Vegan Café Owner Responds to Dairy Farmer’s Criticism

Co-founder of Syracuse, NY-based vegan eatery Strong Hearts Cafe Joel Capolongo issued a response letter to upstate New York dairy farmer Lorraine Lewandrowski’s continued criticism of veganism on Twitter. In several recent posts to the social media platform, Lewandrowski said vegans are threatening dairy farmers, defended the use of genetically modified organisms in the food industry, and said “oh poo poo” in response to a tweet that pointed out that some people cannot consume milk due to dairy intolerance. Lewandrowski’s attack has also focused on former columnist for The New York Times Mark Bittman. This week, several of Lewandrowski’s targets spoke out against her heinous comments. “Many people are no longer comfortable supporting an industry that forcibly impregnates cows so they are continuously producing milk that their calves, who are taken from them at birth, will never get to enjoy,” Capolongo said. Bittman issued his own response, saying, “We don’t need to eat as much dairy as the industry tells us.” Bittman also said that if farmers want to save their jobs, “there are also ways to farm without producing milk cows.” Capolongo ended his response letter by inviting the dairy farmer to his vegan cafe. “If Lewandrowski wants further proof of the tide turning towards people adopting a compassionate vegan lifestyle,” Capolongo said, “I formally invite her to … Strong Hearts Cafe, for one of our famous non-dairy milkshakes enjoyed by thousands of our customers every week.”