PETA wants Ben & Jerry's to make breast milk ice cream

by Tina Kells | September 24, 2008 at 09:19 am

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has asked Ben & Jerry's to make breast milk ice cream. No, it isn't a flavour request, but a call for Ben and Jerry's to reformulate all of their ice creams to be made from 75% human breast milk rather than 100% cow's milk.

The idea popped up on PETA's radar after Swedish restauranteur Hans Locher, owner of Storchen restaurant in Iberg Germany, announced plans to include human breast milk as an ingredient in every item on the menu.

Storchen's breast milk menu plan was met with resistance by local authorities who were not at all interested in having their town known as the "breast milk meal" capital of the world. The issue became so controversial that Loch and his backers were threatened with legal action to put a stop to the plan.

Now PETA has jumped on the controversial bandwagon by urging ice cream kingpin Ben & Jerry's to make breast milk ice cream a staple dessert food on North American tables.

In a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman writes that the suggestion is based on an idea from a restaurant in Switzerland.

Storchen, Reiman wrote, is set to unveil a menu that food made with at least 75 percent breast milk. The humans who donate the milk are paid, according to the letter.

“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,” Reiman wrote.

Reiman goes on to write that cow’s milk is a hazard to the health of the ice cream company’s customers because of the link between the dairy product and maladies including juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity and certain types of cancer.

The letter also says that cow’s milk can be linked to anemia, allergies and other problems in children.

Cows only produce milk before and after pregnancy, the letter says. They are forcefully impregnated every nine months in order to be constantly milked, Reiman wrote.

“The breast is best!” Reiman wrote. “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?”