What has this world come to? Now we are going to start
feeding cows seafood? WTF?
cnn.commilk.herring.reuOpen ↗
t/index.html
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -- Some landlocked Canadian
cows are enjoying a little seafood with their hay and grain
so they can produce a new kind of milk being touted for its
benefits for the brain, eyes and nerves.
The milk, produced by herring-fed cows in Ontario, provides
a fatty acid also common in salmon, trout and mackerel to
diets of people who don't eat enough fish, said Larry
Milligan, a researcher at the University of Guelph, which
developed the milk.
But it doesn't taste fishy, Milligan said Tuesday.
"I don't detect any difference whatsoever from regular
milk," he said.
The milk is sold in Ontario by Neilson Dairy, a subsidiary
of George Weston Ltd. , Canada's largest food processor and
distributor.
At $5.29 (Canadian) per four liters ($3.98 for 3.5 quarts),
it's more than 20 percent pricier than regular milk, but
similar in cost to calcium-enriched milk.
The fatty acid, called docoshexaenoic acid, or DHA, is an
omega-3 fatty acid that is also found in omega-3 eggs, nuts
and canola oil.
Ninety grams (three ounces) of cooked Atlantic salmon
contains 1.2 grams of DHA, a week's worth of what the body
needs, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Drinking three cups of the fortified homogenized milk
provides 0.06 grams of DHA, Neilson said.
Children can get almost 60 percent of recommended DHA by
drinking two cups of the new milk a day, it said.
But one food activist said the nutritional claims are a red
herring used for marketing.
"I'm frankly so skeptical of all the dietary claims: one
thing is good for you, and then it's not," said Brewster
Kneen, publisher of The Ram's Horn journal, which rails
against biotechnology and multinational food processors
while promoting organic farming.
Kneen said cows are best left to turning grass and hay into
foods humans can eat rather than eating designer diets.
"Why are we taking herring, which is a good human food, and
putting it through a cow? This is very strange," Kneen said.
Milligan said fish meal has been used for protein in
livestock diets for decades and is safe.
"DHA milk was put through all the possible analytical
measurements you could even imagine for Health Canada [the
country's health ministry] and was approved," he said.