
Portions of a baby formula display shelf were empty at a Walmart grocery store in Orlando on May 8, 2022. (Photo: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Portions of a baby formula display shelf were empty at a Walmart grocery store in Orlando on May 8, 2022. (Photo: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A group of progressive House Democrats led by Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Ayanna Pressley sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday urging the White House to use all available executive authorities to end the nation's pressing baby formula shortage, which has been driven by corporate monopolization.
"President Biden must use every power available to him to end this shortage now and to prevent a near-monopoly such as this one from creating another crisis in the future."
"In a country with innumerable resources available, our babies and anyone who relies on specialty powdered formula to meet their nutritional needs should never go without," Bowman (N.Y.) said in a statement. "We are experiencing a severe and nationwide baby formula shortage due to Abbott Nutrition's corporate greed that prioritized profits over people."
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shut down Abbott's plant in Sturgis, Michigan in February after several infants who consumed formulas manufactured there were hospitalized with bacterial infections and at least two died. Select batches of Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare powders produced at Abbott's Sturgis facility were also removed from shelves due to safety concerns.
As the letter makes clear, the corporate giant has routinely put its bottom line over public health: "Infant formula made by Abbott Nutrition tested positive for a deadly bacteria at least twice in 2019 during FDA inspections under the Trump administration that resulted in no corrective actions from the previous administration. Later in 2021, Abbott Nutrition chose to continue selling contaminated powdered infant formulas to the public for four months despite evidence of deadly bacteria found at a facility in September 2021."
Because just four companies--Abbott, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle, and Perrigo--control almost 90% of the U.S. baby formula market, parents have been left scrambling to feed their newborns amid the manufacturing pause and product recall. Abbott also happens to be the exclusive supplier of formula for over half of the nation's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agencies. WIC is the nation's largest purchaser of baby formula, and program beneficiaries can only be reimbursed if they buy the brands that contract with the government.
"Families not having access to safe and affordable baby formula is a national emergency," said Rep. Grace Meng (N.Y.), "which is why we are asking the president to immediately take action to address this vital problem."
Warning that the "lives of millions of babies are in danger right now," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, urged Biden to use all tools at the federal government's disposal "to get formula back on the shelves, get our most vulnerable fed, and ensure this never happens again."
Related Content
The FDA on Monday reached an agreement with Abbott on the steps that need to be taken before its shuttered plant can resume production, which might start to alleviate the ongoing baby formula shortage.
But progressives are demanding that the White House go further to address the current emergency and prevent future ones.
"President Biden must use every power available to him," said Bowman, "to end this shortage now and to prevent a near-monopoly such as this one from creating another crisis in the future."
In their letter to the president, the lawmakers implored Biden "to do everything within your executive authority, across all federal agencies, and in partnership with state and local governments to address the infant formula shortage impacting families across our country."
Specifically, the letter continues:
It is imperative that the federal government work to immediately investigate the causes of these shortages and work to diligently and safely increase domestic supply while ensuring that families are protected from price gouging. We request that you direct all agencies to identify and utilize all authorities, available funds, and capacity that can be dedicated to ending the infant formula shortage, including current authorities available through the public health emergency for Covid-19, and any and all authorities under the Defense Production Act.
[...]
Additionally, your administration should engage, to the greatest extent feasible, early childhood development experts, pediatric nutritionists, and community action agencies on sustainable solutions. Further, we urge that the Federal Trade Commission pursue a robust and wide-ranging study of the infant formula industry to identify the practices and conditions that led to the shortage and to establish the necessary regulatory response.
A reliable, affordable supply of safe and nutritious infant formula is critical for healthy growth and development of our children. Neuroscience research has shown that 80% of the foundation of a child's brain development occurs in the first 1,000 days of life, which means the first three years of a child's life is critical for a child's health, learning, and executive function. Without access to proper nutrition, babies will face starvation at a formative period of development that will have long-lasting consequences over the course of their lives. Our youngest children are not the only ones particularly vulnerable. Recent estimates have shown that about 2,000 people live with severe metabolic, gastrointestinal, and allergic disorders that require them to rely on formula as a means of survival. In the wealthiest nation in the world, a formula shortage is a form of violence that should be absolutely inconceivable.
