Heather writes:
"...it's actually a plain old-fashioned bit of
capitalism/ imperialism, an economic imperative. The ideology comes
as a justification for the money-making."

Yes, I'd say it's marketing of a product, creating a demand for the "new
improved product" and discrediting the competition.   When you have a
"new"(read genetically engineered)product, one has to have buyers of the
product.  It is quite amazing that the makers of formula have been able to
keep this fact quiet. It shouldn't be surprising that the study on the
poisons in breast milk came from the Netherlands--headdquarters of Numico.
Studies are a vehicle for marketing of products.   If you have studies
proving your product's worth, you can fool alot of people into believing that
there is evidence of its worth.  It also helps having a media willing to
publicize those studies without looking too closely about where the study
originates.  Better yet is to get those studies in a professional journal
thereby validating its worth to the medical profession.  The New England
Journal of Medicine was recently chastised for the numbers of studies it had
printed that had direct funding from drug companies that had vested interests
in the outcomes.  Who has a vested interest in seeing that breastfeeding is
sheer "tokenism?"  It's not just formula companies.  Its the dairy industry,
the drug companies, the contraceptive industry and any bio-tech company that
has invested money in genetic engineering of products that will go into the
product called "formula."  Breastfeeding advocates are facing off against
huge odds--a kind of David against Goliath.  Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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