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PETA asks Ben & Jerry's to make ice cream out of breast milk
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09/25/08 11:09
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PETA asks Ben & Jerry's to make ice cream out of breast milk
September 25, 2008
By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau
MONTPELIER - The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream this week to consider using human breast
milk instead of cow's milk in their products.
PETA, an animal rights and vegetarian organization known for outrageous stunts, sent a letter to company co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield on
Tuesday saying consumers and cows would benefit from a switch to human breast milk.
"The breast is best!" wrote PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in the letter to the company. "Won't you give cows and their
babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow's milk to breast milk in Ben & Jerry's ice cream?"
The Virginia-based nonprofit organization's letter, which it made public on its Web site this week, ties the proposal to alleged health
consequences from drinking dairy milk and the treatment of cows at some farms.
Lindsay Rajt, a spokesperson for PETA, said the organization made the request to Ben & Jerry's because of the company's record of
supporting socially progressive causes.
She said producing milk from cows for human consumption is hazardous to the animals and to the people who are drinking it.
"Ben & Jerry's is the big one," Rajt said. "We thought that they might be interested in becoming the first big ice cream
producer to make the switch to human breast milk."
Ben & Jerry's had little to say about the proposal Wednesday - but they clearly were not signing onto the idea.
"We applaud PETA's creative approach to bring attention to an issue, but we also believe that a mother's milk is best used by a
child," said Rob Michalak, a spokesperson at the company's corporate offices in South Burlington.
PETA cites a new restaurant opening in Switzerland called Storchen that plans to use human breast milk in its soups, stews and sauces. Donors will
apparently be paid for supplying the restaurant with breast milk.
But the letter did not mention that Storchen's plan ran afoul of health regulators in Switzerland. The restaurant made headlines in Europe when it
began advertising in German newspapers looking for human breast milk, but the plan was scrapped after government inspectors threatened to take legal
action.
There is some confusion over the country's law, however, because human breast milk is not specifically on the list of banned food substances.
"They are not on the list of approved species such as cows and sheep, but they are also not on the list of the banned species such as apes and
primates," Rolf Etter of the Zurich food control laboratory said, as quoted in a Telegraph UK story earlier this month.
A call to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to inquire about any regulations here in the states concerning the use of human breast milk in sold
foods was not returned Wednesday.
PETA states in their letter to Ben & Jerry's that consumption of dairy milk by humans can lead to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation,
obesity and some forms of cancer. That position is disputed by many in the milk field.
"PETA is an animal rights group and they are not interested in health issues for people, but to further their own agenda," said Gary
Wheelock, the CEO of the New England Dairy Promotional Board. "They distort facts to further their cause."
Jane Crouse, a public relations associate for La Leche League International, an organization with chapters in Vermont that assist breastfeeding
mothers, said PETA's suggestion certainly was interesting - but that several concerns immediately spring to mind.
Crouse said a mother's breast milk is specifically designed to be consumed by her children and any sharing of breast milk to a different child is
usually closely screened, similar to that of blood transfusions.
Additionally, she said she wonders if an ice cream company could find a supply of human breast milk large enough to use it in its ingredients.
This is not the first time that PETA has tried to influence Vermont. Previously, two volunteers from the organization posed nude in downtown
Brattleboro in a rally against the use of furs made from animals.
The move came at the height of debate in that town of 12,000 over a proposed ban of public nudity after a small spat of locals and tourists began
appearing along Main Street without any clothes on. And earlier this year, PETA senior vice president came to Vermont to promote his memoir,
"Committed."
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all
malice:And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as Elohim for Yahushua the
Messiah's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31-32