SPOCK SPEAKS ABOUT MILK: A COUP FOR PCRM? WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

Child-care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock advised par-
ents at a September 29 news conference in Boston that babies
under the age of one year should not be given cow’s milk, and
that, “breast-feeding is the best milk feeding for babies.”
Spock, who gave up eating dairy products himself last
year, at age 88, went on to explain that cow’s milk causes some
babies to suffer intestinal blood loss, allergies, and indigestion,
as well as contributing to “some cases of childhood diabetes.”
Spock spoke as part of a panel including Johns
Hopkins University director of pediatrics Frank Oski, who
wrote a book in 1977 titled Don’t Drink Your Milk, and Neal
Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine. Early wire service and TV stories about the presen-
tation indicated Spock had directly supported Barnard in recom-
mending against giving children any cow’s milk. The early sto-
ries carried vituperative reaction from an anonymous American
Medical Association spokesperson, directed at Barnard but
tending to heighten the impression that Spock too had seriously
challenged mainstream medical opinion.

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BOOKS: Eat Smart: A Guide To Good Health For Kids

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

Eat Smart: A Guide To Good Health For
Kids. By Dale Figtree, New Win Publishing (P.O.
Box 5159, Clinton, NJ 08809), 1992, 100 pages,
paperback $10.95.
James, the hero of Eat Smart, is a typical young
teen: healthy, active, and totally unaware of his body’s nutri-
tional needs. When he finds himself gaining too much weight,
he tries the obvious solutions. He hides his body in loose cloth-
ing. He tries to diet, and fails.

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Tactics & Actions

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* PETA recently staged the first demonstration
against meat-eating to be held in Moscow, Russia,
since Leo Tolstoy’s time. Inasmuch as the picket signs
were apparently all in English, for the benefit of American
and British TV crews, Russian patrons were mostly puz-
zled. The vegetarian movement Tolstoy championed is
today little known in Russia; Lenin and Stalin viciously
repressed it, viewing the back-to-the-land philosophy that
went with it as counter-revolutionary. Further, while most
Russians are used to going without meat for prolonged
periods due to shortages, fresh fruit and vegetables are also
often scarce and expensive—and tofu was unheard of,
until a small Hare Krishna restaurant introduced it two
years ago. The American Fund for Alternatives to Animal
Research has moved to remedy the situation, wiring
$4,343 to the Center for Ethical Treatment of Animals in
Moscow on August 17. According to CETA president
Tatyana Pavlova, the funds will go toward a computer,
laser printer, and essential software, which in turn will be
used primarily to publish information on vegetarianism.

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* The USDA school lunch subsidy pro-
gram is functioning as a dump for choles-
terol-laden meat and dairy products, the con-
sumer group Public Voice for Food and
Health Policy charged September 16.
Approximately 20% of each of the 4.1 billion
school lunches served in 1991 consisted of
free food supplied by the USDA—but cheese
and butter made up a third of the $10.2 billion
total, almost all of the potatoes had fat added,
and only 3.4% of the fruit and vegetables
were fresh. The Public Voice report was
endorsed by American School Food Service
Association spokesman Kevin Dando, who
agreed, “There’s entirely too much butter
available, and schools would like to have
more fresh fruits and vegetables.” From 1979
through 1991, the USDA spent $7.2 billion to
supply schools with meat and dairy products,
but spent just $2 billion on fruits, vegetables,
and grains.

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Animal Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* Over a year and a half after the mid-
Atlantic raccoon rabies pandemic hit south-
eastern Connecticut and was expected to
spread throughout New England, confirmed
outbreaks have yet to hit Massachusetts,
Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. All
four states have had only the usual handful of
rabies cases, mostly involving bats and foxes.
Bat rabies has been endemic in parts of New
England for decades, while outbreaks of fox
rabies have been sporadic along the Canadian
border at least since the 1950s. While some
rabid raccoons have been found in northern
New England during the past year, they are
not known to have carried the mid-Atlantic
strain of the disease, and there is no evidence
that the forms they appeared to have are wide-
ly distributed in the raccoon population.

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Agriculture

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

October 2 was the 10th anniver-
sary of World Farm Animals Day, declared
in 1983 by the Farm Animal Reform
Movement to coincide with Gandhi’s birthday
and World Vegetarian Day. Major commemo-
rations were scheduled in New York, the
Washington D.C. metropolitan area, Iowa,
Florida, California, and Hawaii.
The contribution of cattle to global
warming has significantly increased over the
past three years, along with the world cattle
population, International Union of Air
Pollution Prevention Associations director
general John Langston warned the 800-mem-
ber group in early September.

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