Any nursing mothers need to earn some extra cash? PETA, wanting to bring some attention to the plight of dairy cows, suggested in a recent letter that Ben and Jerry's start using human mother's milk in its product. It is certainly a strange request, and hardly something that will take place anytime soon - but it does remind us how very good for you Mother's Milk can be!! And, it does remind us as well of the general treatment continuing in factory farming that many of us continue to take for granted... not to mention the potential side effects associated with cow's milk. That said, it is somewhat odd for PETA to single out Ben and Jerry's isn't it? As far as I understand, Ben and Jerry's have a pretty good track record for having a progressive and considerate business model, don't they? Anyway, I've reproduced the letter below for your interest - what do you think?
September 23, 2008
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Cofounders Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Greenfield,
On behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd like to bring your attention to an innovative new idea from Switzerland that would bring a unique twist to Ben and Jerry's.
Storchen restaurant is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits.
Using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America's number one cause of death.
Animals will also benefit from the switch to breast milk. Like all mammals, cows only produce milk during and after pregnancy, so to be able to constantly milk them, cows are forcefully impregnated every nine months. After several years of living in filthy conditions and being forced to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally, their exhausted bodies are turned into hamburgers or ground up for soup.
And of course, the veal industry could not survive without the dairy industry. Because male calves can't produce milk, dairy farmers take them from their mothers immediately after birth and sell them to veal farms, where they endure 14 to17 weeks of torment chained inside a crate so small that they can't even turn around.
The breast is best! 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 and Jerry's ice cream? Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President
