For Your Consideration:
PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk
September 23, 2008
VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben
Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.,
urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with
human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA
spokeswoman.
"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."
Read PETA's letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
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 to 17 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
Tags: Milk Donor Breastmilk