[SUBMITTED - ISSUE CONTEST ENTRY] Milking the Issue

[Marxmeans]

I hope I'm not too late to get sufficient feedback and submit in time for the contest; I started this at the beginning of the month but got busy. If it still needs more work past the deadline, I'll just submit it as a regular issue after. This is my first ever issue draft, so make what you will of that. I by no means think that all 6 options have to be included, I just listed them all so that GI can pick the ones they like. Any and all suggestions, questions, comments, concerns, criticism, etc. is greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

Title: Milking The Issue

Validities: Must not have compulsory vegetarianism
Must not have banned dairy

Description: Pained grunts echo down the hallway as you wait in the slow moving line to use the restroom inside @@CAPITAL@@ Creamery, home of the ever so trendy chocolate dairy "Lavanado™" sundae, thought to be named after the digestive disaster to be expected following its consumption. Your aide points out the increasing prevalence of lactose intolerance, or inability to digest milk sugar, to explain the holdup, and the people in line with you are eager to suggest solutions.

Option 1: “The resolution is actually quite simple,” smugly asserts Lukat DesGraph Tydawter, who seems to butt into every debate despite only being an expert in astrophysics. “The answer is obviously physics: require all mammary secretions to go through ultrafiltration via porous membranes to extract the lactose molecules. Perhaps other molecular compounds may be discarded, but this solution is as beautifully simple as magnetohydrodynamics.”

the nation is known for its milk-flavoured water

Option 2a: “Why require new machinery when chemistry has a quick solution?” questions chemistry professor Dr. Cu Pid, as she tries to hold in her CH4N2O. “Just drop in lactase enzymes somewhere along the processing to break down the lactose into simpler sugars, it's as easy as that!”

eckie-cola is widely considered to be more natural than milk these days / soft drink sales have plummeted after milk has become the new drink for those with a sweet tooth / no one buys @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ milk now that it's twice as sweet at double the price

Option 2b: “Why require new machinery when chemistry has a quick solution?” questions chemistry professor Dr. Cu Pid, as she tries to hold in her CH4N2O. “All we need to do is to subsidize the production of lactase supplements which will break down lactose into simpler sugars. Then consumers can just take some before consuming dairy, easy as that. It’ll be enzymagical!”

the government-pharmaceutical-dairy complex is developing quite nicely

Option 3: “Mother Nature is using our biology to tell us that we shouldn’t forcefully impregnate animals only to steal milk meant for their young!” preaches @@RANDOMNAME@@, the head of Citizens Against Robbing Newborn Infants Violently Of Rightful Essential Sustenance. “The problem isn’t what we do with the milk, it’s where it’s from! Ban people from drinking animal milk and then everyone will learn to enjoy the taste and ethics of plant based milks.”

@@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ eat their milk-protein based cereal in their plant-based milks.

must allow immigration
Option 4: “I’ve drunk 40 jugs of milk in the last 30 days, and I haven’t had a single problem!” proclaims Jonathan “Paps” Lofthouse, who operates the city’s most insalubrious swimming pool. “If you can’t drink a good ol 'glass of wholesome milk, you’ve got filthy foreigner genes! Ban immigrants so they don’t wreck our genetic pool with lactose intolerance!” He pulls up his jeans from Dàguó, which seem to have gained a brown spot, and heads to the toilet.

the term “Soyboy” is now a racial epithet

Option 5: “PPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFF!” sounds your 12-year-old nephew, who has strong aspirations to go into agriculture. “Toots are the best! The police should make sure people toot more, by making them drink milk and eat beans. That'd be so funny!”

discreet whoopee cushion sales dominate the black market

Option 6: “We could use this to gain a tactical advantage!” yells your National Secretary for Gastric Preemptiveness, who has a hawk face tattoo. “Flood the international markets with dirt-cheap lactose free milk until all our enemies are all hooked and lactose intolerant, and then pull the rug out from udder– uh, underneath them! War will be as easy as tipping cows!”

the sound of farts on the battlefield drowns out artillery fire

Here are a bunch of alternatives names for the first speaker, grouped by first, middle, and last names:
Nye
Nail

DeGrass
DeWeed
"The Graph"

Bison
Tyfoon
Taipan
Tydaughter
Tymoon

The effect lines for option 2a are in rough order of my current liking, favourite to least.

