need even more cows then with the "efficient" method? And do those cows not emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as the poor creatures in factories? Not if they eat seaweed, apparently (https://foodtank.com/news/2017/06/seaweed-reduce-cow-methane...). Do they? Is that their natural diet? If not, is it fine anyway?
If they are treated properly, they won't eat food that humans could use, so that's good.
How much water do they need? Is water scarce around Indian dairy farms?
It's all so complicated. Just eating a plant-based diet is so much simpler. It would also be much easier if all sufficiently wealthy and developed parts of the world finally got the memo that some people want this. Where are you capitalism? Serve the market. Shut up and take my money. Pretty please.
I have no doubt that most of India is not sufficiently wealthy and developed. Obviously I undestand that consuming dairy is better than starving and I would never ever tell someone in that situation what to do. That would be absolutely insane and devoid of any compassion. However, "better than starving" is also a very low bar and not quite the same as "healthy food for adult humans".
It is not just about nutrients. If I mix vitamin C and rat poison, is the result healthy?