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PETA – never one to shy away from controversy – stirred the pot yet again this week when the animal rights organization wrote a letter to Ben & Jerry’s asking them to use human breast milk instead of cow’s milk in their ice cream. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had heard about a Swiss restaurateur who recently began featuring special dishes made with human breast milk, and they decided it was a plum opportunity to call attention to the fact that cow’s milk is not made for humans.
Predictably, the tactic provoked a visceral reaction from the public. Millions of people who read about the ‘breast milk ice cream’ suggestion were disgusted at the idea of consuming another person’s bodily fluids. Yet, every day most of us happily dig into food products made with the bodily fluids of other animals. Why is it acceptable to consume dairy that wasn’t even made for us, but not human breast milk, which is leaps and bounds more biologically appropriate?
It’s important to understand that on factory farms – which are the source of the vast majority of dairy products in the U.S. – have to keep cows artificially impregnated so they keep producing milk. That doesn’t mean those mama cows are out there cavorting with bulls all day long – impregnation is usually accomplished through mechanical means. Let the full meaning of that sentence seep into your brain for a minute.
When the baby cows are born, they’re taken away from the mothers – so they don’t even get any of the milk that was made for them. Instead, it’s processed and sold to us (usually full of the hormones that are pumped into the cows so they produce more milk). The poor mothers cry out for their young, which are shipped off to become veal if they’re male, or raised to be dairy cattle themselves if they’re female. When the mama cows get too old and tired to stay pregnant, they’re turned into hamburgers. It’s not pretty, but that’s reality.
So, is human breast milk really an ethical alternative? Sure, it’s made for humans – human babies. As it stands, most babies born into our image-conscious, disconnected-from-nature society don’t even get the breast milk that their fast growing bodies desperately need. Why introduce yet another obstacle? Some unscrupulous mothers might put profits before their infants, ensuring that even fewer babies get access to the vital fluid that’s biologically perfect for their needs in every way. How long would it take before black-market operations were set up where human females were kept pregnant?
Plus – have you ever seen the tiny amount of milk that most lactating women produce after hours of pumping? It’s not much. It would take a whole lot of lactating women to provide enough milk for commercial usage. Any woman who’s pumped for her babies knows how hard it can be to get a let-down while hooked up to a machine. For most women, it’s the hormones produced by the close contact and suckling of her baby that causes the milk to flow. That’s how nature designed us – and every other mammal. Imagine, for a moment, thousands of women getting paid to have their breasts hooked up to pumps at some human farm, many of them injected with synthetic hormones so they get around that inconvenient little ‘low supply’ issue. Sick, isn’t it?
Of course, PETA’s letter to Ben & Jerry’s was tongue-in-cheek – they don’t really think we should all start eating human breast milk cheese and ice cream (at least, I don’t think they do). The point that PETA is trying to make is that cow’s milk is for baby cows. If you think it’s wrong for a woman to be kept lactating, and for her milk to be sent off for processing into food products instead of fed to her infant, then what does that say about what we expect from cows and other dairy animals?
We’ve had it pounded into our heads that we need cow’s milk to be healthy, but when you think about it, how logical is it that one species would be biologically engineered to require the mother’s milk of another species in order to survive? Not to mention the fact that adult cows don’t need cow’s milk to survive, just like adult humans don’t need human milk to survive.
There are plenty of delicious, healthy alternatives out there made from things like soy, rice, almonds, hemp and coconut. And if you just can’t bring yourself to go totally vegan, the responsible choice is to buy organic dairy products produced by farms that let cows live natural, healthy, happy lives.
I really love Coconut Bliss “ice cream”. I can’t to soy, rice or sugar (they are agave) so this is a godsend!
PETA should have done their research. You can’t make yogurt, cheese or icecream out of human breast milk. The fat content is too low.
PETA really does more harm than good with their ridiculous campaigns. Have you seen the one that is insinuates children will “catch autism” by drinking cow’s milk? It’s ridiculous.
That organization uses the same kinds of tactics and dogma as a fundamentalist religious organization–and I really dislike them for all the same reasons that I do fundamentalist religions.
Uh, do you understand exactly how much milk would need to be milked from people to satisfy the demand for ice cream? Think about it.
Not to mention having all those people hooked up to milking machines would cost a LOT of money. Cows are cheap and they work. Cows also eat a much lower grade food than we do, grasses/grains, and we all know how much food intake is required to produce good quality milks. Simply feeding the women the required amount to produce the milk to supply ben and jerrys would be counter productive.
I dunno about you guys, but I’m not paying $50 for a pint of ben and jerrys, especially if it means I’ll be drinking the breast milk of dozens of women.
if you have ever seen a sick half dead cow being shocked in order to stand on it’s feet you would understand the emotion for peta and animal rights activists! does peta really think ben and jerrys will or could change to breast milk…NO! this ad was simply to bring attention to some of the horrible dairy farms around the world that operate in unjust ways!