I have 2 versions of option 2 here, because the first one as it stands might be a little too similar to option 1, so I went for a more businessy and less sciencey approach in this rewrite.

There might be some overlap with Option 5 and Issue #946, though this option implies a much more authoritarian approach.

Thanks for reading!

Special thanks to Valentine Z and my girlfriend (two different people) for looking over the draft for me, and a huge thanks Daarwyrth for really digging into every part of this issue and helping guide my noobiness through the whole drafting process.

[Marxmeans]

[Reserved]

[Socialist Heronia]

Small nitpick: in Option 3, isn't "Mother Nature" usually fully capitalized? Otherwise, good-looking draft so far!

[Marxmeans]

Small nitpick: in Option 3, isn't "Mother Nature" usually fully capitalized? Otherwise, good-looking draft so far!

Thanks, fixed!

[Jutsa]

Hmm. You know, I was going to make a draft about lactose intolerance in nations that worshipped cheese. An option to ritually sacrifice them and everything. I should get back to that.

Regarding this issue though. Uh... not sure I have much to say really.

Is increased prevalence of dairy intolerance (as opposed to other food intolerances) a thing? And... in particular, is it indeed a national issue?

If so, yeah, I suppose the premise might work (it is an amusing and honestly quite NSly descriptive description), but uh... the options?

1) Is he talking about the milk or your gut? The latter's ridiculous, the former's...
2) how'd this be different from 1 exactly? I mean, I suppose removing lactose from all milk could work, but like... from all milk? Is that necessary if the norm presumably already takes people into account? (not everyone needs to drink milk, I mean...)
3) Ban milk. I mean, yeah. You could do that I suppose.
4) Ban immigrants. Yeah, that honestly would be an effective option if you're trying to make people not lactose-intollerant.
5) Toot more. Uh. Sure. (I mean that alone might make some editors appreciate this issue.)
6) Indeed.

I can't tell if it's the fact that it's almost 1AM or if I've simply been working too hard and my brain's not working, but uh. Idk. If you want to submit this you could - again, an editor might like the wiggle room for lactose intolerant jokes. But uh. If I may be totally honest with you, this draft feels a little bit curdled.
At least it was entertaining, I guess. Maybe that's all that matters.

[Trotterdam]

Is increased prevalence of dairy intolerance (as opposed to other food intolerances) a thing? And... in particular, is it indeed a national issue?

Lactose intolerance is more common in some ethnicities than in others. (Actually, the ancestral humans were lactose-intolerant, and it's lactose tolerance that subsequently evolved through natural selection in certain cultures where dairy consumption was common.) So heavy immigration from places where lactose intolerance is the norm would do it. Though it might conflict with a player's RP canon to assume that @@NAME@@ is one of the more lactose-tolerant nations.

There are also a few other medical conditions that can cause temporary lactase deficiency in people who are genetically lactose-tolerant, though from what I can tell they're not the sort of epidemics that would see a sudden large rise under normal situations.

It's worth noting that many processed dairy products, such as yogurt, butter, and cheese, contain significantly less lactose than raw milk. Having the right symbiotic bacteria in your gut can also help process lactose before it becomes a problem - various cultures have traditionally done this by drinking "live" (unpasteurized) yogurt, where the bacteria that process milk into yogurt in the first place are still active.

Between the fact that symptoms for lactose intolerance tend to be at the "annoying" rather than "lethal" level, and that there are a number of simple ways for lactose-intolerant people to still consume dairy without significant problems, it seems unlikely that this would ever reach the point of being considered a national issue. Usually it'd be something between you and your doctor.

(If it was a huge problem, our originally-lactose-intolerant ancestors would have never started consuming milk in the first place.)

[Fauxia]

Right, so very important: You can't use the “quotes” you are currently using. You have to use "straight quotes". Sorry, that's just the way the code is.

Pained grunts echo down the hallway as you wait in the slow moving line to use the restroom inside @@CAPITAL@@ Creamery, home of the ever so snapstagrammable chocolate dairy “Lavanado™” sundae, thought to be named after the digestive disaster to be expected following its consumption. Your aide points out the increasing prevalence of lactose intolerance, or inability to digest milk sugar, to explain the holdup, and the people in line with you are eager to suggest solutions.

Well described. Not sure about snapstagrammable, first of all because Snapstagram isn't established in NS (I think it may be instasnap or something), but also, some nations don't allow social media, or the internet, or computers, etc, so you might have to simply make it "pleasing to the eye" or "photogenic" or something. I also don't think the TM works in NS but I could be wrong.

