PETA proposes that Ben & Jerry's use breast milk in its ice cream

How's this for a disturbing thought - if PETA has it way, your next scoop of ice cream could be made with human breast milk. PETA is asking the Ben & Jerry's to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product. PETA wrote a letter to company founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield on Tuesday, telling them cow's milk is hazardous and that milking them is cruel.

"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," wrote Tracy Reiman, executive vice president of the animal rights advocacy group. "We're aware this idea is somewhat absurd, and that putting it into practice is a stretch. At the same time, it's pretty absurd for us to be drinking the milk of cows," she said.

It takes about 12 pounds — or 1 1/2 gallons of milk — to make a gallon of ice cream. As a standardized product under federal regulations, ice cream must be made with milk from healthy cows. Ice cream made from goat's milk, for example, would have to be labeled as such. Presumably, so would mother's milk ice cream. Ben & Jerry's responded to the open letter:

"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," spokesman Sean Greenwood said in an e-mail. He didn't respond to requests for an interview.

After I thought about this for a bit, I can kinda see PETA's point. It's true that we are taking milk from an animal and consuming it on a daily basis, yet we get grossed at the thought of using human milk. Personally, I can't get over the grossness of using human milk. Secondly, you would need a lot women just to produce one gallon of ice cream. How much milk can a nursing mother make in one day? Aside from that is the cost. How much do you pay a woman for her milk? Does she need to stay in the factory/milking facility all day? Can she pump it from home? And finally, cow's milk and mother's milk aren't interchangeable, according to La Leche spokeswoman Jane Crouse, who says breast milk is a dynamic substance that's different with each woman and each child and might have difficulty being processed into ice cream. I don't think we'll be seeing this come to pass anytime soon, thankfully. At the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, consumers gave a collective "Eww" to the idea:

"It's kind of creepy," said Jeff Waugh, 42, of Dayton, Ohio.

"I think it's a little nutty," said the Rev. Roger Wooton, 83, of Malden, Mass., finishing up a cup of Heath Bar Crunch.

"How would they get all that milk?" said his wife, Jane Wooton, 77.

Jen Wahlbrink, 34, of Phoenix, who breast-fed her 11-month-old son, Cameron, said she wouldn't touch ice cream made from mother's milk. She remembers her nursing days — and not that fondly.

"The (breast) pumps just weren't that much fun. You really do feel like a cow," she said, cradling her son in her hands.

Image courtesy of MSNBC.