The Milk of Human Weirdness

A few times now I have overhead conversations (either personally or in the media) where people were expressing their disgust about adult humans consuming human milk.  I'm sure you have even seen a comedy sketch at some point where milk stored in a fridge turned out not to be the cows milk someone thought it was.  I know I have.  Howls of disgust and laughter ensue.  Well, the joke is lost on me.  That is because the joke is why anyone would find the consumption of human milk, the very thing you were nurtured on as a child, the very thing that has been 'developed' by mother nature herself for human needs, to be more disgusting than drinking the milk of another completely different mammal.  How the hell did that happen and why can presumably intelligent beings not see the irony?  Maybe it's all that cows milk they consume degrading their brain cells.

The whole weirdness thing aside from that, there is also the ignorance of most people about how the moo juice gets from cow to cup of tea.  I understood that slavery had thankfully been abolished back in 1833 but consider the fortunes of a dairy cow.  She is kept in a constant loop of pregnancy and upon giving birth, she is then separated from her baby at great emotional stress so that the resulting milk can be transferred to the needs of the human.  If the calf is unfortunate enough to be male, he is deemed to be surplus to requirements and well, let's just say if you drink milk, you are not truly supporting a vegetarian lifestyle.

Environmentally it's a nightmare too.  Anything involving livestock production is.  It's an intensive process from the deforestation involved just to clear land for growing feed right up to the plastic bottles of milk you pick up off the supermarket shelf.  It contributes at least 200 million tons of CO2 per year.

Then there's the health.  400 million pus cells per litre anyone?  That's what is legally allowed.  How about the whole thing about you have to drink milk to get your calcium?  Well around 70% of the world's population get calcium from plant based sources well enough. What about the fact that osteoporosis occurs more in countries that consume the most amount of cows milk?  Hmm, is that coincidence?

To be honest the whole idea of consuming the milk of another mammal is completely alien to me but the interesting fact is why am I made to feel like an alien for thinking the only milk that should be consumed by humans is human milk?

Still think it's natural?  Check this out and make sure you watch it all - http://viva.org.uk/video/new-investigations.html and there is plenty more information about the benefits (to you, the environment and other sentient beings) on the Viva site too.