Option 1: “The resolution is actually quite simple,” smugly asserts Lukat DesGraph Tydawter, who seems to butt into every debate despite only being an expert in astrophysics. “The answer is obviously physics: we use ultrafiltration via porous membranes to extract the lactose molecules from the mammary secretions. Perhaps other molecular compounds may be discarded, but this solution is as beautifully simple as magnetohydrodynamics.”

Not sure whether the name should be a little more direct, although from its format I figured it out quickly, it fits well with the option

@@NAME@@ is known for its milk-flavoured water

This probably doesn't read great on the national happenings page, I'd switch @@NAME@@ with "the nation"

Option 2a: “Why require new machinery when chemistry has a quick solution?” questions chemist Dr. Cu Pid, as she tries to hold in her CH4N2O. “Just drop in lactase enzymes somewhere along the processing to break down the lactose into simpler sugars, it's as easy as that!”

Sure, but there is something I am missing here.

Option 4: “I’ve drunk 40 jugs of milk in the last 30 days, and I haven’t had a single problem!” proclaims Jonathan “Paps” Lofthouse, who operates the city’s dirtiest swimming pool. “If you can’t drink a good ol 'glass of wholesome milk, you’ve got filthy foreigner genes! Ban immigrants so they don’t wreck our genetic pool with lactose intolerance!” He pulls up his jeans from Dàguó, which seem to have gained a brown spot, and heads to the toilet.

Eh, this seems kind of unnecessary, there's lots of options to get rid of foreigners and this is random.

Option 5: “PPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFF!” sounds your 12-year-old nephew, who has strong aspirations to go into agriculture. “Toots are the best! The police should make sure people toot more, by making them drink milk and eat beans. That'd be so funny!”

Option 6: “We could use this to gain a tactical advantage!” yells your National Secretary for Gastric Preemptiveness, who has a hawk face tattoo. “Flood the international markets with dirt-cheap lactose free milk until all our enemies are all hooked and lactose intolerant, and then pull the rug out from udder– uh, underneath them! War will be as easy as tipping cows!”

Again, I honestly think a little too gimmicky.

Good luck. There's a lot of good stuff here but at places it's a bit messy.

[Marxmeans]

Is increased prevalence of dairy intolerance (as opposed to other food intolerances) a thing?

Lactose intolerance is more common in some ethnicities than in others. (Actually, the ancestral humans were lactose-intolerant, and it's lactose tolerance that subsequently evolved through natural selection in certain cultures where dairy consumption was common.) So heavy immigration from places where lactose intolerance is the norm would do it.

I admittedly can't find any hard data on changes in the prevalence of lactose intolerance (especially in relation to other food allergies), but I'm not sure it particularly matters. It's something that's plausible, and NS and its issues are ultimately a work of fiction. I'll change it to "significant prevalence", though perhaps "widespread prevalence" might work better. And for what it's worth, here are the sources I could dig up:

The rising levels of lactose intolerance is one of the key drivers for the growth of the lactose-free food market during the forecast period. This demand for lactose-free food products is accelerated by the increasing incidences of food allergies and intolerances.

Factors such as rising cases of lactose-intolerant and growing demand from lactose-free dairy product manufacturers and increasing innovation and new product development in the application areas are projected to drive the growth of the lactase industry during the forecast period.

The demand for lactose-free dairy food products is driven by the increase in incidences of food allergies and intolerances.

So is lactose intolerance on the rise? A 2008 study of children under 18 for ten years reported a 18% increase in the diagnosis of food allergies, under which lactose intolerance was included. The question of a possible rise in lactose intolerance is also of concern to parents of small children as one more thing to worry about. Others claim that lactose intolerance is rising due to people consuming greater amounts of milk.

However, they (and everyone else) can rest easy: incidence of lactose intolerance is probably not rising.

