Hi Ben,

you wrote:
>However, it also seems that humans have been
>successfully milking dairy cattle, goats, and sheep for many hundreds
>upon hundreds of years with great success, and without many "unnatural"
>tools (Is a bucket to put milk in considered "unnatural?").  I'd be
>interested to hear why you think milking those animals is a bad
>practice.

Methinks that especially with cattle you would make the same experience
as the african man did with the cow elephant. There remains the question
if humans milked small animals like goats and sheep. Well, containers
like buckets or pots were invented by humans several thousand years ago.
That leaves not much time for genetical adaptation. Before that you
might have used an empty coconut or an hollowed out pumpkin for milking,
else you would have to lie down and suckle directly from the udder.
Doesn't sound very convincing to me.

And then remember that science says we lose the enzyme to digest milk
in our very youth. Therefore I think we adults can't even digest human
milk properly.

Ben:
>I don't see how milking animals is much different in principle than
>harvesting honey from bees.

I see the point. OTOH harvesting honey is a common behavior watched in
nature (like stealing eggs) while milking other mammals has never been
seen. It needed the manipulating human mind to invent this. So there
is no chance that humans inherited a genetical adaptation for milk of
foreign species - we must have developed it ourself.
In summary I think our chances to have a genetical adaptation for non-
human milk are very small. And they certainly do not justify the tons
of milk and dairy that are consumed today.

Best unmilky regards and I hope you enjoy your time in Utah, the country
of the Marlboro Man ;-)

Stefan

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