Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I'd Like to Eat it Straight from the Carton

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's, urging them to replace cow's milk their ice cream products with human breast milk.

"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.

PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

In a statement Ben and Jerry's said, "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child."

I think B&J are too quick to dismiss this idea. How much do you think consumers would pay for "Titstachio" or "Raspberry Nipple?" And if it can be proven that breast milk has the same brain development benefits in adults as it does on babies, I'd be totally in favor of the idea.
But I'd be very curious to find out how we're going to get women to agree to be human dairy cows.

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