An extreme shortage of baby formula is currently having dire effects on families nationwide. There have been reports of parents having to drive hours to find stores with formula in stock (at a time when gas prices are still near record-highs no less) or feeling forced to dilute the formula they do have—which, to be clear, is incredibly dangerous and not a thing anyone should try doing!
The shortage is a failure on pretty much every level. Supply chain issues were already causing a problem and then in February, a major formula factory was shut down amid an investigation into a bacterial outbreak that saw at least four babies hospitalized. Two of them died. If you’re looking to be absolutely consumed with rage, there’s a whistleblower report you can read that details the irresponsible practices in place at the facility and the FDA’s impossibly slow response.
So, the origin of the baby formula pocalypse was Abbott management’s refusal to repair dilapidated and failure-prone drying machines turning the plant into proverbial petri dishes for cronobacter, because…
— moe tkacik (@moetkacik) May 11, 2022
They needed that $5.73 billion for stock buybacks, obvs pic.twitter.com/GBmn3n4SWn
The baby formula industry is extremely consolidated, with pretty much the entire country’s supply coming from only four companies. This Abbott facility in Michigan that was shut down is the largest plant in the country. So when it shut down, the already existing shortage exploded in scale, which likely also led to understandably nervous parents hoarding what they could, which would have exacerbated the existing shortage.
This is a devastating and terrifying experience for so many people. So naturally, a lot of straight, cis men who have literally never had to think about these things in their life are extraordinarily eager to wave their ignorance like a giant flag, proclaiming that this isn’t actually a big deal because, according to them, “breastmilk is free.”
I keep saying there is something VERY wrong with straight men. But like????? My god. The OPULENCE of the wrongness continues to stun me. To see this many people being proudly ignorant is scary. https://t.co/jx6O9OiaqI
— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) May 11, 2022
You are an actual idiot who does not know how breast milk/lactation works. Go back to fifth grade. https://t.co/nM5XuDH3wP
— Domestic Supply of Infant Increaser (@morninggloria) May 12, 2022
Believing bullshit like this sent me into probably the worst depressive episode of my life. So this guy can fuck right off https://t.co/hnbyeW56bp
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) May 12, 2022
This is such a staggeringly ignorant take. In terms of male audacity, it’s right up there with believing they should get to be the arbiters of who deserves access to baby formula and in what order—which, yes, men are also doing right now:
all life is precious, unless it lacks the proper documentation https://t.co/oo2PYsWtHw
— Domestic Supply of Infant Increaser (@morninggloria) May 12, 2022
The claim that “breast milk is free” leaves so much out of the conversation. First, there’s a whole host of reasons why breastfeeding does not work for many, many parents, from physical limitations to the fact that not every parent is a birth parent.
This is a great thread (though too lengthy to post in full here, but I’ll be referencing throughout):
You may be hearing the argument that before the rise of modern commercial infant formula, babies all ate breastmilk and everything was great. As a historian of infant feeding, let me tell you why that’s not true.
— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Cevasco_Carla) May 11, 2022
The people hit hardest by a formula shortage are, unsurprisingly, poor people and people of color and the “breast milk is free” argument ignores the history of racism and classism baked into the foundation of this subject and the ways in which those issues still manifest.
This conversation over the formula shortage—specifically people responding by shouting “breastmilk is free”— highlights how this society ignores the daily experiences of poor people.
— We Can Build A Better World 🕊 (@BreeNewsome) May 12, 2022
OR their partner or enslaver forced them not to breastfeed so that they could return to fertility ASAP after giving birth.
— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Cevasco_Carla) May 11, 2022
Sometimes someone else would breastfed the child. This might have been a relative or neighbor doing it for free. Or it might have been a paid or unpaid servant or enslaved person doing it at the expense of their own nursing infant, who might starve to death as a result.
— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Cevasco_Carla) May 11, 2022
Even for parents who can produce milk and babies who have no issues taking it, it is not “free.”
I’m a breast milk donor. I gave 3 gallons to NICU babies & ebf’d my kids. Believe me: BREAST MILK ISN’T FREE.
— Sonja Sharp (@sic_sonja) May 12, 2022
The price of bmilk is paid family leave. Ppl who don’t get it are overwhelmingly the ones using formula, & enduring this shortage, & that’s why u only heard abt it today
As Erin Gloria Ryan wrote in an essay earlier this year:
Imagine a job that required you to work a half-hour to hour-long shift every two to four hours, around the clock, with no days off. Imagine that if you tried to do the job in public, you would be chastised by some and lasciviously gawked at by others. What if this job exposed you to the possibility of pain and serious infection? Oh, and if, for whatever reason, you’re not interested in the job or not able to take it and hold onto it for at least a year, you will be told you’re a selfish asshole by random people. Even “success” at the job can devastate you psychologically. You must provide all your own supplies. You are lucky to have this job, and if you don’t see that, you’re ungrateful. It pays $0.
That’s breastfeeding.
On top of all of this, the “what did people do before formula” crowd really seems to have no idea that, in addition to the fact that people have always found alternative sources of nutrients for babies, one of the obvious answers to that question is “sometimes they starved.”
But! Let’s not demonize formula because of an imagined past in which everyone breastfed. In the ACTUAL past, babies fucking starved and died of disease. Babies who would have survived today, because they would have had access to safe, nutritionally complete formula.
— Carla Cevasco, PhD (@Cevasco_Carla) May 11, 2022
It’s not surprising that so many men have been so quick to proclaim themselves experts on something they have no idea what they’re talking about. What is more disappointing is seeing the lack of action from those in power who let the formula industry get to this point, and don’t even seem to have any idea how many people are currently suffering.
Just called Sen. Feinstein’s office to ask about plans for addressing the infant formula crisis, and they had no idea what I was talking about.
— Lila Byock (@LByock) May 12, 2022
(image: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Published: May 12, 2022 05:03 pm