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Veal is a culinary term for meat produced from calves.
There are three types of veal:
Veal production is a contentious matter (Julia Child remarked in her The Way to Cook that non-formula-fed veal ought to be called calf), but the meat has been an important ingredient in Italian and French cuisine since ancient times. The veal is often in the form of cutlets, such as the Italian cotoletta or the famous Austrian dish wiener schnitzel. As veal is lower in fat than many meats, care must be taken in preparation to ensure that it does not become tough.
In addition to providing meat, the bones of calves are used to make a stock that forms the base for sauces and soups such as demi-glace. The stomachs are also used to produce rennet, used in the production of cheese.
Veal is essentially a by-product of dairy farming. Dairy cows must regularly produce calves in order to continue to produce milk. The result is that more female calves are born than can be raised into dairy cows; bull calves have no commercial use except as veal.
While all veal production is contentious according to animal rights acitivists, the humane movement is most concerned with formula-fed calves. These calves are traditionally raised in stalls that restrict some physical movement, which according to industry, maximizes individual care, minimizes health concerns, and encourages efficient growth. However, formula-fed veal farming is universally condemned by animal rights activists and others concerned with animal welfare. It is frequently cited as one of the worst examples of large-scale industrial animal farming.
Advocates for the veal industry counter that modern farms provide clean, well-lit and well-ventilated environments with enough room for calves to "stand, stretch, groom themselves and lay down in a natural position."[2] Industry advocates also assert that, as veal calves are typically at risk of becoming anæmic — resulting in weakness and loss of appetite — modern farmers feed calves a diet with sufficient, carefully controlled amounts of iron.[3] In addition, a 2004 Rutgers University study, commissioned by the New Jersey legislature, concluded that, "According to scientific studies and evaluation of existing production practices, calves raised on veal farms are well cared for and have their nutrition and health needs met." [4]
Individual calf rearing is banned in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, the UK still attracts criticism from animal rights groups on the ground that it exports a large number of young veal cows to the Netherlands, where farming law is more relaxed and where most European veal production is centered. The remaining members of the European Union — including Italy, where veal is extremely popular — will ban the use of individual veal stalls and all-liquid diets starting in 2007.[5]
On November 7 2006, Arizona voters approved Proposition 204, the Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act, making that state the first in the U.S. to prohibit the use of veal crates. Several other states are considering similar legislation.
The health risk to consumers posed by drugs administered to farm animals is not unique to the veal industry. However, critics allege that producers compensate for unhealthy living conditions by administering tranquilising medication and high levels of antibiotics. Interestingly, numerically, formula-fed calves have one of the lowest antibiotic residue rates in all of production agriculture. But, activists point out that antibiotic use and residues (particularly neomycin) are on the rise in bob calf production. Administration of tranquilising medication is neither widespread nor documented in any credible scientific literature. Recent studies indicate that health threats caused by consumption of antibiotics in veal pose only a small risk to humans.[6][7]