In addition to calling for executive action, the members of Congress made clear their commitment "to moving urgently on any and all legislative actions to ensure an immediate, short-term response to the infant formula shortage, with transparency and accountability for the actions of Abbott Nutrition and any other manufacturers who have heinously profited from the shortage."
The lawmakers also emphasized the need for "long-term solutions that include more equitable economic planning for critical sectors and supplies, like infant formula, and ensuring such frameworks prioritize a full supply chain public option and other measures to prevent against corporate interests that put profits over people, including our very youngest and most vulnerable."
As Pressley (Mass.) put it, "We have an infant hunger crisis looming and a whole of government response is required."
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A group of progressive House Democrats led by Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Ayanna Pressley sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday urging the White House to use all available executive authorities to end the nation's pressing baby formula shortage, which has been driven by corporate monopolization.
"President Biden must use every power available to him to end this shortage now and to prevent a near-monopoly such as this one from creating another crisis in the future."
"In a country with innumerable resources available, our babies and anyone who relies on specialty powdered formula to meet their nutritional needs should never go without," Bowman (N.Y.) said in a statement. "We are experiencing a severe and nationwide baby formula shortage due to Abbott Nutrition's corporate greed that prioritized profits over people."
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shut down Abbott's plant in Sturgis, Michigan in February after several infants who consumed formulas manufactured there were hospitalized with bacterial infections and at least two died. Select batches of Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare powders produced at Abbott's Sturgis facility were also removed from shelves due to safety concerns.
As the letter makes clear, the corporate giant has routinely put its bottom line over public health: "Infant formula made by Abbott Nutrition tested positive for a deadly bacteria at least twice in 2019 during FDA inspections under the Trump administration that resulted in no corrective actions from the previous administration. Later in 2021, Abbott Nutrition chose to continue selling contaminated powdered infant formulas to the public for four months despite evidence of deadly bacteria found at a facility in September 2021."
Because just four companies--Abbott, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle, and Perrigo--control almost 90% of the U.S. baby formula market, parents have been left scrambling to feed their newborns amid the manufacturing pause and product recall. Abbott also happens to be the exclusive supplier of formula for over half of the nation's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agencies. WIC is the nation's largest purchaser of baby formula, and program beneficiaries can only be reimbursed if they buy the brands that contract with the government.
"Families not having access to safe and affordable baby formula is a national emergency," said Rep. Grace Meng (N.Y.), "which is why we are asking the president to immediately take action to address this vital problem."
Warning that the "lives of millions of babies are in danger right now," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, urged Biden to use all tools at the federal government's disposal "to get formula back on the shelves, get our most vulnerable fed, and ensure this never happens again."
Related Content
The FDA on Monday reached an agreement with Abbott on the steps that need to be taken before its shuttered plant can resume production, which might start to alleviate the ongoing baby formula shortage.
But progressives are demanding that the White House go further to address the current emergency and prevent future ones.
"President Biden must use every power available to him," said Bowman, "to end this shortage now and to prevent a near-monopoly such as this one from creating another crisis in the future."
In their letter to the president, the lawmakers implored Biden "to do everything within your executive authority, across all federal agencies, and in partnership with state and local governments to address the infant formula shortage impacting families across our country."
Specifically, the letter continues:
It is imperative that the federal government work to immediately investigate the causes of these shortages and work to diligently and safely increase domestic supply while ensuring that families are protected from price gouging. We request that you direct all agencies to identify and utilize all authorities, available funds, and capacity that can be dedicated to ending the infant formula shortage, including current authorities available through the public health emergency for Covid-19, and any and all authorities under the Defense Production Act.
[...]
Additionally, your administration should engage, to the greatest extent feasible, early childhood development experts, pediatric nutritionists, and community action agencies on sustainable solutions. Further, we urge that the Federal Trade Commission pursue a robust and wide-ranging study of the infant formula industry to identify the practices and conditions that led to the shortage and to establish the necessary regulatory response.
