Women of the ELCA executive director Linda Post Bushkofsky is among several leaders who signed a letter last week demanding six of the largest baby formula manufacturers stop “unethical and irresponsible” marketing of breast milk substitutes.
“It is important that Women of the ELCA take a stand on this issue. Actions taken at our triennial conventions speak to ending world hunger, caring for children and supporting the 1,000 Days project,” Bushkofsky said. “We also stand on the shoulders of Lutheran women who boycotted products of the Nestle Company and its subsidiary organizations in the 1970s and 1980s on this baby formula issue.”
1,000 Days, a non-profit that promotes good nutrition between a woman’s pregnancy and the baby’s second birthday, drafted the letter. It calls on the formula manufacturers to desist from “unethical and irresponsible marketing of breast milk substitutes” and to “fully comply with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent resolutions.”
Additional signatories include the American Academy of Nursing, Bread for the World, Global Health Advocates, Helen Keller International, Mercy Corps and Save the Children UK. The letter and complete list of signatories is found in a 1,000 Days news update. (You can sign the petition and tell infant formula companies to stop putting their private profits before the health of moms and babies here.)
baby formula surfaces at World Health Assembly
The letter comes on the heels of a U.S. administration attempt to halt the introduction of a resolution that encouraged breast-feeding and responsible marketing of baby formula at the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly in Geneva in May.
The resolution said that a mother’s milk is healthier for a child than breast milk substitutes. The resolution also sought to restrain marketing efforts by infant formula manufacturers, calling on manufacturers to fully comply with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. That code was established as one outcome of the Nestle boycott of the 1970s and 1980s.
“The $70 billion (infant formula) industry, which is dominated by a handful of American and European companies, has seen sales flatten in wealthy countries in recent years, as more women embrace breast-feeding,” according to a July 8 New York Times article.
The letter signed by Bushkofsky and others is being sent to the chief executive officers of six baby formula-making companies: Nestle, Danone, Abbott, RB/Mead Johnson, Friesland Campina and Kraft Heinz.
The letter asks that the companies “immediately cease from lobbying or using other means to undermine global efforts to protect breastfeeding.”
At the World Health Assembly the U.S. administration threatened trade sanctions against several small countries, like Ecuador, that planned to bring the resolution forward. Eventually, Russia introduced the resolution and it was adopted in slightly modified form.
Read the New York Times story.
Meeting requested, answers sought
In a related effort, Bushkofsky also signed on to a recent letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, requesting a meeting with Department leadership to understand the actions taken by the U.S. administration at the World Health Assembly, actions that appeared to undermine 40 years of U.S. policy and commitment.
Terri Lackey is director for communication. Photo by National Institute of Korean Language via Wikimedia Commons.
I stand with this petition. Formula does work when needed but for the companies to not support breast feeding as the better option when available for the sake of promoting formula is wrong.
There are instances that breastfeeding can’t be done; not to elaborate on decisions made by mothers, I cannot support this petition .
I adopted children and bottle fed them and they did pretty well. I wish I could have breast fed them for their health’s sake. I did the best I could. I WILL sign the petition as I have seen the results of encouraging bottle feeding on both the health of the children and the financial drain on mother’s who could have fed their babies themselves by breast feeding had they been encouraged to do so. The advertising and free samples of mother’s milk substitutes is misleading many women to believe that is what they should do to have healthy children. And this is particularly true in poor and under-educated populations.
What constitutes “unethical and irresponsible marketing” of infant formula?
All infant formula manufacturers are to comply with the Code which sets out what is and is not permitted in the marketing of infant formula. We’re told that no manufacturer is currently complying with the terms of the Code.
The marketing at question includes
*giving free supplies of formulas to hospitals where it is used instead of encouragement and training in breastfeeding (with manufacturers knowing that breastfeeding provides better health results for both mother and child and knowing that many women will not be able to appropriately sustain the use of formula in the long run, and while stating health benefits in the use of formula in contradiction of the Code, and
*encouraging use of formula instead of promoting breastfeeding (with manufacturers knowing that their audience does not have the money to sustain the use of formula in lieu of breastfeeding and knowing that clean water, needed for the appropriate use of formula, is often not available to their audience.
The manufacturers have also moved beyond infant formulas to milk substitutes for toddlers (babies 6 to 36 months), with these “follow-on” or “growing-up” formulas contributing to an obesity epidemic and continuing to undermine breastfeeding.
More information can be accessed at http://www.babymilkaction.org/archives/17748.
Sorry, can’t support this. I was unable to breastfeed and my son turned out perfectly healthy despite being formula fed. And I do not believe in censorship even with regard to a company trying to sell its products. Give women credit for having the brains to make an informed decision for themselves.
The effort recognizes that formula is needed by some and doesn’t seek to effect those situations. The effort addresses situations where mothers are able to provide breastmilk but are led to use formula instead.
To take a personal stand, sign on to this petition through the 1,000 Days initiative, https://actionsprout.io/9B2F76/. You will then be given an opportunity to share word of this petition through social media.