Kinky… it would certainly be a novelty item for certain kind of sex shops… Kind of like what to give your significant other on Valentine’s Day sort of thing… But since it takes 2.3 Billion Cows to produce all the milk and meat and shoes we humans consume, I’d indeed hate to see what would happen if PETA wasn’t simply joking, trying to make a point, expecting human factory farming to replace good ol’moo flesh machines. Once upon a time, farmers cared for animals, then came “Prophet Maximus” and we pumped “Daisy” full of polypeptides… made her fat, and tipsy, and leaking fluids. Not a pretty sight… Now the rich buy organic milk, protect their food supply, while the rest… well… “Soylent Green… it’s People… it’s People I tell Ya!”
Thank you Ashley. You said exactly what I was going to say. PETA was just trying to get you to look through the situation at a different angle. No one expects humans to live such a dreadful life, why expect a cow to? We’re not the only species in the world that matters, yet we all act like it. Expecting cows to live a life we would be completely appalled to if it were suggested humans would live that way.
hmm… can’t say i agree with the way animals are treated in this world. Much of it is cruel and has to be stopped. Can’t say i’m on PETA’s side either. They can be absolutely ridiculous. Many people look at ads like that and ask themselves “Are you f-ing serious?” Some of their campaigns are so over the top that people just find them funny, which probably has the opposite effect to that which they are looking for.
Personally, I really enjoy a good juicy steak, which is another reason I get annoyed at some of the vegans and vegetarians that refuse to eat meat for ethical reasons (completely respect the ones that do it simply for health reasons). If one were to talk about how humans aren’t “built” to eat meat, well, it is in large part because we cook our food and use forks and knives. These have made it easier for us to chew our food, decreasing both the size of the muscles that support our jaw and the size of the jaw itself. Teeth shape/size has changed as well (reason for which wisdom teeth cause so many problems).
For those who argue that we aren’t built with the necessary appendages to capture wild meat, say, large, muscular front legs with wide paws and long claws? Well… the tools we used as cave men can’t be considered that far off the ones chimpanzees use, so what’s wrong?
The milking is probably a tool that cannot/should not be equated to those of a chimpanzee, but in a sense I think it would be acceptable if they could just give the cows a better quality of life
Anyway. Don’t mean to offend anybody or anything. Just kindof felt like goin’ on a little rant (feeling somewhat expressive tonight). Hope it was at least a little bit interesting to read?
I think everyone needs to do their research before they make claims about the dairy industry. Industrialized farming or factory farms aretaking over the country because developers and development is invading the land in which small farms thrived in and jacking up the land prices making it nearly impossible for small farms to survive.
Ben and Jerrys is supplied with milk entirely from small farms in the area. Making family farms in the are able to survive. They do not buy any of their milk from factory farms- nor do they support the idea of it.
Youd be surprised to know that Growth Hormone that was once commonly used in the dairy industry to make cows supply more milk, is actually a natural component in your body. Ive done research on this, and it is well known that any extra Growth Hormone that is consumed is passed directly through your body and excreted like anything else that your body does not need.
Lastly- farmers aim to make their cows happy and comfortable. If cows where not happy, comfortable, and healthy, they would not make milk, be unhealthy all the time, and therefore the farmer would not make a profit. if he wasn;t making a profit- his farm would nto survive. its as simple as that. farmers aim to make their cows as happy and healthy as possible so that they can get the most milk out of them to help their farm grow and survive financially. it wouldnt make sense to have a herd of cows who where poorly cared for and unhealthy and abused- because the farmer would not be making money…at all
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Why do some grown ups act like a bunch of idiots? better start finding an answer to that! Much better than protesting against food that human beings eat and drink! Lets see, Humans are in reality omnivores and mammals i recall. Omnivores eat both plants and animals (As for humans being superior and more intellectual,we developed ways of processing, producing and preserving our food supplies)! and mammals produce milk to feed their young (and we love and protect our young, so lets keep baby food as baby food i.e breast milk)! Or is it that PETA loves more animal than human babies? Or is it they love animals more than humans?! PETA need to change their name to PET-OP (people for ethical treatment of other people)an launch a campaign to help the miserable life of children and woman living in war zones! what PETA is doing is degrading woman as diary products! think about a diary with women in it! that’s where this campaign is going to end, if you want to supply breast milk to world demand! IDIOTS!
the rich posh people come out and shout out their crap! they no nothing of the farm life! they know steel! they know plastic! they know pollutants! and they don’t even know their own survival! or is it, that they protect their rich by misleading others!?
I for one would survive because what food god gave and ordained for me, I’m taking it! and for god made women my companion and us sacred, i will not treat her an animal! Nor will i mistreat the animals! but know this, animals don’t live by feelings they live solely by instinct!
Some people just want to play god! but they cant! because, what they do and what they say, don’t match!
“animals don’t live by feelings they live solely by instinct”
farm boy, what an arrogant thing to say
AIDS, that’s why.