A reliable, affordable supply of safe and nutritious infant formula is critical for healthy growth and development of our children. Neuroscience research has shown that 80% of the foundation of a child's brain development occurs in the first 1,000 days of life, which means the first three years of a child's life is critical for a child's health, learning, and executive function. Without access to proper nutrition, babies will face starvation at a formative period of development that will have long-lasting consequences over the course of their lives. Our youngest children are not the only ones particularly vulnerable. Recent estimates have shown that about 2,000 people live with severe metabolic, gastrointestinal, and allergic disorders that require them to rely on formula as a means of survival. In the wealthiest nation in the world, a formula shortage is a form of violence that should be absolutely inconceivable.
In addition to calling for executive action, the members of Congress made clear their commitment "to moving urgently on any and all legislative actions to ensure an immediate, short-term response to the infant formula shortage, with transparency and accountability for the actions of Abbott Nutrition and any other manufacturers who have heinously profited from the shortage."
The lawmakers also emphasized the need for "long-term solutions that include more equitable economic planning for critical sectors and supplies, like infant formula, and ensuring such frameworks prioritize a full supply chain public option and other measures to prevent against corporate interests that put profits over people, including our very youngest and most vulnerable."
As Pressley (Mass.) put it, "We have an infant hunger crisis looming and a whole of government response is required."
A group of progressive House Democrats led by Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Ayanna Pressley sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday urging the White House to use all available executive authorities to end the nation's pressing baby formula shortage, which has been driven by corporate monopolization.
"President Biden must use every power available to him to end this shortage now and to prevent a near-monopoly such as this one from creating another crisis in the future."
"In a country with innumerable resources available, our babies and anyone who relies on specialty powdered formula to meet their nutritional needs should never go without," Bowman (N.Y.) said in a statement. "We are experiencing a severe and nationwide baby formula shortage due to Abbott Nutrition's corporate greed that prioritized profits over people."
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shut down Abbott's plant in Sturgis, Michigan in February after several infants who consumed formulas manufactured there were hospitalized with bacterial infections and at least two died. Select batches of Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare powders produced at Abbott's Sturgis facility were also removed from shelves due to safety concerns.
As the letter makes clear, the corporate giant has routinely put its bottom line over public health: "Infant formula made by Abbott Nutrition tested positive for a deadly bacteria at least twice in 2019 during FDA inspections under the Trump administration that resulted in no corrective actions from the previous administration. Later in 2021, Abbott Nutrition chose to continue selling contaminated powdered infant formulas to the public for four months despite evidence of deadly bacteria found at a facility in September 2021."
Because just four companies--Abbott, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle, and Perrigo--control almost 90% of the U.S. baby formula market, parents have been left scrambling to feed their newborns amid the manufacturing pause and product recall. Abbott also happens to be the exclusive supplier of formula for over half of the nation's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agencies. WIC is the nation's largest purchaser of baby formula, and program beneficiaries can only be reimbursed if they buy the brands that contract with the government.
"Families not having access to safe and affordable baby formula is a national emergency," said Rep. Grace Meng (N.Y.), "which is why we are asking the president to immediately take action to address this vital problem."
Warning that the "lives of millions of babies are in danger right now," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, urged Biden to use all tools at the federal government's disposal "to get formula back on the shelves, get our most vulnerable fed, and ensure this never happens again."
Related Content
The FDA on Monday reached an agreement with Abbott on the steps that need to be taken before its shuttered plant can resume production, which might start to alleviate the ongoing baby formula shortage.
But progressives are demanding that the White House go further to address the current emergency and prevent future ones.
"President Biden must use every power available to him," said Bowman, "to end this shortage now and to prevent a near-monopoly such as this one from creating another crisis in the future."
In their letter to the president, the lawmakers implored Biden "to do everything within your executive authority, across all federal agencies, and in partnership with state and local governments to address the infant formula shortage impacting families across our country."
Specifically, the letter continues:
It is imperative that the federal government work to immediately investigate the causes of these shortages and work to diligently and safely increase domestic supply while ensuring that families are protected from price gouging. We request that you direct all agencies to identify and utilize all authorities, available funds, and capacity that can be dedicated to ending the infant formula shortage, including current authorities available through the public health emergency for Covid-19, and any and all authorities under the Defense Production Act.
[...]
