The vigilant folks at PETA are really straining at the boundaries of good taste.People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently sent a letter to Ben & Jerry Homemade, Inc. co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, asking them to consider using human breast milk instead of cow's milk in their products.
How did this idea pop up? A restaurant in Switzerland decided to make soups, sauces and other delicacies using 75% human breast milk. If it's a good idea for one Swiss restaurant, it's good enough for a mass-market, (albeit right-on) maker of ice creams. You have to give credit to PETA for seizing a PR opportunity when it finds it .
"If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk," wrote the animal rights group in its letter, "your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits."
Ben & Jerry's, which made a name for itself in the '90s by running its business on progressive, pro-environment practices, is one of the few mainstream companies that might even "consider" a proposal like this.
Unfortunately, it's got product to push. And eye-popping though this idea may be, it's not exactly lip-smacking. Putting aside the health debate surrounding dairy products, I feel fairly secure in saying that the American public is not likely to find the idea of human breast milk ice cream as titillating as the Swiss might.
But I could be wrong.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-26-2008 @ 3:37PM
corey_harmon said...
You're not wrong.
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9-26-2008 @ 4:10PM
Shawn Harstad said...
It's disgusting. PETA is out of touch and filled with moron's. If they want people to not eat meat, which leaves more meat for me, why do the come up with the nonsensical ideas? Just to get press? Stupid.
If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them so delicious?
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9-26-2008 @ 4:48PM
Daniel said...
According to Opie & Anthony (Who made a pint of Breast-Milk Vanilla this morning) it has a rather "gamey" aftertaste. Of course, I'm sure theirs wasn't pasturized at all for shock value.
Either way, it's sick. Personally, I think they should tell PETA to go screw.
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9-26-2008 @ 5:00PM
Michelle said...
Let's save the cows and make new moms sit there hooked up to a breast pump all day. Moo.
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9-26-2008 @ 7:00PM
Bob Bada said...
Cow's milk causes many problems for many people, so maybe it's a good idea. Unfortunately women would be even lower class people. Better go to goat milk, done well it tastes like cow. I know, I make goat milk gelato.
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9-26-2008 @ 7:54PM
Scott said...
Hello, people? Have you heard of sarcasm? I've seen a few stories on this now, and everyone is shocked that PETA thought this was a good idea. But of course it's not a good idea, and the people at PETA know this, but they want everyone to talk about it, and get dialogue about the nature of dairy going. And boy, is it ever working. But c'mon people, seriously, of course they don't think Ben and Jerry's will actually do this, nor do I think they actually think it's a solid plan. It's saying sensational things to make a point. And they clearly succeeded in that.
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9-27-2008 @ 4:29AM
Pat said...
How, are they going to keep track of the 5,000 mothers that are going to be needed to produces this milk, and what she eats everyday, and the medicine she takes. Do you see cows smoking and drinking alcohol? It all goes into the milk just like a cow. There will be a new word for Cowgirl. Lets roundup the cowgirls into the barn. Very stupid...
That is ridiculous. I would not buy any of that stuff. Do you see a cow drinking its own milk?
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9-27-2008 @ 10:01AM
Maman said...
Gee, and here I was eating ice cream thinking it was healthy for me. Thanks PETA!
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9-27-2008 @ 10:16AM
Melissa A. said...
That's the stupidest thing I ever heart. So lets exploit mothers instead!
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9-27-2008 @ 10:44AM
kgro said...
Pure populism of PETA, that even completely disregards the facts of nature, that it is pretending to care about - why using cow's milk is bad? On the other hand, if the cow is not miked regularly it is really painful for the animal. So do we treat animals ethically or making money on donations from stupid people?
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9-27-2008 @ 12:41PM
Erica said...
It's pretty obvious PETA is going for its usual shock value. A non-exploitative and sustainable alternative to cow-milk ice cream is soy ice cream.
@Scott -- they didn't get a dialogue about the nature of dairy farming. They got a dialogue about breast milk, breastfeeding, and feminism. Epic Fail.
@kgro -- cows, like humans (and all mammals), produce milk on demand. If they're not milked or not feeding a calf, they'll stop making milk. May hurt for a couple days, but cows are milked for their milk, NOT to relieve their udders :)
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9-28-2008 @ 8:34AM
Ryan said...
@Erica
I do think Scott hit on the true nature (and so far he is the first person to do anywhere I have seen this). You have to remember that PETA thinks of animals as 100% equals, if not more important than humans. So they put you in the position of thinking how dehumanizing and torturous it would be to milk humans for common consumption to make you try and correlate what it would be like (as PETA sees it) for a cow to go through.
Or heck, maybe they are just that bat-shit crazy to think this is a good idea - they have managed to prove that before.
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9-29-2008 @ 12:35PM
agrafixman said...
Potential names for Ben and Jerry’s new breast milk ice cream:
1. Nipple Ripple
2. Double D-licious
3. Tasty Pasty
4. B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Banana
5. Motorboat Mango
6. Funbag crunch
7. Bra-Buster Bars
8. Leave it to Cleavage
9. Mammary-sus cup
10. Cookie and her cream
11. Lusciously Lactic
12. Bodacious Boobie Berry
13. The Twin Peaks Sundae (with cherries on top)
14. "What-a-melon!" watermelon
15. Bazooka Joe (coffee flavored ice cream)
16. Moose-rack
17. Silicone Sister Sorbet
18. Pendulous praline
19. Jiggly crunch
20. Tahiti Teat
21. Titillating Tiramisu
22. Cookies and Creamers
23. Mama’s Mammary Madness
24. Busted Cherry non-virgin Vanilla
25. Back off, Junior mint
26. Dark Chocolate Tawana’s Treasure
27. Vanilla Nips with swirls of nuts
28. A little nip’l do ya… or, A nip of the nip (made from the breast milk of women who have been drinking.
29.
What is shelf life on mother’s milk. They better have a used by date, here’s how it should read.
“Breast if used by 34/24/34”.
Container sizes would now be referred to as "A" cup, "B" cup, "C" cup, etc.
Sugar-free sundaes could be referred to as "falsies"
You could get your ice-cream in an extra large SILI-CONE
Push-ups would never be the same
"Saggy" sundaes would be served with the cherry on the BOTTOM
Some possible slogans … “Treats only Mama can make”
“Treats you want to get your hands on”
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