This Pennsylvania State University "entry-level General Education course NOT for Science majors" class blog seems to contradict itself, and points to this CDC data brief as its source for the increase in lactose intolerance (though with other food sensitives becoming more prevalent as well). However, reading the data brief, I wasn't able to find any mention of lactose intolerance, and the ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Codes don't match up, with the code for lactose intolerance being 271.3, and the data brief using:

477.1 (allergic rhinitis due to food),
558.3 (allergic gastroenteritis and colitis),
692.5 (contact dermatitis due to food in contact with skin),
693.1 (dermatitis due to food taken internally),
995.6 (anaphylactic shock due to adverse food reaction with specific codes for unspecified food, peanuts, crustaceans, fruits and vegetables, tree nuts and seeds, fish, food additives, milk products, eggs, other specified food), and
995.7 (other adverse food reactions not elsewhere classified)

The increasing awareness about lactose intolerance among consumers and expansion of companies providing lactose-free products in the region are some of the major factors driving the growth of lactase in the region.

One possible explanation for the worry surrounding it is that lactose intolerance develops in individuals over time, growing more severe with repeated exposure to lactate. So more people are not randomly developing lactose intolerance, but it may be becoming more apparent over time. Additionally, as with many conditions, better diagnostic tools can help doctors make diagnoses earlier that would not have been made ten to twenty years previously.

I'd also argue that increasing awareness of the problem is just as good, as it then means increased demand for action on the issue. As Trotterdam already pointed out, the prevalence of lactose intolerance can vary anywhere from 5% to 100% (per the US Department of Health and Humans Services) depending on the community, which means increased immigration can also indirectly cause a rise in lactose intolerance.

Though it might conflict with a player's RP canon to assume that @@NAME@@ is one of the more lactose-tolerant nations.

While I should definiftely make option 4 only valid for nations that allow immigration, I don't think the whole issue needs to have that validity. Per the How To Write An Issue guide, on player autonomy:

wrote:You have to tell me about your nation, that's fair enough. That's part of the Issues game, and if I don't like what you tell me about my nation, I'll press "dismiss" and pretend the presented fiction doesn't exist.

If it's really a problem, I can change the description and the validity to focus on immigrants.

Between the fact that symptoms for lactose intolerance tend to be at the "annoying" rather than "lethal" level

While the symptoms of lactose intolerance in of themselves aren't deadly, they could be causing big problems, especially at the population level, due to the butterfly effect. At the very least, I can anecdotally say that it's caused me to miss meals and lose sleep, which are both really bad for human functioning. I think it's somewhat analogous to the problems with Daylight Savings — an hour of sleep lost alone might not be a huge deal, but scale that to the level of a population and then you see a noticeable effect, increased fatal traffic collisions and health problem in the case of DST (that's particularly pronounced since it happens at the same time for everyone, whereas lactose intolerance follows no such schedule).

and that there are a number of simple ways for lactose-intolerant people to still consume dairy without significant problems

This Scientist/Youtuber who created his own lactose gene therapy describes being "violently ill if I ingested even the slightest hint of lactose". Lactose is also used as a cheap filler, mild sweetener, stabilizer, carrier, etc., (in no small part thanks to excess lactose the Milk-Industrial-Complex produces after rising post WW2 when farmers switched to cattle to produce powdered milk as shelf stable and more compact source of nutrition for soldiers abroad) particularly in pharmaceutical products (where ingredient lists are harder to come by, especially in prescription drugs, compared to food), leading him to say "this isn't so much a mild annoyance, as an agonizing way to ruin your day or week, if all you did is misread the label on something."

(If it was a huge problem, our originally-lactose-intolerant ancestors would have never started consuming milk in the first place.)

Something can easily be a problem only solvable with modern technology, while also having an overall greater benefit than cost in the first place. Our ancestors had bread with lots of sand/dirt/rocks gained from the process of threshing wheat that messed up their teeth, but they still ate it because it was a nutritious source of food made from an easily growable crop that could be converted in a dry and thus long lasting powder.

And... in particular, is it indeed a national issue?

it seems unlikely that this would ever reach the point of being considered a national issue. Usually it'd be something between you and your doctor.

I think I've sufficiently explained why this may be a bigger issue and harder to avoid than one might think, but NS also has plenty of "trivial" issues. Again, to quote the How To Write An Issue guide:

wrote:That's not to say that we don't have trivial issues, but those ones are trivial issues that it makes some narrative sense for the Leader to be dealing with. Primarily, think jurisdiction and delegation: Leader isn't going to deal with a double parked car, he has traffic wardens for that. Leader isn't going to decide whether to close a failing school, he has school inspectors for that. On the other hand, he might make a policy decision about the legality of double parking as a whole, or decide whether schools get inspected at all.

