Young calves are taken from their mothers the very moment they are born.  They never nurse; they never get the immune building colostrum of their mother cow (that is frozen and saved for baby girl cows that will in turn produce more milk) and they miss bonding time with their mother.  Instead they are taken away quickly and thrown (sometimes literally) onto trucks headed for the veal farm.  They don't get to eat or drink during this journey.  Those that make it to their new home are fed a fattening milky (often soy-based) substance deficient in iron, nutrients, and fiber.  This keeps their meat white.  Many are anemic.  They are tied to a stall or kept in crates where many times their feet don't even touch the ground or the cage is just the size of their tiny bodies so they cannot move or turn around.  Some stalls are smaller than others, and stalls shrink as the calves grow.  Their muscles are not at all allowed to develop.  This keeps their meat tender.  Because they don't move, many develop "bed sores" and wounds from being in their own feces. 

Many farms trap the heads of the calves between the bars in front of the milky substance so they feed constantly.  Some stalls are well ventilated and others are not and get no sunlight.  Some calves have access to fresh water in their stalls (and remember, stalls can get quite hot!) and others do not.   Some calves make it to the diner plate and others pass on before this process is complete due to the harsh conditions.

Cows are normally social animals.  Calves bond with their mother and play with one another.  The cow has two stomachs.  Suckling draws the milk into their stomach properly.  They normally will nurse for 2 weeks, up to 16 times per day!  Then they are meant to roam and graze on pasture.  The calf on the veal farm never graze, never nurse, never move, never stretch, can't even lie down comfortably and are given no bedding on which to lie anyway.  Since they eat from a bucket, their diet goes into their first instead of their 2nd stomach which causes discomfort and diarrhea.  Lack of solid food does not allow their digestive system to develop properly.  They don't interact with other animals, can't even rub up against other animals, are very stressed (and that ends up in their meat too!), are therefore routinely given drugs (at almost 5 times the amount of conventional cows! and many are illegal hormones!), they have hip, leg and joint disorders from not walking, and their minds go insane from the lack of normal life.  They have chronic diarrhea and infections from the lack of solid food, milky food substance fed them, close quarters, and lack of room.  They are slaughtered after 16 - 28 weeks of this misery.

While "white meat veal" is promoted by the industry as superior, there are other kinds of veal.  "Bob Veal" is a calf slaughtered at only a few days old.  "Red Veal," "Grain-fed Veal," also called "Pink Veal" are calves with some room to move, not as tight as the "White Veal" but still not much room.  I understand that this is more akin to beef in flavor, though a bit more mild.  The calves are fed the milky substance for 8 weeks and then they are fed (GMO) corn.  They are not naturally grazed; they are grain-fed. 

Remember that "Natural" Veal means nothing because "natural" just means something without artificial flavoring, coloring or preservatives.  All meat, eggs, and produce are "natural" no matter how the animal was treated or produce harvested.

So, this "other" white meat with all the stress, antibiotics, hormones, and sadness ends up on the dinner plate as an expensive piece of white tender veal.

I did find a couple humanely treated veal. One is called Azuluna and they are raised on mother's milk with pasture to roam.  Like other pasture-raised animals, they do not need regular antibiotics or hormones.  Unfortunately, they are not available to the general public. 

And now we are so pleased to now be able to offer veal that is not raised in the conventional way. We NOW have humanely raised, free-roaming, momma milk-drinking, momma-and-baby living, grassfed baby cows that live on a certified organic farm. This veal is from cows that have NOT ever been caged, have NOT been pulled from their mother, have been allowed to roam free on pasture and nurse and be with their mother and have fresh air and a good life.

• Say No To Veal
• Veal Crates, The Torturing of Innocence, Idea Marketers
• Case-Control Study of Pathogens in Diarrhea at Veal Farm, PubMed
• Veal Fact Sheet, U.S. Humane Society
• HFA's Veal Boycott, The Humane Farming Association
• Veal Farm, The American Veal Association - This is THE Veal association, of course it's going to look nice, you view and decide, is it real or a bit too much of a pretty picture?