“The
inconvenient truth about breastfeeding is that breasts are, invariably,
attached to a person.”
—A Bold and
Controversial Idea for Making Breast Milk:
The obsession with breastfeeding has inspired a start-up to make human
milk outside the human body.” by Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 2/27/2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/lab-grown-breast-milk/606955/
How inconvenient that breasts are attached to people,
that mammary glands aren’t hanging from trees; to be plucked and harvested by
our trusty scientists. Culturing mammary
cells outside the body, requires that women donate their excess milk producing
cells. Scientists have gotten these
cells, Human Milk Epithelial Cells (HMEC), from women who have undergone
reduction mammoplasty or biopsy. Research scientists can buy HMEC from various
companies. ThermoFisher Scientific cells
a vial of HMEC for $806. But BIOMILQ
states that they are using the company, American Type Culture Collection (ATCC)
for their HMEC right now (price $623). https://www.atcc.org/products/all/PCS-600-010.aspx
They are accepting donations of HMEC. Do women who have reduction surgeries or
biopsies know that their mammary cells have monetary value? Or do they assume that all that excess tissue
is thrown in the local landfill?
The Atlantic article describes the start-up biotech
company, BIOMILQ, as “a bioreactor of lactating human breast cells.” We now have lab-grown meat (cultured meat),
so why not lab-grown human milk (cultured human milk)? Lab-grown meat is described as
environmentally clean food. So I suppose
that the lab-grown human milk will be billed as environmentally clean food.
The article states the reasons for needing this new biotech company are: a person might get sick and not be able to breastfeed, many women have to return to work at 2 weeks postpartum because the US does not have guaranteed paid leave, and there is no place to pump at work. The reasoning seems quite irrational. In most cases being sick is no reason to stop breastfeeding. In fact, the mother will transfer antibodies to the infant, if she has contracted a pathogenic illness. One of the solutions to the problem of having to go back to work at 2 weeks postpartum or not having a place to pump is in changing laws so that people are paid to stay home to take care of their baby. Particularly now that so many people in the US are unemployed, it would make sense to help families with new babies by paying them to stay home. This would certainly help the breastfeeding mother. But instead of finding a solution to help mothers breastfeed longer or exclusively, companies are forming to exploit the vulnerability of the breastfeeding mother.
The website of BIOMILQ makes the following statements,
“Breastfeeding is hard for most and impossible for
many.”
“We’re women-owned, science-led and mother centered.”
“Exclusive breastfeeding is unrealistic for some and
impossible for many…”
Why is breastfeeding/exclusive breastfeeding hard and
impossible? I would suggest it is hard
and impossible because our society is institutionally structured to make it
hard and impossible. We need to examine
how mothers are treated during pregnancy and birth. How society’s cavalier approach to separating
mothers and babies creates enormous difficulties for mothers and babies. Employment in our society is a judgment of a
person’s worth. There is no recognition
for the importance of care-giving for infants and elders, or the sick and
disabled. Instead our society believes
in warehousing the “inconvenient” children, elders, and disabled into
institutions. Institutions have to organize
the group rather than caring for the individual. That so many individuals in our society feel untouched,
unhappy, and lonely is not surprising.
Is the solution to manufacture a substitute for
breastfeeding? At present the company is working on producing just 2
components, casein and lactose. Human milk has hundreds of components. For example there are over 200 Human Milk
Oligosaccharides (HMOs). Some infant
formula companies are just now including 2 HMOs into their products. Most of the patents on the manufacture of
HMOs are about genetically engineering them through a fermentation process
using the bacteria, e.coli.
I certainly like the idea of a women-owned,
science-led, and mother-centered company.
But just because women are involved doesn’t mean that the ultimate
purpose of such a company is in the best interest of women and families globally. Just because they “say” they are a mother-centered
company doesn’t mean much. What is more
important is what they “do.” Their product
displaces breastfeeding. The ultimate purpose in our capitalist society is for
companies to make a profit. The use of
human cells taken from women to create a profit reminds me of a kind of biological
slavery. Do women know that their
mammary tissue/cells will be the source of profit for a company? BIOMILQ’s website states that breastfeeding
and exclusive breastfeeding is hard and impossible for most women reminds me of
infant formula advertising. Actually the
infant formula industry is much more subtle in their advertising. BIOMILQ is much bolder about their views on
breastfeeding.
The founders of this start-up company are Leila
Strickland, PhD, CMPP, and Michelle Egger.
According to several articles on the company and about the founders of
the company, Leila Strickland has 2 children and breastfed them. She had trouble breastfeeding. Both babies were premature and premature
babies often have difficulties feeding and not just with breastfeeding. Her troubles led her to think about a better
complementary milk product for breastfeeding mothers than is currently
available. She has a PhD in cell biology
from Stanford University, and so she began to experiment with cell cultures.
One of the problems with cell culture’s manufacturing substances is that cells
are kept alive by media and mammary cells would secrete their milk into the
media. Finding a way to keep the milk
from mixing with the media would be a first step in creating a cultured
milk. Yet I have to wonder; if one is
feeding the mammary cells with media, then isn’t the milk cells contaminated
with media? Do cells throw up a barrier against the media? Keeping cells immortal in a lab, would seem
to mean that one is feeding them the media.
In my opinion feeding is ingestion.
https://www.new-harvest.org/biomilq_announces_breastmilk
For further information on various media used in cell
cultures: https://www.biologydiscussion.com/biotechnology/animal-biotechnology/culture-media-for-animal-cells-an-overview/10499
Leila Strickland has several other companies that she
has co-founded: 108 Labs- a cellular agriculture incubator, NeutraSiga-creation
of antibodies to neutralize pathogens and cancer. http://www.quantum-weft-129523.appspot.com/
Strickland is also a Certified Medical Publication
Professional (CMPP). She has edited and
written articles for medical publications.
Michelle Eggers is a food scientist with an MBA from
Duke University. She has worked/interned
for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
BIOMILQ just received $3.5 million in Series A funding
from Breakthrough Energy Ventures which was co-founded by Bill Gates, Jeff
Bezos, Sir Richard Branson, and Mark Zuckerberg. It is an investment firm focused on environmental-friendly
alternatives to combat climate change.
Fascinating that billionaires would think that manufacturing a breast
milk substitute would be more environmentally-friendly than breastfeeding. Yet lab-grown breast milk will require the
use of bottles and pacifiers. This would
mean more plastic and more environmental degradation. Infant milk products require packaging. So we create more trash in our landfills. The
premise of breast milk substitutes is that mothers and babies will be
separated. Instead of encouraging
breastfeeding and minimal separation of mothers and babies, our capitalist
system supports the opposite. The more a
breastfeeding mother uses breast milk substitutes, the less breast milk she
produces resulting in early, eventual weaning.
Do billionaires really want to combat climate change or is the talisman of profit over people the real end game?
In April 2020. Dr. Robert M. McLean wrote an article
for the ACP Internist called, “Battling the hydra of the medical-industrial
complex.
“The Medical-industrial complex has become a
monster. It is devastating to our
patients, and it is devouring physicians at every level, physically,
emotionally, and even intellectually.
Smart minds have taken business models to the extreme in health
care-related corporations. Decisions on
resource allocation or new initiatives are driven by the critical concept of
return on investment (ROI).”
The commodification of human milk and now human mammary
cells is creating an illusion that what is lab-made is cleaner, an easier
reality than breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is slandered and libeled by breast milk substitute
companies. Who will defend
breastfeeding, when science backed by billionaires attacks the value of
breastfeeding?
Copyright 2020 Valerie W. McClain
