Blueberries & Breastfeeding

"Industry and some government sources claim that GM [Genetically Modified] foods are strictly regulated.  But GM food regulatory systems world wide vary from voluntary industry self-regulation (in the US) to weak (in Europe).  None are adequate to protect consumer's health.  All rely on safety testing done by the company that wishes to commercialize the genetically modified organism (GMO) in question."  --GMO Myths & Truths, by John Fagan, PhD et al., 2nd ed. 2014
https://livingnongmo.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/GMO-Myths-and-Truths-edition2.pdf 

Blueberries, love blueberries.  I remember spending time on a dairy farm when I was 9 or 10 years old.  It was the 1950's, and we, kids roamed about rather freely in comparison to today's children.  The family I was staying with had 6 kids, mostly boys and one girl close to my age.  I enjoyed the chaos of so many children in one old farm house.  Warm milk straight from the cow was served on the table and it seemed like the boys were always wrestling and their mom was always yelling some child's name.  The girl and I had become great buddies and one morning her mother handed us two steel buckets and said go pick some blueberries.  Sounded like a great adventure to me but obviously a ho-hum experience for my new best buddy.  We had to go through the pasture and run around cows and the manure paddies.  And then up the side of what I thought was a mountain (probably a hill).  My friend knew the way and we found the blueberry patch.  So we set about filling up the pails but, of course, I started eating them:  one for the pail, two for me.  My friend seemed to be of the same mind, consequently the pails never seemed to fill up.  Then we were about stuffed with blueberries and tired of this job of filling a pail that never filled up;  when we heard rustling noises coming from the bushes.  My girlfriend yelled, "Bear!"  And the 2 of us ran down the mountain.  We told her mother that we would have filled up the pails, except for the bear.  Blame it on the bear, yet I believe our berry-blue smiles gave it away that we had been eating most of the berries.  No blueberry pies for the family tonight.  I really don't know if there was a bear in the bushes.  

When I look at blueberries in the grocery store, I think of the blueberries on that mountain.  Delicious and free, nature's bounty, and with the added bonus of a real adventure!  Yesterday I stared at the blueberries in small plastic box in the grocery store.  Not too many blueberries in the little plastic box and the cost of $4 seemed way too high.  I looked at the label.  They were blueberries from Peru, South America.  Nope, I didn't want to eat blueberries from Peru, I wanted blueberries from my little mountain in my childhood.  Nature gives freely by season and locale.   Our 21st civilization has made food into a commodity that is grown thousands of miles away, under unknown conditions.  It's costly and out of season for our locale and has no taste.  And yes, no adventure to remember it by.  

And what does this have to do with breastfeeding or infant formula?  Breastfeeding like the blueberries on my little mountain in my childhood, is free and not part of the global infant formula market.  Meaning breastfeeding does not require a huge carbon footprint.  How many miles does that can of formula travel to get on that grocery store shelf?  How many months, years does it sit on the shelf waiting to be bought?  Who manufactured it?  What water was used to process it?  What packaging was used to store it?  What are the ingredients? How can a processed food compete with something that is fresh, that varies over time, no packaging needed, and is free? Breastfeeding always provides a fresh food that varies from day to day, hour by hour and is free.  

But we live in a world that places enormous obstacles in front of women to breastfeed.  And we have enormous obstacles in front of us to eat fresh, nutritious foods.  The consequences of global food industries is that they have helped create food deserts, where only packaged foods and sugared, energy drinks exist in local stores.  Advertising increases the visibility of packaged, convenience foods.  Likewise advertising does the same thing with infant formula.  Many people have never tasted freshly picked broccoli from the garden.  If they buy broccoli in the store it is tasteless and rubbery, direct from the garden it is sweet and crisp, a very different experience.  Likewise breastfeeding is a whole different taste and tactile experience for babies compared to infant formula.

One of the interesting comments I have gotten from various people who live in other countries regarding my posts on patents on human milk components and particularly in regard to genetic engineering of ingredients in infant formula; is their belief that patenting of human milk components  and genetic engineering of infant formula is only happening in the USA.  Yet the truth of the matter is that the same patents in the US Patent Office are also in various countries around the world as well as the World Patent Office.  What is happening in the US regarding patenting of human milk components is not isolated to just the USA.

For example a new company in the USA, called Evolve Biosystems has 4 patent applications at the US Patent & Trademark Office. (patent applications #20170304375, #20180078589, #20180104157, #20180267037) Evolve Biosystems is marketing a product called Evivo, a probiotic (activated Bifidobacteria infantis) to be mixed with breast milk and given to babies to improve their gut health.  Interestingly David Kyle, a patent inventor and co-founder of Martek Biosciences, which manufactured DHA from algae (genetically engineered) and ARA fungi (genetically engineered) for infant formulas is Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer of Evolve.
https://www.evolvebiosystems.com/human-health

This isn't their only patent applications.  They also have a World Intellectual Property Organization patent application, European Patent Office application, Canadian patent application, Australian patent application, and Singapore patent application.  Thus the idea of meddling with breast milk to improve it will go world-wide.  And what will be the advertising?  And what is the science behind believing that breast milk needs improvement?  And how many mothers will no longer exclusively breastfeed so that they can add this probiotic (that is already in breast milk).  This probiotic will be used with specific HMOs.  Thus this product is joined with the promotion and commercialization of HMOs
 https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2017156550A1/en

The global nature of the human milk and infant formula industries;  and the power of internet advertising and social media will create a combined infant food industry that will be difficult to stop.  Genetic engineering is the way in which these products are being manufactured.  Hopefully more people will educate themselves about the risks of genetic engineering.  Or at least read the article on GMO Myths & Truths mentioned at the beginning of this post.
Copyright 2019 Valerie W. McClain