I had an eyewitness report last week about how breastmilk substitutes are
marketed as recently as a couple of months ago in Szechuan.  My informant
tells me that there are absolutely no restrictions on advertising, and that
in supermarkets, there are people sent by the various companies to hawk
their particular brand directly to shoppers.  Don't know whether US
supermarkets still have people who go around and serve taste samples of new
brand foods; we have them here at the busiest stores on the peak weekly
shopping days, but they stick to sandwich spreads and soup mixes and new
cookies and such.  I can't even imagine running into competing sales agents
for breastmilk substitutes in the store. (Shows you what a sheltered life I
lead, I suppose!)
My informant also tells me that the cost of formula is the same dollar
amount in China as it is in the US.  Since salaries in the US are very much
higher than in China, this means that an artificially fed baby in China is
astronomically expensive.  In the middle sized city in Szechuan where my
informant lives, there are also paid agents from the milk companies dressed
as nurses in the hospitals, visiting mothers and giving them enough product
for a week or so. It's possible these people ARE nurses, even. The
advertising in mass media emphasizes 'new' ingredients that make babies
'more intelligent'.  
Don't know what the situation is now that the whole melamine adulteration
thing has blown up so incontrovertibly, but this was very recently the
climate in which new mothers were attempting to choose what is right for
their babies. Horrific.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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