At the risk of getting too NSG, the whole point of government is to address issues at a systemic instead of individual level, no? This is about making that change on the national level (whether that be by regulations, subsidies, some more asinine laws), not what a healthcare professional deems is most suitable for a particular individual.

1) Is he talking about the milk or your gut? The latter's ridiculous, the former's...

Not too sure what you mean here, but he's talking about ultra filtered milk.

2) how'd this be different from 1 exactly? I mean, I suppose removing lactose from all milk could work, but like... from all milk? Is that necessary if the norm presumably already takes people into account? (not everyone needs to drink milk, I mean...)

I mentioned in the OP that this was an issue raised with 2a, hence why I wrote 2b to potentially replace it. 2b differs from 1 in that 1 is a requirement for all milk at the production level, whereas 2b is helping industry if anything, and putting the responsibility on the consumer. Outside of the differing economic approaches, 1 is a physics/physical process, whereas 2 is a chemistry/chemical process, which I think a lot more people are averse to, hence the effect line.

3) Ban milk. I mean, yeah. You could do that I suppose.

Why not? I'd imagine that it'd sometimes add compulsory vegetarianism/veganism.

5) Toot more. Uh. Sure. (I mean that alone might make some editors appreciate this issue.)

I put this in as one of the absurd alternative options, though as I said in the op I'm by no means intent on keeping all the options I wrote (especially in the case of the latter 3 extreme ideas).

6) Indeed.

Not sure what you mean by indeed?

I can't tell if it's the fact that it's almost 1AM or if I've simply been working too hard and my brain's not working, but uh. Idk. If you want to submit this you could - again, an editor might like the wiggle room for lactose intolerant jokes. But uh. If I may be totally honest with you, this draft feels a little bit curdled.

I'm obviously biased, but I personally think if anything, the options are pretty good, with the opening being the weaker point. My draft was also received pretty well in private, with one person saying "the 'term "Soyboy" is now a racial epithet' is maybe my favorite sentence i've read on nationstates dot com". There's definitely far more than toilet humour (I think the non-toilet humour jokes are the cleverest), so I implore you to reread when you're not exhausted from commenting on issue drafts, but at the end of the day, writing and humour is subjective so if it's not your thing then that's that.

Right, so very important: You can't use the “quotes” you are currently using. You have to use "straight quotes". Sorry, that's just the way the code is.

Thank you, fixed.

I also don't think the TM works in NS but I could be wrong.

Option 5 for #1065 seems to use it, though I'm sure the editors will get rid of it if there's a problem

Not sure about snapstagrammable, first of all because Snapstagram isn't established in NS (I think it may be instasnap or something), but also, some nations don't allow social media, or the internet, or computers, etc, so you might have to simply make it "pleasing to the eye" or "photogenic" or something. I also don't think the TM works in NS but I could be wrong.

I don't see anything listed in the List of Characters and Companies in Issues that would occupy the same role (as opposed to MyFace, Twitcher, and Twitcher), but good point about nations without the internet/computers. I've changed it trendy.

Not sure whether the name should be a little more direct, although from its format I figured it out quickly, it fits well with the option

It's an admittedly niche reference to this meme

This probably doesn't read great on the national happenings page, I'd switch @@NAME@@ with "the nation"

Very true, fixed!

Sure, but there is something I am missing here.

What do you mean? What are you missing?

Eh, this seems kind of unnecessary, there's lots of options to get rid of foreigners and this is random.

As absurd as it sounds, white supremacist are actually chugging milk because they think it's a symbol of their superiority.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/w ... e-dna.html
https://www.peta.org/blog/cows-milk-per ... remacists/
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2 ... 85744.html
I also really like the triple pun of dirty foreigner genes/dirty foreign-made jeans, as well as the effect line (which as I mentioned, others seem to also really like). It also serves as the almost obligatory asinine/racist option you find in many issues.

Again, I honestly think a little too gimmicky.

I definitely think that the last two are the weakest options, but I threw them in there to see what others think.

Thank you all for your feedback! I'm also writing this reply on too little sleep, so forgive any erros

Edit: the typo on "errors" was not intentional, but I'm leaving it in because it's funny

[Bears Armed]

(Actually, the ancestral humans were lactose-intolerant, and it's lactose tolerance that subsequently evolved through natural selection in certain cultures where dairy consumption was common.)

