I have to admit, I found this bit of idiocy rather amusing…

The owner of the Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort will improve his menu with local specialities such as meat stew and various soups and sauces containing at least 75 per cent of mother’s milk.

“We have all been raised on it. Why should we not include it into our diet?” Hans Locher, who has become Switzerland most controversial restaurant owner, said.

Mr Locher attracted the attention of the leading media of the German-speaking world this week after he posted ads looking for women donors, who will receive just over three pounds for 14 ounces of their milk.

He said: “I first experimented with breast milk when my daughter was born.

“One can cook really delicious things with it. However, it always needs to be mixed with a bit of whipped cream, in order to keep the consistency.”

The food control authority in Switzerland was initially confused by the apparent loophole in local legislation regulating the use of human milk and it was not clear whether Mr Locher could actually be banned from serving his specialities.

“Humans as producers of milk are simply not envisaged in the legislation.

“They are not on the list of approved species such as cows and sheep, but they are also not on the list of the banned species such as apes and primates,” Rolf Etter of the Zurich food control laboratory said.

Unlike the author of this “editorial” – I can’t say the prospect makes me the least bit squeamish.  Women are mammals, after all, and – having tasted my own breast milk – I can attest it’s not bad at all…a bit thin and sweet, perhaps, but a clever chef would be able to make the necessary changes to a recipe to accomodate the different flavor and texture.

But – at its core - it’s really a just a stupid and impractical publicity stunt.  What makes mother’s milk special for babies isn’t in the protein/fat/carb content, but its array of immune factors.  Breast feeding is – in essence – a form of passive immunity for the infant.  Cook it, and you destroy the benefits.  One might as well cook with Enfamil or Good Start.

So what’s to be gained?  Lactating mothers might make a few extra bucks, but they may not be benefitting themselves or their own babies in the process…they’ll need to make up for the extra nutrients being taken from their bodies so the quality of their milk and/or their own nutrient stores aren’t compromised – and we already know that many people don’t have the greatest diets in the world to begin with. 

Furthermore, any sane woman will eventually decide it’s just not worth the few extra bucks.  Pumping extra breast milk is inconvenient (as I know: I pumped milk for my own kids after I went back to work), and keeps milk production up.  And making extra milk = full, rock hard, leaking tits…not the most comfortable feeling in the world.  It’s the sacrifice you make for your own kids, but not exactly the sort of thing you want to prolong.  I nursed both of my children for more than a year each, but as they transitioned to solid foods and nursing became more of a cuddly, pre-nap and bedtime comfort ritual, it was nice to be able to see my milk supply also taper down accordingly, so that I could get through the day in reasonable comfort.

So it’s a perfectly silly idea, IMHO.

But it wouldn’t be the world as we know it, if someone…or some group didn’t decide to compound the idiocy.  Let’s hear it for PETA VP Tracy Rieman – who evidently believes this is a great idea that could be extended to the manufacture of commercial ice cream by a multinational corporation. 

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry’s To Use Human Milk
Group Says Move Would Help Humans, Cows

WATERBURY, Vt. — 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.”

For the record, Ben and Jerry’s is owned by mega-food corporation Unilever.

I have a hard time believing she’s serious - I’d like to think it’s just another one of PETA’s stupid stunts designed to attract media attention.  It’s being reported “straight” though.  Could anyone really be that clueless?  It’s a chilling thought.

 I gotta hand it to the company brass, though – either way, their response was pretty classy:

“‘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,’ said a spokesperson for Ben and Jerry’s.”

Dim to the Nth degree…but it takes all kinds to make a world, I guess.

(h/t to Respectful Insolence)

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