The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an American animal rights organisation, urged Amul India to switch over to producing vegan milk instead of dairy milk, as a response to changes happening in the market. PETA wrote a letter to Amul managing director RS Sodhi urging Amul “to benefit from the booming vegan food and milk market”.
Responding to appeal of PETA Amul managing director R S Sodhi on Saturday hit back for suggesting Amul should switch over to producing vegan milk instead of dairy milk.
R S Sodhi asked sharing a media report on PETA’s recommendation, if the animal rights organization will provide livelihood to “100 million landless dairy farmers”.
Taking to Twitter, Sodhi asked, “Will they give livelihood to 100 million dairy farmers (70% landless), who will pay for children school fee.. how many can afford expensive lab manufactured factory food made out of chemicals … And synthetic vitamins?”
The “exorbitant prices” at which soya milk would be sold will make milk unaffordable to the middle class, he added.
After facing severe backlash on the microblogging platform, PETA said it was just informing Amul of the current trends of vegan consumption and “encouraging” the co-operative to make smart business choices in response to the current trends. “How is letting Amul know about the trend in vegan eating and encouraging them to take advantage of it “dictating”. Smart businesses respond to trends, not fight it,” PETA tweeted.