Additionally, your administration should engage, to the greatest extent feasible, early childhood development experts, pediatric nutritionists, and community action agencies on sustainable solutions. Further, we urge that the Federal Trade Commission pursue a robust and wide-ranging study of the infant formula industry to identify the practices and conditions that led to the shortage and to establish the necessary regulatory response.
A reliable, affordable supply of safe and nutritious infant formula is critical for healthy growth and development of our children. Neuroscience research has shown that 80% of the foundation of a child's brain development occurs in the first 1,000 days of life, which means the first three years of a child's life is critical for a child's health, learning, and executive function. Without access to proper nutrition, babies will face starvation at a formative period of development that will have long-lasting consequences over the course of their lives. Our youngest children are not the only ones particularly vulnerable. Recent estimates have shown that about 2,000 people live with severe metabolic, gastrointestinal, and allergic disorders that require them to rely on formula as a means of survival. In the wealthiest nation in the world, a formula shortage is a form of violence that should be absolutely inconceivable.
In addition to calling for executive action, the members of Congress made clear their commitment "to moving urgently on any and all legislative actions to ensure an immediate, short-term response to the infant formula shortage, with transparency and accountability for the actions of Abbott Nutrition and any other manufacturers who have heinously profited from the shortage."
The lawmakers also emphasized the need for "long-term solutions that include more equitable economic planning for critical sectors and supplies, like infant formula, and ensuring such frameworks prioritize a full supply chain public option and other measures to prevent against corporate interests that put profits over people, including our very youngest and most vulnerable."
As Pressley (Mass.) put it, "We have an infant hunger crisis looming and a whole of government response is required."
While acknowledging that "hunger is a real issue in Gaza," the US ambassador to the UN repeated a debunked claim that the world's leading authority on starvation lowered its standards to declare a famine.
Every member nation of the United Nations Security Council except the United States on Wednesday affirmed that Israel's engineered famine in Gaza is "man-made" as 10 more Palestinians died of starvation amid what UN experts warned is a worsening crisis.
Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members issued a joint statement calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and lifting of all Israeli restrictions on aid delivery into the embattled strip, where hundreds of Palestinians have died from starvation and hundreds of thousands more are starving.
"Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately," they said. "Time is of the essence. The humanitarian emergency must be addressed without delay and Israel must reverse course."
"We express our profound alarm and distress at the IPC data on Gaza, published last Friday. It clearly and unequivocally confirms famine," the statement said, referring to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification's declaration of Phase 5, or a famine "catastrophe," in the strip.
"We trust the IPC's work and methodology," the 14 countries declared. "This is the first time famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region. Every day, more persons are dying as a result of malnutrition, many of them children."
"This is a man-made crisis," the statement stresses. "The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law."
Israel, which is facing a genocide case at the UN's International Court of Justice, denies the existence of famine in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Court of Justice for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation.
The 14 countries issuing the joint statement are: Algeria, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, and the United Kingdom.
While acknowledging that "hunger is a real issue in Gaza and that there are significant humanitarian needs which must be met," US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea rejected the resolution and the IPC's findings.
"We can only solve problems with credibility and integrity," Shea told the Security Council. "Unfortunately, the recent report from the IPC doesn't pass the test on either."
Shea also repeated the debunked claim that the IPC's "normal standards were changed for [the IPC famine] declaration."
The Security Council's affirmation that the Gaza famine is man-made mirrors the findings of food experts who have accused Israel of orchestrating a carefully planned campaign of mass starvation in the strip.
The UN Palestinian Rights Bureau and UN humanitarian officials also warned Wednesday that the famine in Gaza is "only getting worse."
"Over half a million people currently face starvation, destitution, and death," the humanitarian experts said. "By the end of September, that number could exceed 640,000."
"Failure to act now will have irreversible consequences," they added.
Wednesday's UN actions came as Israel intensified Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, the campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians from Gaza, possibly into a reportedly proposed concentration camp that would be built over the ruins of the southern city of Rafah.
The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) on Wednesday reported 10 more Palestinian deaths "due to famine and malnutrition" over the past 24 hours, including two children, bringing the number of famine victims to at least 313, 119 of them children.
All told, Israel's 691-day assault and siege on Gaza has left at least 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to the GHM.
