Vegan controversy : Amul gives PETA a taste of India
Amul hits back According to a report by ET, India’s largest dairy brand Amul has countered animal rights organisation PETA’s suggestion to ‘switch to plant-based dairy’, questioning how employment to crores of people could be provided if that were to be the case, and said “foreign funded NGOs are running campaigns to tarnish the Indian dairy industry”.
PETA’s plea dismissed The development comes days after self regulating ad industry entity Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) dismissed a plea filed by PETA against Amul for stating that plant-based products can’t be called ‘milk’. Food regulating entity FSSAI’s draft regulation for dairy products already states that non-dairy products like soya and almond milk cannot use the ‘milk’ in their nomenclature.
Encashing on equity of milk RS Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which makes Amul milk, butter, ice-cream and cheese, said: “Who will provide employment to 100 million farmers who depend on the cooperative dairy sector, if the company stops using milk?” Sodhi said plant-based foods companies are encashing on the equity of milk.
Profit making objective“These products are nothing but genetically modified lab foods that are made out of chemicals and synthetic materials by big corporations with the only objective of profit making and not livelihood,” he said. He further added: “Foreign funded NGOs are running campaigns to tarnish the Indian dairy industry. Cattle are part of a dairy farmer’s family and nobody tortures them.”
PETA’s response Some Twitter users raised concern about the price of vegan products as most of the population in the country won’t be able to even afford the price of vegan milk. In response to the outrage of users, PETA responded by tweeting “Would you drink dog’s milk? No. Why? Because nature made dog’s milk for puppies, cat’s milk for kittens, rat’s milk for their babies, cow’s milk for calves, and human milk for our babies. Nobody needs milk after infancy or the milk of another species.”
