The crisis of infant baby formula in the United States (opinion)

 Much is being seen in the news here in the United States about the appalling  shortage of infant baby formula in stores across the US. This points to a many faceted problem and need for remediation. Just how we as a society reached this point and how this particular problem came into being is a reflection on our society as a whole and it is important to address.

First and foremost is the need to immediately provide for the little ones who need this product and to do so posthaste. If the product is really nonexistent at this point in time, find the ways and means to get those factories running 24/7 to provide it and ship it with armed, military escort if necessary to distribution points. No we don't want a military engaged, but we do need to feed those little ones.

Then we need to address the problem of how we reached this state of need in our country. We are not at war. We are not in major famine, drought, or plague distress. We are running pretty much as a normal day-to-day United States of America consumer nation. So what brought us to this state? Until we can solve that problem, we will continue to have issues of product supply from time to time. We've seen this with other items during the shut down caused by Covid. We will see it again.

But when it strikes at the very lives of babies who are our future and who are totally dependent on us, it should shake us from the very top of our heads to the soles of our feet with a mind jarring, body rattling fierceness! 

This is akin to cutting off live-giving water.

So the problem needs fixing. Immediately. And fixed so that it can not occur again.

Before today's baby formula existed, babies were breast fed. If not breast fed, they were given milk from cows and sometimes goats. These milk products were sterilized, had sugars added, diluted sometimes with boiled water. Babies survived. Lived. But we've grown beyond using these products because powdered, manufactured baby formula is so much better. (Note: No formula, no matter how well made, can supersede the nutritional value of breastfeeding.)

But it is only better if you can get it. 

I realize that all babies do not thrive on the baby formulas of times past, but they do live. Babies with no source of food do not live.