Update: breast milk ice cream no longer available

In case anyone reading this and living in London, England, was toying with the idea of tasting breast milk ice cream - forgetaboutit! Not surprisingly, the unusual treat or whatever you want to call it, was removed from purchase by the public by the London council. What took them so long?

Of all the dumb ideas, this one takes the cake.

The first problem I have with it is its origin in that mother's breast milk is intended for consumption by babies. The second issue is the mothers who would supply the milk, obviously for a price. I mean - c'mon - selling your breast milk? One assumes that the moms who would normally feed said milk to their babies, instead fed them commercial forumla.

The issue that the London council had with the breast ice cream was their concern that the ice cream could spread viruses. Members of the council had visited the restaurant where it was sold (not more free publicity!) and removed all the breast milk ice cream for testing, after being advised that it was being sold to the public.
The fear was that food items made from bodily fluids could lead to viruses being passed on. The restaurant owner for his part, agreed to stop making and serving the ice cream while it was being tested. He dismissed the allegations claiming that the milk had gone through the same screen proceedures as milk, blood and sperm found in donation banks.

Meanwhile, a serving of the breast milk ice cream was going for $23. Wonder how many people actually tried it. Thinking further, why would anyone want to try this particular...flavor, anyway, given all the choice of flavors on the marketplace? No indication whether it will be back as a flavor choice if the test prove the milk is safe.

PETA asks Ben & Jerry's to consider using human milk...uh-huh

This is another of those "not-quite-sure-about-this" stories - at least for me, anyway.

At one time or another many of us have indulged in a Ben & Jerry's ice cream treat safe with the knowledge that the source of the dairy product came from cows. Seems that PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - want ice cream lovers to have another choice, an unusual choice most would say.

Recently, PETA sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. requesting them or at least asking them to consider replacing cow's milk with - wait for it - human breast milk.

There are some that must like the idea since a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75% of cow's milk in the food that it serves. The idea, according to the PETA people, is to lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms.

While this is a very admirable aspiration on the part of the organization for sure, using breast milk, at least in my opinion, isn't exactly the most practical idea.

Let's say...for the sake of argument or hypothetically, Ben & Jerry's decided to include breast milk ice cream on their menu. This would entail babies having to share their only food source, at least the new-borns, not to mention new moms having to produce a whole lot of milk to make it viable. One can only speculate that if breast milk ice cream caught on with the public it could start a new industry including breast milk cheese, breast milk yogurt... You get the idea. At some point down the line cows could become obsolete, which would please PETA, but end up as a Sunday roast or on the barbeque, something that PETA would not want.

For its part a spokesperson for Ben & Jerry's thought it was admirable on the part of PETA to draw attention to the issue, they (Ben & Jerry's) were of the opinion that a mother's milk is best used for her baby. Amen.

Read the letters from PETA and Ben & Jerry's response here:
http://www.wptz.com/news/17539127/detail.html