I believe both milk and honey hold special places in many cultures' belief
systems because they are the only human foods that don't require killing
something in order to eat them.  You don't have to kill bees to get honey.
You don't have to kill an animal (or your mother) in order to get
nourishment from her mammary glands.  That's why people talk in glowing
terms about "The Land of Milk and Honey" -- a place where there is plenty to
eat without harming any living creature or plant.

I do not believe that pointing out the benefits of breastfeeding while also
condemning breast milk as being toxic is a useful way either to get more
people to breastfeed OR to clean up the environment.  Cleaning up the
environment is impossible (in most people's view of the world) and if breast
milk is contaminated, well, that's just one more reason not to breastfeed,
especially when you have 'good enough' and uncontaminated formula made from
cows' milk.

I do believe the 'breast milk is toxic so we need to clean up the
environment and meanwhile, please still breastfeed' people have good
intentions, but I think the end result will be less breastfeeding, no matter
how they phrase their arguments.


Kathy Dettwyler

_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html