Ben and Jerry - ugh - The Jewish Chronicle

I always avoided buying Ben and Jerry ice cream. There was something insufferable about their claims to 'right-on'ness and their 'we're not like other producers' shtick. So when they sold out to Unilever I smiled; yeah, right, mateys - when the multi million dollar cheque's waved in front of you, you grab it as fast as you can.

I could buy Ben and Jerry's with a clean conscience.

But they are clearly just as smug and wannabe-hippy as ever.

Were they to take notice of this, their sales would collapse, I imagine, to nil:

VERMONT -- 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.

"In a statement Ben and Jerry's said, "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."

OK, so PETA are a bunch of lunatics. But look at Ben and Jerry's response: they applaud PETA's novel approach to the issue. Why? Can't they just say what everyone else is thinking - that it's a truly vile suggestion.