Think Before you Drink

In their Oct 25 Letter to the Editor, Elizabeth Roberts and Jason Cammarata claim that PETA’s current anti-milk campaign is full of “sensationalism and glaring errors”…right after saying that “beer is not a vegetarian beverage”. Actually, that statement is as preposterous a generalization as “candy is not vegetarian”; certainly some of it isn’t, but much of it is. On their website, PETA provides a list of several hundred beers that are not only vegetarian but vegan, including many popular favorites like Budweiser, Busch, Natural Light, Michelob, Rolling Rock, and Miller. They then assure us that the dairy industry is not as cruel as PETA says, but do not follow up with any refutation of PETA’s claims. Where is the evidence debunking PETA’s findings gathered from numerous (sometimes undercover) investigations? Where are the facts to support this opinion? They also attack PETA for not endorsing small, collective farms which, granted, are less cruel and environmentally damaging than factory farms. If a person insists on buying milk, I certainly applaud him or her for patronizing the most humane sources. However, suggesting that PETA is going about their initiative in the ‘wrong’ way by attacking the entire dairy industry shows complete ignorance of its founding principles. PETA opposes the exploitation of any animals in any way, regardless of scale, whether it’s to provide us with clothing, entertainment, or an unhealthy diet. I noticed several flaws in Jennifer Small’s original Oct 23 article on the “Got Beer?” campaign as well. First of all, only one health expert was interviewed. Believe it or not, experts DO disagree…why not present both sides of the argument, to give the reader a fair, informed, and impartial view? Many world-renowned physicians, such as Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Dean Ornish, recommend against consuming dairy products. Secondly, no study or statistic was quoted in the column. Are we to take a single doctor’s opinion as fact, especially when countless studies refute that opinion? Thirdly, Ms. Small makes a typical American mistake – using ‘milk’ and ‘calcium’ interchangeably. This is as dangerous and misleading as confusing ‘red meat’ with ‘protein’. Certainly, we need the latter, and there is plenty of it in the former, but at what cost? Fat, cholesterol, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides? Finally, she quotes nutrition advice from the USDA. The US Department of Agriculture was established to promote the production and sale of US agricultural products; might there be a slight conflict of interest involved when this branch of government gives us our dietary standards? Are they telling us what we should eat for our health, or our economy? Who really wants to eat like an American anyway…the recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that Americans are not only more obese than ever, but are among the heaviest in the world. The US also has some of the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, strokes, and osteoperosis. If we really want to lead long, healthy lives, we should learn by example. In “The Okinawa Program”, Dr. Bradley Willcox and colleagues investigate the diet of the Okinawans in southern Japan, the healthiest and longest-lived population in the world. Despite consuming virtually no dairy products of any kind, osteoperosis (as well as the other leading diseases in the US) is practically unheard of. Their diet is as “un-American” as it can get. You can learn the facts about milk consumption from any of the meticulously researched and annotated books by best-selling author John Robbins, or through independent investigation via journal articles and papers. This is truly all PETA asks of us. Colleen Linnehan, CAS ’02