Danny Yee >> Economics & Social Justice

Food Politics
(was baby food action + Nestlé boycott)

it needs to be legal to advertise infant formula - Iceland
the marketing and political lobbying behind commercial milk formula - Lancet
interesting WorldWatch food blog - Nourishing the Planet
insects are food - Guardian
European regulators crack down on food claims without evidence - BBC [via BadScience]

archive of older news items

Useful sites

IBFAN | Baby Milk Action | Australian Breastfeeding Association | CorpWatch
Chew on This: Everything you don't want to Know about Fast Food (UK)
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (UK)
So That's What They're For!: Breastfeeding Basics
What to Eat (UK)
Every 30 seconds a baby dies from unsafe bottle feeding in the Third World

We Can't Let Them Get Away with It!
Boycott Nestlé and Wyeth

Nestlé and Wyeth, two of the World's largest producers of powdered baby milk, are currently breaking a World Health Organisation Code on the marketing of breast milk substitutes.

  • Nestlé and Wyeth provide free milk to maternity hospitals in the Third World so that newborn babies are routinely bottle-fed.
  • When newborn babies are given bottles, they are less able to suckle well. This makes breastfeeding failure likely. The baby is then dependent on artificial milk.
  • When the mother and baby leave hospital, the milk is no longer free. At home parents are forced to buy more milk, which can cost 50% of the family income.
  • Because the milk is so expensive the child is not fed enough. This leads to malnutrition.
  • The water mixed with the formula is often contaminated. This leads to diarhhoea, malnutrition and often death. James Grant, Executive Officer of UNICEF, has said:
    Every day some 3,000 to 4,000 infants die because they are denied access to adequate breast milk.
  • 1.5 million babies die every year from unsafe bottle feeding.
  • Breast feeding is free and safe and protects against infection - but companies know that unless they get babies on the bottle, they don't do business.
For details and more information, see IBFAN's overview.
Economics & Social Justice << Danny Yee