Milk is Milk Blog by Alex Avery:What’s the deal with soy milk and some of the people promoting it? First of all, it’s not milk - but soy juice sounds kinda yucky, so don’t expect to see it labeled as such anytime soon. Does this stuff really belong in the supermarket dairy case or part of your kids’ school lunch as a replacement to wholesome, real milk?
MSN’s Slate Magazine conducted a taste test of the various soy “milks” available on the market and even the best-known product was characterized by taste-testers as “I would feed this to a cat I didn’t like” and “actually makes the cookie taste worse.” Their conclusions, “Non-milk products didn’t taste like milk, and they didn’t taste good. Soy milk looks like eggnog and unfortunately tastes like what it is - soy juice.” Hmmm, that’s going to go well along side of the Sloppy Joes at the local elementary school cafeteria.OK, so it doesn’t look, taste or feel like milk. By definition (a white nutritious liquid secreted by mammals) it’s a stretch to call it milk - versus “milk-like.” Resolved: We have a plastic-tasting, milk-like juice made from a vegetable known for it’s oil and forage qualities — not milk.This brings me to the point of my Blog today, one of the biggest promoters of soy juice is the “Not Milk” man - a.k.a. Robert Cohen. Cohen is prolific in his rants attacking milk and dairy products. He’s a darling of the radical animal rights movement (which
opposes dairy products because of the subjugation of cows which they claim is immoral because it exploits animals) and various other alternative health nuts who help to amplify Cohen’s various claims - which range from falsely linking milk to cancer to asserting that milk is bad for your bones.The Not Milk Man (I’ll dub him Soy Boy), his buddies at PETA and their front group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine are lobbying to replace cows milk with soy products in school lunch programs. Soy Boy goes as far as to claim that inner-city violence is due to the serving of free milk to poor kids at public schools. What’s with all these nut jobs and fear profiteers? Cohen even attacks “commercially prepared” soy milk as being “as dangerous as cows milk!” Only Soy Boy’s natural, fresh soy milk production method apparently is good enough… as he claims other soy milk has added “acids” which are the same chemicals used to de-ice airplanes and which “can strip the skin off your hands…” Yum! As a result, the commercial soy juice industry has enlisted the support of some of the vegetarian activist groups they help fund to call Cohen a “fraud” and a “charlatan.” Watch out when the vegetarian activists get you in their sights (something I’m a little familiar with), because they can be mean and vicious with those who cross or disagree with them.They claim Soy Boy Cohen “has a propensity for fabricating scientific data which has time and again been shown to be not only worthless, but potentially dangerous. His character and background make him highly unsuited to be an advocate for a dairy-free or vegetarian lifestyle — or anything else, for that matter.” Geez, how bad must you be to be called dangerous and unsuitable by groups
which support terrorism to promote their extremist views? Here are few of the links they provide claiming Cohen is even too nuts for them:Robert Cohen and Integrity by Steven Kaufman MD Honest Advocacy by Syd Baumel Dangerous Disinformation by Stephen Walsh PhD Spinning Out of Control: Vegans Say No to Extreme “notmilk” Spin by Syd Baumel The Sad Truth About Robert Cohen (definitive & exhaustive article) Using Fake College Degrees to Sell Books by Jeff Nelson Bashing White Wave & Selling Soymilk Makers Using Animal Studies Cohen Defends His White Wave Attack Of course, other more rational outside observers consider this battle between Soy Boy and extremist vegetarian opponents a “battle of wits between disarmed opponents.“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t oppose soy or any use of it - it’s a great source of protein and grown by thousands of outstanding family farmers. However, these farmers aren’t out there irresponsibly bashing milk like Soy Boy is doing to sell his soy juice extractor, or the extremists who want us to abandon all forms of animal agriculture and give cows the right to sue people.
Milk and other dairy products from cows are an important part of a responsible, healthy and nutritious diet - especially for growing children. Don’t let people like Cohen scare you or your kids away from good-tasting, good-for-you milk. And, please don’t let him or anyone else take nutritious, affordable milk out of our school lunch programs. Remember, milk is milk, soy is not.
