Merilee you wrote,

"(of course, we hope that all babies are breastfed, but reality is reality)"

Reality is what we make it.  If you have lived long enough on this earth, you
have experienced enormous changes within your society.  Those changes have
effected our vision of reality, our vision of what is possible.  For example,
the foods we eat and how we eat have changed significantly.  The era of fast
food, microwaves, and eating in a car are now our reality.  I don't believe
this was ever envisioned in the 50's, when I grew up. Mom was there when I
got home from school and food for a meal was not a 2 minute button pushing
experience.  Dishes were done by hand and TV--I didn't know it existed until
I was 7 years old. Enormous change has occurred because of our technology.
What we believe is possible has changed because of it.

If you have always lived in the "infant formula era" (the era when no one
makes the stuff but only buys it) then it is most difficult to envision a
reality without infant formula.  But who could have envisioned our current
reality in regard to tobacco?  It has taken years to accomplish the amount of
restrictions on tobacco.  But who in the 50's and 60's could have imagined
that cigarette smoking would not be allowed in a restaurant or a bar.  Not
possible.  Yet it happened because some people made an enormous effort to
change the way people think about reality.  They wanted a new reality, a
reality without cigarette smoke wafting into their lungs while they ate and
drank.

Likewise, if breastfeeding advocates want a new reality, and they have the
dedication to work for it, then the supposed reality of infant formula will
fade away. An assumption that life will always be one one way and never
change is really a fallacy.  It has been skilled and persistant social
marketing that makes even breastfeeding advocates believe that a society
cannot exist without infant formula.  All things are possible.  We can fly
men and women into space, but we cannot envision life without infant formula?
 It took people of vision to imagine space travel.  Why can't we simply
envision a world without infant formula?
Valerie W. McClain

PS:  It is obvious to me that the addition of DHA and ARA will eventually be
required for all formulas.  In my opinion we have a governmental monitoring
system of our food industry that is beholden to that very industry.  In fact
one might just call the FDA, the rubber stamp committee.

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