"BenJerrys" news and stories

A few of the best links on the Web this week:

• Butcher parties are the latest trend in date night activities.
• Ben & Jerry's has committed to converting all flavors to Fair Trade Ceritified by 2013.
• How do high-end chefs feel about kids at their tables? Pretty good.
• Would you pass Foodie 101? Try your luck at the top ten most mispronounced food words.
• Chef Tim Love sounds off on bacon overkill.

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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