Hello Jennifer,
Humans have developed some curious rationales for various food taboos. Now a Swiss restaurateur has been banned from serving dishes prepared with human breast milk. This ban would seem to be the most convoluted and lacking in underlying principle.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/634151/breast-milk-delicacies-off-the-menu
On one hand we have most humans on the planet having consumed this product at some time in their life. And the medical evidence is quite clear on the fact that children who do consume this product have higher immunity levels and are likely to perform better on a number of cognitive and behavioural tests. And the overwhelming view of child health professionals is that, “the longer children consume this product the better it is for them”.
It is also a fact that there is no restriction on the source of this product. So-called “wet nurses” have been part of human culture for millennia and this supply has nearly always been associated with some sort of exchange of money or kind. So there is clearly no cultural objection to the commercial sale of human breast milk for consumption by other humans.
There is also no hint of exploitation or coercion associated with the trade as it is entirely within a context of informed consent and conscionable conduct.
It is also the case that devices to assist with the mechanical extraction of human breastmilk are freely available for sale and have been extensively tested and trialled to the extent that there are no issues in respect of health or safety of either supplier or consumer. Any other issues, in respect of the passing on of communicable diseases etc, are already well catered for (sic) by existing food standards and legislation.
So what we are left with is a taboo that is not based on the product itself, not based on the source of supply of that product, not based on the human-to-human dimension of the transaction and not based on the commercial nature of the transaction. It is also the case that there is no prohibition on the non-commercial use of human breast milk, for example, where a woman could use her own milk in a dish prepared for her family. Indeed, some could argue that this would represent the ultimate act of nurturing by a loving mother or wife.
No, this taboo is solely based on the age of the human consumer and the arms length nature of the transaction. Neither of which appear to have any relationship to the actual participants. It is a taboo that is entirely within the mind of non-participants with no identifiable adverse social consequences.
And as duly elected “Chief Glutton” of a group of culinary wanderers called “The Restless Palates”, I don’t think I will ever look upon a fine buxom lass in the same light, ever again. It puts an entirely new meaning to the term, “guess who is coming to dinner?”
Regards
Ian Mott
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Breast milk delicacies off the menu
September, 19, 2008. NineMSN
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/634151/breast-milk-delicacies-off-the-menu
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
I think the term is weaned.
Cattle, once weaned from their mother cow, no longer eat milk but grass and vegetation.
I sometimes wonder about humans who, once having been weaned, still yearn for milk.
I don’t eat it, but then as I eat cheese, heavens to murgatroyd, I y’am a hippocrittus.
But reselling mother’s milk in a restaurant?
That said, why ban it? What next, tyre pressure police to make sure our tyres are not underflated which some Californian Greenie thinks causes global warming?
This all seems more ridiculous than a Monty Python tv show.
Well, Louis, I thought the Zen Bar prepared the ultimate seafood laksa but now I am not so sure. A request for such a dish would go down a real treat in a Glebe dyke hangout, don’t you think?
As a commercial proposition, how does one become a middle-man in this burgeoning industry?
Ian Mott,
Yes, that would be a fantastic marketing point as well – would we run it in terms of a modern dairy farm? But lactating dykes seems to be a bit of an oxymoron.
PS. As a Nederlander I am expert in Dykes, finger-wise.
Cohenite. I believe there may be some spare capacity on the NSW Parliamentary Labor back bench.
I suspect that our female readers might be finding this topic a bit of a “let down”, as it were. But at $22.50 a litre it is getting up there with a really good quality Cabernet Sauvignon.
I can just imagine the product tasting with some tosser in a beret sprouting classic lines like, “Jacobs Squeeze is a fine, full bodied young strumpet from Mudgee with an earthy insouciance”.
Human cheese, Louis, awesome.
We sell it as McCheese !
Mass production will make the business of dairy farming a lot more interesting.
The only thing that I’m offended by in this matter is that women would be taxed on the revenue.
That would really be too much and just cause for revolution.
Yet my friend Marea is working hard to encourage people to establish a mother’s milk bank for infants that can’t access it.
http://www.mothersmilkbank.com.au/
The Victorian Gov banned the eating of dogs, because it upset some in the RSPCA etc. Why can’t you eat what you please? Short of killing another human to eat them I really cannot understand the objection to eating what one wants.
Dog meat is actually very good for keeping warm in cold weather. The Chinese comunist General in charge of the Manchurian campaign against the Japanese was known as the “dog general” after his nationwide call for dog meat to feed his troops. They completely outfought the better equiped and supplied Japanese troops because of their enhanced capacity to handle the winter cold.
And as for the boofheads at the RSPCA. Where were they when 10 million ‘Roos were suffering a long, slow and cruel death by starvation as the drought took hold? Off poncing about in their econazi uniforms, thats where.
They put down hundreds of thousands of healthy animals each year but refuse to explore an export market that could more than cover their costs. Once again, the muts don’t give a toss after they are dead but these bogans are too busy posturing for the Barbie-worlders.
What a bloody disgrace – our Daddies didn’t go to Gallipoli and Kokoda so you sickos, pervies and right wing degenerates can drink human breast milk and eat dogs. You’ve gone all extreme right wing sicko and weird.
Stay out of RSLs.
And WTF has this sex pervert post got to do with the environment. Do we need to know what fetishes Mottsa would like to indulge in. TMI !
And double WTF – ya typical bogan wouldn’t attract a Barbie-worlder anyway.
Mottsa you’re a disgrace to the property rights movement. Ya gonna have to match up the back on demos?
And – how come you’re here – shouldn’t you be smacking out your fellow Aussies down at Goolwa? Sitting there in the Eureka Stockade Mk IV eating dog canapes and quaffing breast milk.
Gosh, Luke must have had his meds upgraded. Now if only they could produce a dietary supplement that would furnish the consumer with a sense of humour.
Note how none of our regular female contributors will touch this post with a barge pole. Playing their cards close to the chest, as it were.
What the post highlights, Luke, is how even a food that we have all, presumably, already consumed can be subject to a food taboo. There appears no scientific nor social case to justify this taboo but it remains in place with an almost universal acceptance.
What it does tell us is that food taboos, like the western whale taboo, are capable of surviving in the face of a total absence of scientific justification. They are entirely within the mind of the beholder and consequently, there is no case for allowing one culture to impose its taboos on another culture.
From your past behaviour on this blog, Luke, it is more and more apparent that your lack of past experience in this respect could well be a contributing factor to your dysfunctionality.
The emotions that control our actions…..
Europeans eat horses and drink mare’s milk.
BTW Ian, where do you get HM for $22.50? It’s always cost me more than that.
Since I was a baby, anyway.
SD. The link to the original article indicated that the restaurateur was paying SF equivalent of $22.50/litre.
Interesting to note that the upkeep on a nursing mother for six months, divided by the number of litres provided, might bring the actual cost/litre a fair bit higher than $22.50. But after deducting a fair and reasonable recompense for the burden of pregnancy , the trauma of child birth and the grind of child rearing, then it is probably the cheapest food source, and best value for money, ever devised.
Truth to tell, women are awesome in this respect. If only they could read road maps, check vehicle oil and reconcile engineering considerations with interior design.
Then you have the issue of inspecting for and dealing with pathogens in the milk. This gets a lot less interesting with the first case of TB or worse. OTOH, the dairy business has already been industrialized. Look up BST.
I imagine some of the girls in the Byron hinterland could do a really good trade in substance enhanced breast milk. You have heard of “Hash Cookies”, well, how about “Hash Nookies”?
It would certainly drive the sniffer dogs nuts.
Human Cheese, Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!