Anyone who walks past the Debruyne monument today is difficult to ignore: a huge five-meter-high milk cardboard adorns the Zeedijk. It is part of the summer tour of Gaia, which travels throughout Belgium under the motto “Not your mother, not your milk”.
According to Gaia, the separation of Kalf and mother is still standard practice immediately after birth in Belgium. “More than half of the West Flemish people see abuses in the current practices of the milk industry,” says Ann de Greef, director of Gaia. “Moreover, more than 8 in 10 wants producers to communicate openly and honestly about how milk is really produced, instead of showing idyllic images of cows in green meadows. With our summer tour we want to show the reality behind the milk.