Great idea. I would argue for HIV testing, though. Disqualifying HIV 
positive donors would give a financial incentive for men to help guard 
this income stream by not engaging in behaviors that would jeopardize 
their wives'/partner's negative status, one would hope.

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC  NYC  cwgenna.com

On 5/29/2013 1:34 PM, Pamela Morrison wrote:
> Following these back-and-forths discussions about the cost of donor 
> human milk with great interest!
>
> At the risk of being a bit seditious I'll let you know that my friend 
> George Kent (author of Regulating Infant Formula) and I have many 
> times only half-day-dreamed about the mothers of Africa being paid to 
> perhaps sell 30ml - 60ml of their expressed breastmilk every day for 
> US$1.00 per ounce, or so, when the the going rate is more than twice 
> that, so that it could be exported to where it's clearly so sorely 
> needed because Western mothers seem to have so much difficulty in 
> producing enough of it.  Think about it....  Breastmilk is so 
> valuable, yet so scarce that we're actually having these discussions, 
> but it's so available and easily produced in Africa .   Expressing an 
> ounce or two every day would not deprive African babies because their 
> mothers would simply make more on demand.
>
> It pleases me to think that these women, who are often so over-worked 
> and never paid while caring for whole families in appalling 
> conditions, carrying water, digging fields, could earn this little 
> sum, which would make them self-sufficient financially to provide for 
> their families, reducing their dependance in the very patriarchal 
> societies in which they live, with all the vulnerability that that 
> entails..... Furthermore, in many developing countries the per capita 
> annual income is often less than $1 per day, so the export and 
> earnings of such a valuable commodity could go a long way towards 
> reversing the poverty of a whole continent.  People often shrink in 
> horror at the thought of milk donors not being screened, particularly 
> when the risk of transmittable diseases like HIV is factored in, but 
> I've never understood why, unless it's actually anticipated that milk 
> banks will make mistakes to inadvertently allow some raw milk into the 
> supply chain.  These women live on natural foods because they cannot 
> afford the expensive junk foods we eat in the West.  Nor can they 
> afford to drink, smoke, or take drugs and the very point of 
> pasteurization is to inactivate all pathogens anyway.   There is often 
> also shock at the thought of milk donors being paid - but mother's 
> milk is a _valuable_ resource - isn't it madness really to trivialize 
> its worth by insisting that it can only be donated?
>
> Ah well ..... but it _is_ an intriguing thought.
>
> Pamela Morrison IBCLC
> Rustington, England
> -------------------------------
> > I believe that if we want to have it accessible to the populations 
> that need it then we have to do a better job of increasing the 
> awareness and value of breastfeeding and human milk.
>
>
>
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