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You're right, but I think about it the other direction. We currently _do_ eat the calves that _are_ killed so we can take their milk.

We _could_ (probably) figure out a way to not require killing them, I just don't know what that would be.

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Back of the envelope math: cows live for about 20 years, but dairy cows are killed after about 4 years when their milk production slows. Assuming they are impregnated 4 times, that's (5 cows * 20 years per cow) / (4 years) = 25 times as costly. And this 25 times as costly milk has to compete with the 1 times as costly milk in a market that's already so competative that milk is sold below cost with government subsidies. It's impossible for practical purposes.

If you're comparing today's market, practices, and subsidies (which are all just measurements of the same signal) to a fictional world where we didn't want to kill any calfs, but using today's subsidies and prices, then I think that's not a fair comparison.

If god appeared and said that the Hindus were right all along and cows are sacred and milk is their gift to us - we'd do it just fine.

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