Baby Formula shelves are empty. I verified this myself - photo below, credit mine.
This photo was taken in Texas.
There is the Similac on the lower shelf, that apparently no one wants to touch. I can’t read the label enough to even begin to venture a reason.
But I can get a clear enough zoom on the other product, for which one can is left, the green one, so what was so bad about that one that allowed it to remain on the shelf?
Maybe while we are readily accepting plant-based foods as an option for ourselves, mothers are rejecting it?
And why was formula stored in these special theft-evading devices, even before the shortage. We can see at least one can is selling for $30.00, but when I go to Walmart, I can find plenty of small, more easily concealable objects, selling for much more that are not protected (yes, you might say, visit “the electronics section”, but in many ways this prompt underlies my question). Why is baby formula - even before the shortage, being treated as a theft item and mitigated in the same fashion as electronics?
A Substacker, Monica Hughes, provided an at least short-term answer for me in her latest essay, “Saturday Morning Thoughts on the Technocracy.” She asked her readers to ponder a most interesting question, “where did all the chalky white dog poop of the 1970s go?” In which she compares the baby formula shortage to the 2007 pet food crises, and aligns it with the push for technocracy:
But along the way, I saw so much absurdity play out with people who couldn’t figure out what to feed their pets when there was no safe commercial pet food. The answer was obvious. A species appropriate diet as dictated by evolution (or nature or God, if you prefer those concepts).
She bridles her thesis in this paragraph:
There are shades of all this in the baby formula crisis, of course. Will people search out a healthier alternative to feed their babies, such as a wet nurse or goat’s milk? Or will they be terrified and grossed out by our humanity, and adopt the technocratic billionaires’ next Soylent Solution?
The last sentence his says it all, “Or will they be terrified and grossed out by our humanity.” Now let us examine the facts and see where this is heading.
Most who read Substacks are a little older than 20 something, but can we digress in time to a place where we were younger? We, mother and father, just had our first child, and we are staring at the empty shelf, labelled “baby formula. We are now wondering what to do. We think, “Well, maybe we can make our own baby formula.”
We Google “how to make your own baby formula.”
Search results:
For those that do not want to expand the image above (I get ya’), here are the search results. Nothing on the top of first page of the Google search leads to anything relevant (in the “All” category, yes.. there is something of relevance on the lower portion, but not really good information). However, the vast majority of space from top down is propagated with stuff like this:
— Why Homemade Baby Food isn’t Safe for Babies
— No, making your own baby food isn’t safe or recommended
— Baby formula shortage: Homemade recipes can be dangerous, experts say
What is a young parent to do but freak out? Mass formulation psychosis, anyone?
Apparently the Washington State Board of Health is ahead of the game:
To my mind, Washington isn’t (as of yet) having the same problem as Texas, but I will be sure to call the Washington State Department of Health on Monday to ask how they might help.
Meanwhile there are some good homemade baby formula recipes. The best one yet may be from Sally Fallon:
https://www.westonaprice.org/podcast/255-homemade-baby-formula/
One thing for sure is Sally aligned with Weston Price does good research. Just look through the website, a plethora of fun for the skeptic. I haven’t read the latest book co-authored by Sally, wherein a loose connection is made between CoVid and 5G, Reading excerpts, I get what she is saying, and there may be something to it. But the fact-checkers will say, “Ms. Fallon asserts CoVid was caused by 5G.” I doubt this is what she said. Be careful not to discredit until the thing being discredited is read and understood.
I love how you’re told, for example, don’t eat sushi when you’re pregnant, but I haven’t met a single Japanese woman that listened to that kind of advice. Just like I ate all the feta during all my pregnancies. Is it possible that a baby gets harmed by a badly concocted home made formula? Sure. Even a well made formula can harm a sensitive tummy. During the Nazi occupation of Stalingrad, women punctured their veins to feed blood to their babies. Because it was better than starvation.
Great points. See also "relactation" on the Australian Breast feeding association website. If anybody having a baby now is contemplating formula feeding as a choice they are really not seeing what we are seeing. Home made formula is not a good idea for babies under 4 months without some very strong evidence of safety. Beyond that half water half full fat cow's milk is used in many countries where formula is unavailable or unsafe, but needs iron supplementation.