The market for (and marketing of) baby formula

 The Lancet has a series of articles on baby formula.  It begins with this editorial, and is followed by three articles:

Unveiling the predatory tactics of the formula milk industry, The Lancet, Published: February 07, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00118-6

"For decades, the commercial milk formula (CMF) industry has used underhand marketing strategies, designed to prey on parents' fears and concerns at a vulnerable time, to turn the feeding of young children into a multibillion-dollar business. The immense economic power accrued by CMF manufacturers is deployed politically to ensure the industry is under-regulated and services supporting breastfeeding are under-resourced. These are the stark findings of the 2023 Breastfeeding Series, published in The Lancet today."

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VOLUME 401, ISSUE 10375, P472-485, FEBRUARY 11, 2023 Breastfeeding: crucially important, but increasingly challenged in a market-driven world, by Prof Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, PhD  Cecília Tomori, PhD Sonia Hernández-Cordero, PhD Phillip Baker, PhD Aluisio J D Barros, PhD MD France Bégin, PhD Donna J Chapman, PhD Laurence M Grummer-Strawn, PhD Prof David McCoy, PhD Purnima Menon, PhD Paulo Augusto Ribeiro Neves, PhD Ellen Piwoz, PhD Prof Nigel Rollins, MD Prof Cesar G Victora, PhD MD Prof Linda Richter, PhD on behalf of the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series Group†  Open Access Published: February 07, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01932-8

"When possible, exclusively breastfeeding is recommended by WHO for the first 6 months of life, and continued breastfeeding for at least the first 2 years of life, with complementary foods being introduced at 6 months postpartum.9 Yet globally, many mothers who can and wish to breastfeed face barriers at all levels of the socioecological model proposed in The Lancet's 2016 breastfeeding Series."

 VOLUME 401, ISSUE 10375, P486-502, FEBRUARY 11, 2023 Marketing of commercial milk formula: a system to capture parents, communities, science, and policy by Prof Nigel Rollins, MD  Ellen Piwoz, ScD Phillip Baker, PhD Gillian Kingston, PhD Kopano Matlwa Mabaso, PhD Prof David McCoy, DrPH  Paulo Augusto Ribeiro Neves, PhD  Prof Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, PhD  Prof Linda Richter, PhD  Prof Katheryn Russ, PhD  Prof Gita Sen, PhD  Cecília Tomori, PhD  Prof Cesar G Victora, MD  Paul Zambrano, MD  Prof Gerard Hastings, PhD  on behalf of the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series Group  Open Access Published:  February 07, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01931-6

"Despite proven benefits, less than half of infants and young children globally are breastfed in accordance with the recommendations of WHO. In comparison, commercial milk formula (CMF) sales have increased to about US$55 billion annually, with more infants and young children receiving formula products than ever. "

 VOLUME 401, ISSUE 10375, P503-524, FEBRUARY 11, 2023 The political economy of infant and young child feeding: confronting corporate power, overcoming structural barriers, and accelerating progress by Phillip Baker, PhD Julie P Smith, PhD Prof Amandine Garde, PhD Laurence M Grummer-Strawn, PhD Benjamin Wood, MD Prof Gita Sen, PhD Prof Gerard Hastings, PhD  Prof Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, PhD  Chee Yoke Ling, LLB  Prof Nigel Rollins, MD Prof David McCoy, DrPH  on behalf of the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series Group†  Open Access Published: February 07, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01933-X

"The first and second papers in this Series8,  9 present several reasons for the global rise of CMF in human diets, including the CMF industry's exploitation of parental anxieties; ubiquitous marketing; and absent or inadequate protection and support for breastfeeding within health-care systems, work settings, and households. In this Series paper, we look further upstream and examine the root causes of low worldwide breastfeeding rates10 to understand why so many women and families are prevented from making and implementing informed decisions about feeding and caring for infants and young children; why so many policy makers and health-care professionals are co-opted by CMF marketing and other commercial forces; and why so many countries have not prioritised and implemented policies to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. It is important to note that we use the terms women and breastfeeding throughout this Series for brevity, and because most people who breastfeed identify as women; we recognise that not all people who breastfeed or chestfeed identify as women."

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Among my previous posts on milk are some noting that there are shortages of human breast milk, and that in many places the sale of breast milk is banned (in some places out of concern that poor mothers would sell their milk instead of feeding their children, and in some places out of concerns that the sale of breast milk is repugnant even from mothers who produce milk in excess to their children's needs.)  

Thus (in different times, places, and circumstances) there is repugnance both to the sale of mothers' milk and to the sale of substitutes for it.