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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Filipinos duped by corporate interests
Thursday 28 June @ 14:11:32 |
 
by POLLY MANN
INFACT, the Nestle Boycott, born in Minneapolis over 25 years ago, eventually declared a victory in its fight against corporations selling infant formula to Third World mothers and disbanded. However, the battle was not won by any means. The Philippines is a case in point. A major health problem there is that only 16 percent of children between four and five months old are exclusively breastfed, one of the lowest documented rates on earth. As 70 percent of Filipinos have inadequate access to clean water essential for safe infant formula, the result is a public health disaster. Every year, according to the World Health Organization, 16,000 Filipino children die as a result of “inappropriate feeding practices.”
Recently, influenced by the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Philippine supreme court reversed a previous decision that forbade formula companies to distribute gifts or samples or to provide pro-formula propaganda to health workers or mothers.
In the past, the formula companies spent more than $100 million a year on advertising breast milk substitutes. Those most susceptible were the poor, also the most likely to be using contaminated water to make up the formula. Some spent as much as one-third of their household income on formula. Powdered milk accounts for more sales than any other consumer product in the Philippines and almost all is produced by companies based in the rich nations.
The Philippine department of health had asked a senior government lawyer, Nestor Ballocillo, to contest the order which allowed the formula companies to operate with little restriction. In December 2006 Ballocillo and his son were shot dead. Today local campaigners promoting breast feeding are readying their arguments to the supreme court to try, once again, to get the order lifted. At the same time the U.S. government and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have pulled out all stops in their fight for the right of infant formula companies to make a profit.
(Information from Guardian Weekly—June 15, 2007)
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