Why is Amul fighting with PETA?
Milking money, but at what cost?
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has launched a full-blown campaign against The Taste of India, Amul. The clash between the two organizations began in March 2021 when Amul released an ad.
The ad claimed that milk is the only real thing, while completely bashing the plant-based ‘beverages’. Now, this did not sit well with PETA and it petitioned against the campaign with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
Sadly, for PETA, ASCI sided with Amul and dismissed their petition. Now, PETA wrote a letter to Amul asking it to switch to vegan milk. Ever since then, both the camps have been spatting, leaving us a lot to think about the food choices that we make.
Let us understand the merits of the arguments laid out by each side.
PETA’s views
“Beef and milk are two sides of the same coin.”
Shocked? Offended? Here’s how…
Back in the day, every other household owned a cow or a buffalo of their own. A household’s milk requirement was comfortably taken care of by the cows that they owned. Everyone co-existed happily.
Cut to the present, India has become the largest milk-producing country in the world. The milk economy has now been over-capitalized. But, that comes at a cost.
Every mammal produces milk only after giving birth to its babies. The same holds true for cows and buffalos. And to get them to produce milk at record levels, they are impregnated several times. Artificial insemination is a rampant practice, and every step of this process is as gruesome as it can get.
And once the animal is rendered milkless, they are sent to slaughterhouses. Why?
Because the low-income dairy farmers don’t have the means for the upkeep of animals. On the other hand, selling them to slaughterhouses gives them the capital to acquire another cow and keep the business up and running.
It’s a curse to be born as a cow; On one hand, it is revered and worshipped. But on the other, it is exploited in life and tortured in death.
The more animals you breed for dairy purposes, the more will be the production of beef. If someone is against animal slaughtering, they should also be against giving them a life full of pain and suffering.
Here’s a video that PETA posted about 10 years back, and it’s heartbreaking:
And so, Peta wrote a letter to Amul:
It urged the most popular milk-producing organization of India to go vegan. After all, if the world is moving in that direction, Amul should also change with the changing times. Other global brands have been embracing the change and Amul should not resist it.
Amul’s Views
Last year, Amul made a revenue of $7 billion. No wonder it is irked by PETA’s campaign.
If PETA appealed to the Hindu sentiments of “Gau Raksha”, Amul also drew reference to Indian culture where milk holds an important place. How can the revered Gau Mata be harmed, they ask.
While on one hand, PETA showed us the gory pictures of torture, on the other, Amul’s Managing Director, R S Sodhi’s Twitter handle is also full of pictures of best practices that show how much the dairy animals are being cared for.
Confused as to which instance is more rampant? Exploitation or love? Our guess is as good as yours.
Apart from this, Amul has claimed that milk provides more nutrition at a lower cost. It is also a source of livelihood to 10 crore Indians. Where will they go if milk were to be completely eradicated from the picture?
Here’s where Amul stands in the whole vegan debate:
When PETA came pointing fingers against Amul, it instead launched a counter-attack using the nationalism card. Amul claims that PETA wants the money to flow to multinationals that are propagating the production of genetically modified soy or oat products. Amul has positioned itself as the saviour of dairy farmers and has called upon a ban on PETA.
It is essential to look hard at both these claims. Instead of attaching emotional connotations, it is important to objectively understand all the aspects of the issue.
While it is important to protect the livelihoods of the people of the nation, it is also important to ban unfair behaviour towards animals if the claim holds. There are no two camps. There is only one camp: the camp of humanity that wants love and peace to prevail for all.
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An acrimonious affair.....
Hope the animals are treated better after this debacle
PETA's claim are more factual whereas Amul is playing the nationalism card in the name 'Gau Mata' and contribution to the GDP.