(Actually, as all "healthy" humans can utilise lactose in their infancy, a more accurate term for those who can continue to do so into adulthood as well is 'lactase-persistent'. [Lactase being the enzyme that we use to digest Lactose...])

[Trotterdam]

Others claim that lactose intolerance is rising due to people consuming greater amounts of milk.

This makes sense. Lactose tolerance is a sliding scale rather than an on-off thing, so an increase in milk consumption could theoretically result in the appearance of symptoms in people who were previously fine.

No idea if that's actually happening, but it sounds plausible.

Lactose is also used as a cheap filler, mild sweetener, stabilizer, carrier, etc., (in no small part thanks to excess lactose the Milk-Industrial-Complex produces after rising post WW2 when farmers switched to cattle to produce powdered milk as shelf stable and more compact source of nutrition for soldiers abroad) particularly in pharmaceutical products (where ingredient lists are harder to come by, especially in prescription drugs, compared to food),

Yeah, lactose being artificially added to products that otherwise wouldn't contain it is definitely a legitimate issue, separate from any problems relating to natural lactose in milk.

(Actually, as all "healthy" humans can utilise lactose in their infancy, a more accurate term for those who can continue to do so into adulthood as well is 'lactase-persistent'. [Lactase being the enzyme that we use to digest Lactose...])

Yeah, I knew that, but I figured it was a given we were talking about adults here. (Or... older children, dunno what age it actually tends to stop at but it's probably sooner rather than later.)

As absurd as it sounds, white supremacist are actually chugging milk because they think it's a symbol of their superiority.

So basically, white supremacists are a bunch of babies?

Sounds legit

[Marxmeans]

Yeah, lactose being artificially added to products that otherwise wouldn't contain it is definitely a legitimate issue, separate from any problems relating to natural lactose in milk.

While it is it's own problem (issue about generic drugs and questionable fillers anyone? I know #866 touches on drug patents, but that's only in the context of a shortage), the point was to illustrate that even the miniscule amounts of lactose used as an added product can be "week ruining", much less the amount you might find in undisclosed dishes, cross-contaminated kitchens, or in regular old dairy through negligence/forgetfulness. I can definitely attest to my girlfriend having forgotten to take lactase many times, and suffering the consequences.

(Actually, as all "healthy" humans can utilise lactose in their infancy, a more accurate term for those who can continue to do so into adulthood as well is 'lactase-persistent'. [Lactase being the enzyme that we use to digest Lactose...])

Yeah, I knew that, but I figured it was a given we were talking about adults here. (Or... older children, dunno what age it actually tends to stop at but it's probably sooner rather than later.)

If you want to be technical, Bears Armed is right that in the scientific term seems to be "lactase persistence", not lactose tolerance, given that mammals start off with the lactase enzyme to digest milk from their parents, and thus are lactose tolerant. Even in the context of adults, persistence implies the retainment of the lactase enzyme, instead of managing to somehow mutate it into existence out of nowhere. If you say that this is pointless nerdery/semantics, fair enough, but I remind you that you're playing a 20 year old political simulator browser game

So basically, white supremacists are a bunch of babies?

Sounds legit

It's extra funny, given that as geneticist Adam Rutherford of UCL (University College London), who just published his book, How to Argue with a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality, points out: "They are presumably unaware that the same mutations emerged independently and exist at a high frequency in Kazakhs, Ethiopians, Tutsi, Khoisan, and populations in many other places where dairy farming was a significant part of their agricultural evolution"

[Bears Armed]

So basically, white supremacists are a bunch of babies?

Sounds legit

It's extra funny, given that as geneticist Adam Rutherford of UCL (University College London), who just published his book, How to Argue with a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality, points out: "They are presumably unaware that the same mutations emerged independently and exist at a high frequency in Kazakhs, Ethiopians, Tutsi, Khoisan, and populations in many other places where dairy farming was a significant part of their agricultural evolution"

Actually, recent genetic studies indicate that the Khoisan sub-group who introduced a pastoral lifestyle into southern Africa -- whom both tradition and archaeology had already said were [relatively] recent immigrants from further north -- have some "Middle Eastern" genes, so perhaps their lactase-persistence was derived from the 'Ethiopian' version of this mutation rather than a separate one? Then again, presumably they would also have passed through the general area where the proto-Tutsi lived at some stage, too, so that would be another possible route through which they acquired this capability.

What's really surprising is that a version of that mutation also occurs among my Ursines !