For close to a century, the human race has faced an existential threat from a deleterious product that we’ve been conditioned to believe is vital for good health. It’s a product that’s ubiquitous, comes in myriad forms, and occupies shelf space in refrigerators and freezers in homes and grocery stores throughout the world. It’s a product that lies to us with a rapacious smile, a smile adorned with a frothy white mustache, as it utters catchy slogans and utilizes clever marketing tactics, while slowly poisoning us and ravaging Mother Earth.

The fact is, everything we’ve been told about Dairy is a lie. Big Dairy, in collusion with the US government, uses our taxpayer money to keep a toxic, dying industry afloat. Switch4Good is the only nonprofit whose sole purpose is to stop this corruption and expose the lies Big Dairy feeds the public, while advocating for a dairy-free world through widespread cultural change around what we eat.

For Justice

Every day, 51 million children in public schools grab a lunch tray that has dairy milk placed on it. Not because it’s good for them – millions of those children are lactose intolerant or suffer from dairy allergies – but because of an antiquated system that perpetuates dietary racism, and worse, puts the health of children at risk for profit.

Thirty-six percent of Americans are lactose intolerant. Lactose intolerance disproportionately affects BIPOC populations. In other words, nearly 80 percent of children of color cannot digest lactose in dairy milk, which negatively affects their health and places them at an immediate disadvantage in school, and in life.

Switch4Good is taking action to fight for these children by launching the Equal Milk For All campaign, pressuring the USDA to make significant changes to the school lunch program and getting soy milk added to the US Dietary Guidelines as nutritionally equivalent to cow’s milk, so that ALL Children have a fair and just choice at the lunch counter. This campaign has garnered the support of 32 Congresspeople, the entire Congressional Black Caucus, Al Sharpton, and the National Urban League. 

Switch4Good believes charging extra for non-dairy milk in coffee shops is unjust. People of color are disproportionately penalized by chains like Starbucks’ minimum 70-cent upcharge on drinks made with non-dairy milk, so Switch4Good answered by demanding Starbucks drop the upcharge and launched the Justice Cup campaign.

For Our Health

Big Dairy lies to us that cow’s milk builds strong bones, provides essential nutrients, and serves as an exercise recovery fuel. In truth, it causes inflammation, heart disease and increases the risk of several types of cancers. While the Dairy industry continues to tell us that children need dairy to grow up healthy, big and strong, they conveniently omit the fact that dairy allergies are the most common allergies in children, and that the fats present in dairy encourage the development of obesity and diabetes. 

In a plot to prey on vulnerable parents and susceptible children, the Meat and Dairy industries disseminate “educational” materials to pediatricians – the doctors we entrust the health of our children to – with dietary information and guidelines that are funded by animal agriculture, inflating the nutritional value of the products they’re hawking, while suppressing the harmful effects on human health. And because well-meaning pediatricians spend less than 20 hours of nutrition training during their four years in medical school, they pass on this bad intel to trusting parents, encrypting our children with bad data that could potentially chart the course of their nutritional lives. So, Switch4Good launched a pediatrician program called Milky White Lies that has reached 3,000 U.S. pediatricians so far. By creating and distributing educational resources, for doctors and parents, we’re combatting and negating the very misinformation that Meat and Dairy perpetuate.

For All Sentient Beings

The oft-overlooked dairy cow is another victim in this devastating cycle. A common misconception is that dairy cows dwell in picturesque pastures, grazing freely, while voluntarily getting relieved of their milk by a caring farmer, when in fact, the majority of dairy cows spend their entire lives indoors in unnatural and unhygienic conditions, subjected to yearly forced inseminations. In addition to the ailments caused by this abuse, dairy cows are forced to endure having their offspring ripped away from them shortly after giving birth. Upon losing their babies, the agonizing cries from these mama cows are known to persist for days. 

If they’re not shot and killed immediately, surviving male calves are sent to feedlots to be fattened up before being slaughtered at 16 to 18 weeks old for veal. Female calves replace older dairy cows, thrust into the same suffering cycle as their mothers. To combat this barbarism, Switch4Good utilizes social media in addition to producing unique and innovative videos to make difficult-to-watch imagery palatable and shareable, in order to reach the masses with unprecedented volume.

For Our Home

The Dairy and Beef industries are intrinsically linked in a dance of death and destruction unparalleled in human history. The dairy industry alone is responsible for 45% of methane emissions in the state of California, and cattle are the number one source of agricultural greenhouse gasses worldwide. 

In one year’s time, if a person made the switch to a plant-forward diet from an animal-based diet, they would save 16 million gallons of water, 584 million pounds of grain, 292 pounds of Co2, and 438 million square feet of forest — helping to save Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants.

Learn more at the Switch4Good website.

Check out more charities to support:

• ​​The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation: A Simple Act And An Elegant Solution
  
• Mercy For Animals: Preventing Cruelty And Promoting Compassionate Food Choices
• Farm Sanctuary: Let’s Build The Good Together
• The Gentle Barn: ‘we Never Give Up On An Animal’
• How Beyond Fences Brings Pet Resources To Underserved Communities
• Children’s Health Defense: Groundbreaking Change Powered By Parents
• Meals That Heal With Peta India