No One Is Talking About The Environmental Impacts of The Baby Formula Industry

Every kilogram of formula requires roughly 4,000 liters of water.

Last week, in a damning New York Times report, it was revealed that the US government tried to block a World Health Assembly resolution that would encourage breastfeeding and limit the misleading marketing of formula milk.

Health experts were understandably outraged, and in the days following the report there has been a stream of conversation about why policies that support breastfeeding are crucial to public health.

At this point, the health benefits of breast milk have been widely publicized, but breastfeeding is not simply about global health; it's also about sustainability. Even still, breastfeeding is rarely seen as an environmental issue.

Alison Stuebe, a maternal-fetal medicine physician and president-elect of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, believes that the environmental implications of the formula industry have not yet come to the fore.

"I'm really pleased that this is getting publicity, because every single day, every time a baby goes to breast, a $70 billion industry loses a sale. A lot of people don't appreciate that there is a corporate interest here," Stuebe told Science AF.

"This is not about individual mothers, this is about how a corporation preys on a population and promotes a product that is not necessary."