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Subject:
From:
Nina Berry <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:25:42 +1100
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Hi Jane - and all 
Yes, the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is
entwined with American politics.  You can read about this in Gabrielle
Palmer's book, The Politics of Breastfeeding; Maureen Minchin's
Breastfeeding Matters; Judith Richter's Holding Corporations Accountable or
The Breastfeeding Movement: A source book (which contains many interesting
primary and secondary source materials). Before commenting on the value of
or the application of the Code, it would be wise to read it and one of the
above references that will  help to unpack it's global significance.
In summary, the Code was developed during the Democratic Carter
administration.  The participation of the American delegates to the World
Health Assembly seems to have been instrumental in bringing about a Code
that could actually be ratified.  Just as the final vote on the Code was to
be taken, there was an election in the USA and President Carter's Democratic
administration was deposed by the Republican Reagan administration.  The new
administration instructed the US WHA delegates to vote against the Code at
the Assembly meeting.  They did as they were instructed and then resigned
their positions in protest.  (The Reagan administration then allowed infant
formula manufacturing companies to sell out-of-date product outside of
America.)
Since 1981, the US has voted in favour of several subsequent resolutions
relating to the Code.  This is widely taken to be assent to the original
Code.  Yet subsequent administrations fail to make any attempt to give
effect to the Code.
The question of why subsequent US governments stubbornly refuse to act to
restrict the aggressive marketing of infant feeding products is both complex
and remarkably simple.  Successive US governments have been persuaded that
this is a first amendment (free speech) issue.  Access to legislators by
lobbyists for the infant formula industry (and agricultural industry) is
unfettered.  Successive governments have placed the desires of industry, the
ideology of the free market and the almighty greenback before public health.
America is not the only place where this happens.  However America is the
only country on the planet that positions itself as the leader of the 'free'
world.  This is not about the US refusing to be told what to do by other
(inferior?) countries.  This is about the close relationship between
industry and government in the US.  This is about the US stubbornly refusing
to put the health of its people before the profits of its multinational
corporate interests.
Bottom line, the marketing of infant feeding products is immoral and should
be eliminated.  The Code makes an attempt at  creating a starting point for
the achievement of that aim.  No one should be profiteering from mothers'
failures.  An ethical company would not advertise, would provide only
unadorned scientific and factual information to health professionals about
its products and would rely on the quality of the product to sell it only to
those who need it.  An ethical government would ensure that all companies
acted ethically.
The reality is that the US does not confine its sphere of influence to
american citizens (interference in the Phillipines Milk Code issue is a case
in point).  What happens in the US affects us all.
Best
Nina Berry
Australia

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