Queues in supermarkets, hoarding, enormous price increases and, as a consequence, disadvantaged families that they cannot give their babies the only food they can provide.
The shortage of powdered baby milk is on its way to becoming a national problem in the US, the only developed country still without paid maternity leave, forcing many women to depend on formula milk to feed their children.
Despite the benefits of breastfeeding that all health organizations insist on, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a government agency, less than half of babies in the US were breastfed in their first three months of life. And, as recognized in this same document, in 2020, 60% of mothers stopped breastfeeding earlier than they would have liked for work reasons.
That of formula milk is a lucrative market, valued at 4,000 million dollars, but that is not being able to guarantee the supply. How is it possible?
Just four companies make 98% of formula milk in the US
The truth is that only 2% of formula milk consumed in the US comes from outside the country and only four companies manufacture the remaining 98%. An oligopoly that it is facing serious difficulties in supplying baby milk to the country after one of its actors, the pharmaceutical giant Abbotthas had to withdraw all its products from the market.
The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has closed all its production plants due to an outbreak of Cronobacter that she has already taken two babies. The outbreak was detected in February, but the government has now closed the plants, after assuring that Abbott managers “have been unwilling or unable to implement sustainable corrective actions to ensure the safety and quality of food manufactured for babies.”
Although the entire agri-food chain has been affected by the pandemic and the logistics problems that are being experienced throughout the planet, an additional problem must be added to the supply of powdered milk, which has a lot to do with the enormous inequality and the poor social protection system which the US has.
Eight million families depend on government vouchers to buy formula milk
Almost eight million families low-income families rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children – better known by its acronym, WIC – to feed their babies, a federal program inaugurated in the 70s of the last century, whose budget has been cutting for a decade.
Each State negotiates in its own way the milk that can be purchased with the government coupons, and there are regions where you can only buy milk that has stopped being produced. Additionally, of the remaining three businesses, only two have agreements to sell the milk to WIC recipients.
Blemil Plus 1 Forte – Powdered Starter Milk From the First Day, Saving Format 1200g
The White House has taken action on the matter to try to expand WIC benefits and lower the price of milk on the free market, which is being sold at exorbitant prices that many families cannot afford. According to the Government, the shortage of formula milk it will be fixed in a matter of weeks, but the CEO of Perrigo, one of the four manufacturers of the product, has acknowledged that the shortage crisis could last throughout this year. A prospect that terrifies many families.
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