Suzanne,

I have been posting about this to Lactnet on and off since 2000.  The dairy
industry and the US government have a major investment in dairy transgenics.
There are patents dating back to the early 90's on this science.  There are
herds around the world and "cloned" milk (milk produced from these special cows)
is marketed in Japan.  Our FDA has accepted milk lactoferrin as GRAS--cloned
milk.  A few years ago Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times supposedly went
to one of the farms and drank this cloned milk and his comment was that he
didn't grow three heads.  At that time this particular farm was upset that they
were dumping all their milk and a determination was suppose to made about it
being put to market.  So I assume it is on the market but I could be wrong.
Genetic engineering of food is widespread in the USA (70-80% of our foods are
genetically engineered--gmo'd enzmes went commercial in mid-80's).  The way in
which our food is made has changed without public debate and with little or no
regulation.  This includes infant formula.  How many Americans know that the
enzyme that is used to make cheese--rennet- is a now a gmo enzyme and all the
cheese you buy in the USA is made with this enzyme (unless organic or specific
European cheeses)?  How many realize that many probiotic products are made from
bacteria that is gmo'd?  There is a incredible lack of knowledge about our food
and how much it has changed by genetic engineering.  In my opinion the
increase in allergies and antibiotic resistance has everything to do with our
changes in food production.

In New Zealand there has been major protests regarding dairy transgenics.
But here in the USA, we seem to be blind to what our science creates.  And,
ironically the IBLCE has determined that a new code of ethics tenet regarding
intellectual property rights is needed.  Thus, our profession supports and
respects patenting (a major part of intellectual property rights).  Dairy transgenics
use the human gene for lactoferrin and splices it into a cow embryo (cows
produce little or no lactoferrin according to human milk researcher Lonnerdal).
There is a large number of patents on this and I have posted about them
previously.   The dairy industry is very interested in human lactation.  Infant
formula is a huge market and infant formula that is a genetic imitation of human
milk is the answer to those who feel that we must have the "best" infant
formula around.

Suzanne, this is not a crazy story.  Human milk research benefits the dairy
industry because the drive is to make a better infant formula.  The US
Government has invested in dairy transgenics since 1990--funding was provided from the
Healthy People 2000 Project for clinical studies on developing an artificial
formula better than human milk. (I have references on this for anyone desiring
it).  If Tommy Thompson continues as Secretary of the Department of Health, I
am sure dairy industry promotion will continue to take precedence over
breastfeeding promotion.
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate

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