How much worse can it get? Gasoline is over $4 a gallon, a T-bone is going for $11 a bite and now there's no baby formula at any price. Some of the reasons for the bogus breast milk problem are given here and here but the entire situation isn't really explained.
First, in the entire history of humans on earth, commercially produced baby formula is a fairly recent development. Not so long ago mothers who either couldn't or wouldn't breast feed their babies employed "wet nurses" to supply the toothless little buggers with their milk. Later, even well into the twentieth century in the West, mothers mixed up a substitute product from available ingredients that served as the initial diet for babies that grew up to be healthy, hearty folk that built industrial empires, many of whom are still with us. Two of the most popular infant breast milk substitutes, Similac, first marketed in 1925, and Enfamil, in 1959, have a short history in baby nutrition.
Ultimately, it is the natural role of mothers of all mammalian species (After all, the word mammal refers to an animal in which the female supplies milk to its offspring.) to breast feed their young. The breasts, while an item of attraction to male humans, are primarily mammary glands whose purpose is to produce milk to feed babies. That women would be disinclined to do so seems to be a rejection of their role in preservation of the individual and, in the end, the species itself.
We haven't heard any word from mothers who have been able to breast feed but do not, for whatever reason. Shouldn't they forego the use of FDA approved milk replacement and allow it to be consumed instead by babies whose mothers can't physically supply it? Something like the situation with handicapped parking? Isn't it also time for the FDA to quit enforcing a restricted business model meant to further the financial interests of two or three companies? Commercial baby formulas had been a number one target of shoplifters due to their exorbitant price until retailers began locking them up.
Then there's the fact that even in relatively recent times there have been millions of women with no access to breast milk alternatives of any kind. These include the Inupiat and others of the northern polar regions, many of whom had never had a taste of other milk, people over large expanses of Africa, and practically all of the population of the Pacific islands. Somehow, they have survived and even prospered.
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