How Does Buffalo Mozzarella Get Its Name? The Answer Is Not What You Think

All dairy-based cheese is made using milk stolen from an animal, but not all of that milk comes from cows. Some of it is also stolen from water buffaloes for “products” such as mozzarella and feta cheese. Buffalo mozzarella is cheese made out of milk from water buffaloes.

This never-before-seen footage of buffaloes abused for their milk will make you swear off cheese for good if you haven’t already.

Milk Comes From Mothers

Like other mammals, buffaloes produce milk only after giving birth. An investigator on a farm in Queensland, Australia, saw frightened calves being torn away from their mothers and caged in filthy conditions.

In the milking parlor and the area around it, mother buffaloes were shoved, punched, and hit with sticks, and they couldn’t escape from the abuse because their legs had been tied to poles.

Because of its high butter fat content, buffalo milk is often used to make rich cheeses—mainly mozzarella but also bocconcini, ricotta, feta, and halloumi. In the United States, new products such as buffalo milk yogurt are starting to crop up, too.

Foods made from buffalo milk are marketed as “luxury” items, but there is nothing luxurious about the way the milk is produced.

Live Exports

Most Australian states now have buffalo dairy farming, with a national herd of more than 700,000. Other buffaloes are raised and killed for their flesh, hides, and horns. Some are exported from Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia as part of the country’s live-export industry, while others are killed in Australia before their flesh is exported.

No Matter What Animal It Comes From, Dairy Is Cruel

Whether derived from cows, goats, camels, buffaloes, or any other animal, dairy “products” come from mothers whose babies were stolen from them. Thankfully, there’s no need to support this cruelty. Plant-based milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream options are constantly expanding, and farmers can turn a profit by growing soybeans, almonds, oats, coconuts, peas, macadamia nuts, cashews, rice, and more.