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Men, You’re Allowed to Take a Back Seat In the Baby Formula Debate
My nephew wouldn’t have survived without it.
This week, in the dark world of Twitter I’m forced to inhabit because of my day job, I’ve encountered a topic Americans are currently debating.
The supply chain issues have now gotten to baby formula, and there are serious shortages around the country.
Infant nutrition is not as sexy as a new iPhone, I know, but it is a life-saving product, so I think it’s worth discussing.
Women Are Not Machines
I’ve learned two things from this deep dive into the secrets of the infant formula business.
First, that the issue, like so many in America is mainly created by an oligopoly situation. Unregulated capitalism has caused extreme concentration in the baby formula market. Add some pandemic-related supply chain issues and safety recalls after Abbott Nutrition closed its Michigan plant due to a bacterial infection that claimed the lives of two infants, and things got bad.
When there aren’t enough competitors and one of the major companies is out, there's nobody to satisfy the demand. For a life-saving product, this is unacceptable.
