AR-News: (US) Milk - How a wholesome drink became a villain

[animalconcerns at fastmail.us]

[from Slate]

America's international reputation is as the land of milk and money.
Here, milk has long been thought of as not just another nutritious
beverage but as purity, even patriotism, in a glass. The title of a
recent chronicle of the rise of milk-drinking in America reflects the
national view of the beverage: Nature's Perfect Food. "In the U.S., milk
is virtually the national emblem (apple pie, in comparison, is an
also-ran)," London's Guardian pronounced last year. If pollsters asked
such questions, for most of the 20th century milk's favorability ratings
would probably have exceeded even water's. In the 1980s, milk was so
venerated that a sociologist in the New York Times linked a decrease in
its consumption to the declining public faith in all institutions, from
the church to the academy to the press to government.

Since then, America's belief in the goodness of milk has taken a darker
turn. Milk has turned from a symbol of true-blue Americana into a token
of everything that's wrong with the country. As with most cultural
changes, the transformation began with extremists, but it has crept into
mainstream discourse. Like Hulk Hogan suddenly becoming a wrestling
villain, the symbol of saying your prayers and taking your vitamins, of
right-thinking Americanness, has now become the bad guy.
...
Others have sued the federal school-lunch program for racial
discrimination for refusing to subsidize nondairy beverages without a
note from a doctor. Animal-rights advocates attack dairy farmers for
keeping cows in a state of permanent pregnancy and then selling off the
calves for veal. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals once
put Rudy Giuliani on a billboard with the tag line, "Got prostate
cancer?" The author of a book called Milk: The Deadly Poison blamed milk
for the death of Florence Griffith Joyner. Even "Got Milk?" is under
attack.
...
Chris Suellentrop is Slate's deputy Washington bureau chief. You can
e-mail him at suellentrop at slate.com.
Illustration by Charlie Powell.

full story:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2102639/

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