h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have just now seen an interesting little tidbit at http://www.firingsquad.com
It seems that our friend PETA is not as wholesome as we may have originally thought, here's the article:

Beer is healthier than milk? >> 11:58 AM - Bob Colayco

This isn't tech related, but I did find it on Ars-Technica. From the horrifyingly irresponsible and misinformed publicity stunt desk: The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have launched a website called Milk Sucks that encourages college students to drink beer instead of milk. I guess it's not enough to vandalize storefronts and destroy scientific research labs. The new vegan strategy apparently is to promote underage drinking. Do they not realize that about half of all college students are below the legal drinking age? I didn't turn 21 until I was a senior.

I suppose next PETA will suggest emptying out baby bottles of their milk and replacing it with some nice cold MGD. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for people who choose a vegetarian lifestyle for health reasons. But to promote it with misinformation and half truths, especially ones that exacerbate the huge problem of student drinking, is completely irresponsible.

End Story
Okay so it isn't our PETA but it is PETA.

Well I never had any problem with student drinking, I could easily find the bar
I am sure there is a good reason why, in America, you can vote, drive and blow someones brains out long before you can sample a fine port, or a nice whisky but does anyone know what it is?

Yes, I do. And blowing out people's brains is illegal no matter what age you are. Most civilized societies consider it to be unacceptable behavior.

Especially at the dinner table.

On a side note, it is much easier to get a gun then it is to go through driving school. During my training I learned how to dodge the Korean draft from my instructor (I also learned about 98% of his life's story and no I wasn't involved in the Korean draft, he just brought it up as a life story). Also the states now have many new driving laws that make a ticket if you are under 18 (and therefore less experienced) more damaging to you then if you are more experienced (makes no sense). And they want to raise the age limit to 18 in some states, which I believe is stupid because at 18 you move away to college and thus cannot receive basic instruction from parents and can't get the needed experience. Most accidents with teens are just because of lack of experience and yet they want to make it harder to get experience! Some states also have graduated driving, aka. Lots of restrictions for your first 6 months, and 1st year, and so on and so on.
It sucks that a few crazed teens are ruining it for the modern teenager.
If you disagree with me then fine, we might as well debate, or we could continue talking about this odd, and seemingly poorly thought out "got beer?" campaign.
Which targets students, who usually aren't 21 until they are seniors over here.

I think I read the same article and was wondering why an organisation about animal cruelty was against drinking milk. I know the problems about forced farming and how cruel it is to cows. (I did think that milking cows, rather than not milking them, was a good thing? - obviously wrong on that front). But to stop drinking such a healthy thing as milk and replace it with Beer!! of all things is plainly irresponsible.

It is true that in the UK drinking is legal at 18 and so many college students are legal by their second year, but couldn't they of picked another substance to replace it with. Water, juice, lemonade etc. Liver disease, early death (other alcohol related illnesses) is healthier than 'good for teeth and bones' milk?

Comments please

Sally M

Yep, definately, suggesting you should drink beer over milk is somewhat daft. Milk is good for you. It is an especially daft campaign, if you are trying to covince people to drink beer illegally. Is this PETA campaign specifficaly targetted at students?
I suppose the question is: If the farming of all animals ceased, would PETA complain about the wanton murder of yeast that goes into producing beer?

I think we all know the answer to this: Yes.

I also saw a small news piece on this on the nightly news. It is mostly U.S. based (so it doesn't make sense to tell students to drink) and the campaign is pointed mostly and colleges. They also argue that milk is so high in cholesterol that it is healthy to drink beer and saves cows, but I think your liver might disagree. Also they send free "Got Beer?" cap openers to students who fill out online surveys at their website (I think website was called milksucks.com but that didn't bring anything up in my browser so it must be wrong).

It seems like it would make more sense to just tell people to drink some fruit juice as you were saying and just claim it is to boycot farms that have bad conditions for cows, but instead they are contributing to underage drinking by making people think that it is alright to drink because it's for a good cause.