Dairy-Bashing 'Physicians Committee' Really an Animal Rights Group
- By CWF Sources
- Published 06/30/2005
- Opinion
WASHINGTON, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- As the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) launches its latest misguided attack on the healthfulness of milk and dairy foods, the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom is calling on the group to stop misleading Americans and come clean about its animal-rights motivations.
PCRM is an animal rights group that opposes the sale of all food derived from animals. Less than five percent of the group's members are physicians. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has already steered more than $1.3 million to PCRM. PCRM president Neal Barnard is also president of the PETA Foundation -- the organization that owns PETA's real estate, issues its payroll checks, and funds its many overseas offices. This makes Barnard one of the most powerful people at PETA.
PCRM last petitioned the Federal Trade Commission about milk marketing in July 2000, with a lengthy complaint about the "milk moustache" campaign. In 2001 a USDA expert panel specifically addressed PCRM's concerns in a 33-page report, which concluded that, "There is scientific consensus that cow milk consumption at currently recommended intakes is likely to be beneficial to bone health at all stages of the life cycle."
Despite this rebuke, PCRM issued a self-congratulatory press release including a statement from Neal Barnard that "We should think of drinking milk the way we think of smoking cigars."
Since then, PCRM has run television ads recklessly claiming that milk consumption causes prostate cancer. During a Food and Drug Administration hearing in 2003, Barnard derisively referred to cheese as "morphine on a cracker" and "dairy crack." And in 2005 PCRM began advertising its desire to find plaintiffs willing to turn their lactose intolerance into lawsuits against dairy producers.
In 2002 PCRM claimed Harvard University research documented a connection between milk consumption and cancer. But Dr. Daniel Cramer, whose research PCRM cited, told reporters that the group misrepresented his work. "I think that particular group has their own sort of agenda, of not wanting milk production around, and cows to be utilized," Dr. Cramer said. "They want everybody to be vegetarians."
In 2003 Creighton University medical professor Robert Heaney, a world- renowned expert on osteoporosis and bone health, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. "The arguments raised against the healthfulness of milk are scientifically groundless," Heaney told Congress.
Dr. Heaney continued: "I think it is useful to recognize the origin of the anti-milk campaign -- and it is literally a campaign. If one checks carefully, one finds that behind most of the stories is an organization called the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and its sister organization, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). These are animal rights organizations that oppose the use of any animal product -- leather, fur, meat, or milk."
PCRM's animal-rights agenda also drives it to discourage Americans from supporting respected health charities like the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the American Red Cross, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the March of Dimes, and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation -- solely because they support research that requires the use of animals.
"Despite its name, this Physicians Committee is not a legitimate health charity," said Richard Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Consumer Freedom. "PCRM is made up of activists whose constant demands for a milk-free America are rooted in an animal-rights philosophy, not in concern for Americans' health. If PCRM is truly interested in truth-in-advertising, it should advertise itself as an animal-rights group that is '95-percent doctor- free.'"
About the Center for Consumer Freedom
The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices http://www.consumerfreedom.com/.
PCRM is an animal rights group that opposes the sale of all food derived from animals. Less than five percent of the group's members are physicians. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has already steered more than $1.3 million to PCRM. PCRM president Neal Barnard is also president of the PETA Foundation -- the organization that owns PETA's real estate, issues its payroll checks, and funds its many overseas offices. This makes Barnard one of the most powerful people at PETA.
PCRM last petitioned the Federal Trade Commission about milk marketing in July 2000, with a lengthy complaint about the "milk moustache" campaign. In 2001 a USDA expert panel specifically addressed PCRM's concerns in a 33-page report, which concluded that, "There is scientific consensus that cow milk consumption at currently recommended intakes is likely to be beneficial to bone health at all stages of the life cycle."
Despite this rebuke, PCRM issued a self-congratulatory press release including a statement from Neal Barnard that "We should think of drinking milk the way we think of smoking cigars."
Since then, PCRM has run television ads recklessly claiming that milk consumption causes prostate cancer. During a Food and Drug Administration hearing in 2003, Barnard derisively referred to cheese as "morphine on a cracker" and "dairy crack." And in 2005 PCRM began advertising its desire to find plaintiffs willing to turn their lactose intolerance into lawsuits against dairy producers.
In 2002 PCRM claimed Harvard University research documented a connection between milk consumption and cancer. But Dr. Daniel Cramer, whose research PCRM cited, told reporters that the group misrepresented his work. "I think that particular group has their own sort of agenda, of not wanting milk production around, and cows to be utilized," Dr. Cramer said. "They want everybody to be vegetarians."
In 2003 Creighton University medical professor Robert Heaney, a world- renowned expert on osteoporosis and bone health, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. "The arguments raised against the healthfulness of milk are scientifically groundless," Heaney told Congress.
Dr. Heaney continued: "I think it is useful to recognize the origin of the anti-milk campaign -- and it is literally a campaign. If one checks carefully, one finds that behind most of the stories is an organization called the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and its sister organization, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). These are animal rights organizations that oppose the use of any animal product -- leather, fur, meat, or milk."
PCRM's animal-rights agenda also drives it to discourage Americans from supporting respected health charities like the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the American Red Cross, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the March of Dimes, and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation -- solely because they support research that requires the use of animals.
"Despite its name, this Physicians Committee is not a legitimate health charity," said Richard Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Consumer Freedom. "PCRM is made up of activists whose constant demands for a milk-free America are rooted in an animal-rights philosophy, not in concern for Americans' health. If PCRM is truly interested in truth-in-advertising, it should advertise itself as an animal-rights group that is '95-percent doctor- free.'"
About the Center for Consumer Freedom
The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices http://www.consumerfreedom.com/.