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I'm not trying to criticise you here at all, but since you don't eat meat mainly to reduce animal suffering, why are you okay with dairy? The dairy industry arguably abuses and mistreats animals far worse than the meat industry.

Full disclosure: Vegetarian for 10 years, eat fish occasionally and have recently been trying to cut out dairy (but it's tough).

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Probably because I’m new to it (about a year), it’s hard, and I’m imperfect.

Cutting milk I think would be easy (decent alternatives), but losing cheese would make things a lot more difficult.

I understand, believe me, I do, I guess I just brought it up as a warning not to do what every new vegetarian (including myself) has done:

Use moral arguments to try to convince people that being a vegetarian is a more ethical choice.

I think the sentiment applies to vegans as well, even if the impact isn't as direct. If everyone started consuming non-meat/non-dairy products, the socio-economical and agricultural effects of things like soy, almonds, etc will be egregious as well.

We need to look at non-cruel and sustainable sources of food, but at the industrial level, not at the individual.

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