"What would the reaction would be if an Arab state wrote this about synagogues and Jews?" asked one critic.
Israel faced backlash this week after its Arabic-language account on the social media site X published a message warning Europeans to take action against the proliferation of mosques and "remove" Muslims from their countries.
"In the year 1980, there were only fewer than a hundred mosques in Europe. As for today, there are more than 20,000 mosques. This is the true face of colonization," posted Israel, a settler-colonial state whose nearly 2 million Muslim citizens face widespread discrimination, and where Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories live under an apartheid regime.
"This is what is happening while Europe is oblivious and does not care about the danger," the post continues. "And the danger does not lie in the existence of mosques in and of themselves, for freedom of worship is one of the basic human rights, and every person has the right to believe and worship his Lord."
"The problem lies in the contents that are taught in some of these mosques, and they are not limited to piety and good deeds, but rather focus on encouraging escalating violence in the streets of Europe, and spreading hatred for the other and even for those who host them in their countries, and inciting against them instead of teaching love, harmony, and peace," Israel added. "Europe must wake up and remove this fifth column."
Referring to the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Berlin-based journalist James Jackson replied on X that "even the AfD don't tweet, 'Europe must wake up and remove this fifth column' over a map of mosques."
Other social media users called Israel's post "racist" and "Islamophobic," while some highlighted the stark contrast between the way Palestinians and Israelis treat Christian people and institutions.
Others noted that some of the map's fearmongering figures misleadingly showing a large number of mosques indicate countries whose populations are predominantly or significantly Muslim.
"Russia has 8,000 mosques? Who would've known a country with millions of Muslim Central Asians and Caucasians would need so many!" said one X user.
Israel's post came amid growing international outrage over its 691-day assault and siege on Gaza, which has left more than 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and hundreds of thousands more starving and facing ethnic cleansing as Operation Gideon's Chariots 2—a campaign to conquer, occupy, and "cleanse" the strip—ramps up amid a growing engineered famine that has already killed hundreds of people.
Israel is facing an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives form the International Criminal Court, where they are wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and forced starvation.
European nations including Belgium, Ireland, and Spain are supporting the South Africa-led ICJ genocide case against Israel. Since October 2023, European countries including Belgium, France, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have either formally recognized Palestinian statehood or announced their intention to do so.
"This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
The Trump administration is reportedly putting new restrictions on nonprofit organizations that would bar them from helping undocumented immigrants affected by natural disasters.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is "now barring states and volunteer groups that receive government funds from helping undocumented immigrants" while also requiring these groups "to cooperate with immigration officials and enforcement operations."
Documents obtained by the paper reveal that all volunteer groups that receive government money to help in the wake of disasters must not "operate any program that benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal immigration." What's more, the groups are prohibited from "harboring, concealing, or shielding from detection illegal aliens" and must "provide access to detainees, such as when an immigration officer seeks to interview a person who might be a removable alien."
The order pertains to faith-based aid groups such as the Salvation Army and Red Cross that are normally on the front lines building shelters and providing assistance during disasters.
Scott Robinson, an emergency management expert who teaches at Arizona State University, told The Washington Post that there is no historical precedent for requiring disaster victims to prove proof of their legal status before receiving assistance.
"The notion that the federal government would use these operations for surveillance is entirely new territory," he said.
Many critics were quick to attack the administration for threatening to punish nonprofit groups that help undocumented immigrants during natural disasters.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) lashed out at the decision to bar certain people from receiving assistance during humanitarian emergencies.
"When disaster hits, we cannot only help those with certain legal status," she wrote in a social media post. "We have an obligation to help every single person in need. This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that restrictions on faith-based groups such as the Salvation Army amounted to a violation of their First Amendment rights.
"Arguably the most anti-religious administration in history," he wrote. "Just nakedly hostile to those who wish to practice their faith."
Bloomberg columnist Erika Smith labeled the new DHS policy "truly cruel and crazy—even for this administration."
Author Charles Fishman also labeled the new policy "crazy" and said it looks like the Trump administration is "trying to crush even charity."
Catherine Rampell, a former columnist at The Washington Post, simply described the new DHS policy as "evil."