Sunday, July 08, 2018

Yet another Trump regime atrocity


If they don't survive infancy, those children from "shit-hole" countries will not make it to the border. To prop up the profits of wealthy first world vendors of baby formula, the Trump administration is trying to undermine cooperative work for better health across the globe.

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times reports that a resolution affirming what decades of research has proved, that breast feeding is safer and better for babies than commercial processed formula products, was set to glide through the World Health Assembly. That is, until U.S. reps started throwing their weight around for the benefit of corporate behemoths like Abbott Laboratories and Nestle.

American officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding” and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.

When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.

The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.

Ecuador is depending on U.S. aid at present because it fears the failing Columbian state on its border. Poor nations in Africa and Latin America feared to step up for the resolution amid U.S. threats. In the end the resolution was presented -- and passed with only minor nods to the baby food industry demands. Russia stepped up to sponsor it, despite being the site of significant recent Nestle investment.

... the Americans did not threaten them.

... The $70 billion industry, which is dominated by a handful of American and European companies, has seen sales flatten in wealthy countries in recent years, as more women embrace breast-feeding. Overall, global sales are expected to rise by 4 percent in 2018, according to Euromonitor, with most of that growth occurring in developing nations.

If these children can't survive infancy, they'll never show up at the border, right?

2 comments:

Joared said...

Can’t keep,up with all the Trump regimne atrocities which defy common sense and science.

Rain Trueax said...
This comment has been removed by the author.