By Lola Okolosie
There is a wonder food available across the globe that can prevent and fight infection. Requiring no packaging, created on demand and relatively cheap (depending on your work commitments), it is a sustainability dream come true. Let me introduce you to breast milk. Decades of scientific research have again and again cited it as the healthiest option for babies. Meanwhile, countries where some people don’t have access to clean water have been encouraged to halt disingenuous advertising from corporate giants of formula milk. Until Donald Trump, that is.
As scores of governments sought to approve a World Health Organization resolution calling on countries to “protect, promote and support breastfeeding” while limiting the promotion of milk substitutes, Trump’s administration tried (unsuccessfully) to stop them. Breastfeeding remains political. Not least because companies such as Abbott Laboratories, one of the funders of Trump’s inauguration and a feature in the $70bn (£53bn) baby food market, would lose out.
Ever willing to fly in the face of experts, Trump’s administration wanted to water down the wording. When this proved unsuccessful, the New York Times reported, it turned to threats. Ecuador was warned, apparently, that military aid would be withdrawn and harsh trade measures instituted if it did not drop the resolution.
While colonisalisation has ended, neoimperialism thrives. The US has brazenly tried using its diplomatic power to force weaker nations to grant access to their markets, even if it means they will be endangering their babies. The Lancet found in 2016 that the deaths of 823,000 children and 20,000 of their mothers could be avoided – and $300bn saved – through universal breastfeeding.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
