Getting their inspiration from a Swiss restaurant that will begin using human breast milk for 75% of their milk needs, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wrote a September 23 letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., manufacturer of premium ice creams favored nationwide, urging them to follow suit.  PETA says a switch to human breast milk would benefit people and cows, too.

The letter, copies of which can be read in full on the internet, says Switzerland’s Storchen Restaurant will soon launch a revised menu that replaces 75% of the cow’s milk they use to make menu items such as sauces, soups, and stews with human breast milk they will purchase from human donors.  Saying the breast is best, PETA urges the US ice-cream makers to consider a similar switch in order to minimize some of the health risks associated with dairy food consumption.  The switch would also improve the health of the animals now supplying all the milk.

Citing the late Benjamin Spock, child-care guru of the mid-20th century, the PETA letter says dairy products have been linked to allergies, anemia, constipation, heart disease, juvenile diabetes, obesity, and ovarian and prostate cancers.  The animal-rights organization says making the switch will not only improve the health of the people eating the ice cream, it will improve the lives of the animals that are involved in the mass production of the country’s milk supply.

Since cows and humans alike produce milk only when nursing, dairy cows are kept pregnant for as much of their lives as possible, in an effort to increase yield per cow.  The switch to human milk would eliminate the veal industry, too, according to the PETA letter, since male calves, who will never be able to produce milk, are removed from their mothers at birth to be crated and kept virtually immobile for several months until they’ve grown large enough to be slaughtered for veal.

A spokesman for Ben & Jerry’s says the company applauds the novel approach PETA is taking on the issue and agrees that breast is best, but for the child a woman is nursing, not for ice cream.

Source: WPTZ.com

Editorial note: One must congratulate PETA on their creativity.  Future will tell us, but we may soon be hearing from them about the benefits of freshly squeezed… orange juice… for general population.