Manufacturers produce annual reports for their shareholders which give 
details on sales of particular products (they may give it in dollars or 
units) to give you a start. You can then trace where it's manufactured, 
and then where the product is sold to see how far it needs to be 
shipped. If they don't know what you need the information for, someone 
inside the company may be willing to share some information. Know that 
formula manufacturers track carefully how much they sell, where they 
sell it, how many of those mothers started out breastfeeding, etc for 
competitive reasons. Same for manufacturers of feeding equipment.

Major retailers might also help you. The warehouse manager or buyer 
might know which factory their orders come from and via which route. 
People study economic supply chains for other reasons, perhaps you could 
use their data.

Good luck, it would be wonderful to have hard data on this!

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC  NYC  cwgenna.com

On 10/7/2013 2:15 AM, Nekisha Killings wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> I am working on my MPH and am developing my final Environmental Health project. The topic is focused on the environmental factors that surround infant formula feeding - to include the ecological footprint created by bottle manufacturing, tin waste, paper waste, plastic waste, methane emissions, cattle grain production, deforestation, water and soil contamination.
>   
> In my search for data, I have come across plenty of anecdotal (non-sourced) articles and blog posts regarding how breastfeeding is better for the environment than formula feeding. If anyone has any professional research article references on this topic, I would greatly appreciate the help. So far, my search for scholarly info on this topic has yielded nil.
>
> Kind regards and many thanks,
>
> Nikki Killings CLC, LLLL
> Northern VA,USA
>   		 	   		
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