Smart people would look at the baby formula shortage, the baby formula industry and the regulatory regime that protects American producers and solve the problem by at least temporarily sweeping away tariffs and regulations that are causing the shortage. Solve the problem… now.
Instead, we have stupid people in our government. They don’t care about mothers and children. They care about control and the money that lines their pockets. They won’t remove the roadblocks that prevent supplies of baby formula from getting into an infant’s bottle because they know once those roadblocks are removed they’ll have a difficult time reinstating them.
If there ever was a poster child for over regulation and a need for a more free and open market it’s this baby formula fiasco.
New data suggest that the U.S. baby-formula shortage is deepening, particularly hitting states in the South and the Southwest.
Nationally, 23% of powdered baby formula was out of stock in the week ended May 22, compared with 21% during the previous week, according to the latest figures from market-research firm IRI. In the first week of January and before the recall of formula produced by Abbott Laboratories, 11% of powdered baby formula was out of stock because of pandemic-related supply-chain shortages and inflation. Before the pandemic, the normal out-of-stock range for powdered formula was 5% to 7%, according to IRI.
Government officials have said the shortage is especially acute for families that rely on subsidies from the federally funded Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, as well as for infants with special dietary needs. On May 12, the Biden administration announced a program to increase imports of formula until U.S. production returns to normal. In addition, the Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022 allows families to buy formula products beyond what the WIC program rules allow.
Baby Formula Shortage Worsens Hitting Low Income Families Hardest – WSJ
Image by Ben Kerckx from Pixabay