The livestock industry — not just Fairlife — has long portrayed dairy as an essential, wholesome product from cows who just happen to be producing milk on quaint, green pastures. But cows on dairy farms, even when they’re not overtly abused like those seen in undercover investigations into Fairlife, still face severe welfare issues because of the very nature of dairy production.

Today’s cows have been bred to produce far more milk than they naturally would, which greatly taxes their bodies. They’re (artificially) impregnated each year — another physical stressor — to induce milk production. After they give birth, their calves are quickly taken away so that humans can take their mothers’ milk.

Newborn calves are then confined alone in tiny hutches. Females go on to become dairy cows once they’re sexually mature, while the male calves are dehorned and castrated — often without pain relief — and sold off to become veal or beef.

Most dairy cows have little to no access to pasture and spend their lives confined indoors or on dirt feedlots. Naturally, they might live to 15 to 20 years of age, but by 5 or 6 years old, when bodies give out and their milk yield wanes, they’re sent off to slaughter.

Many of these practices have become standard on dairy farms of all sizes — not just on mega dairies. It’s a reality far different from what consumers often see in advertisements and on milk bottles.