Breastfeeding and the Envirnonment

Human breast milk is the ultimate in renewable resources. It's there as soon as the baby arrives, in the quantity the baby needs, for as long as the mother and baby want it. In contrast, artificial feeding involves overgrazing of land by cattle; use of chemical fertilizers to grow the soy; use of valuable environmental resources for formula production; packaging and transportation of the product; use of water and fuel for mixing the product and heating it, for sterilizing bottles and nipples; waste disposal of the cans, bottles, accessories, cartons, etc. Breastmilk is the most ecological food available to humans.

The production and packaging of formula uses paper, glass, plastic, and metals, all of which need to be produced and disposed of.

• Production. - The industrial processes used to create artificial feeding products for babies use vast quantities of energy and natural resources (fuels) and create air pollution (acid rain and greenhouse gases).
• Disposal. The two most common disposal methods, landfill and incineration, both contribute greatly to pollution. Plastic feeding bottles and nipples will take 200 to 450 years to break down. Landfill sites are hard to come by in many countries and can pollute groundwater. Incineration releases pollutants into the air.
• Usa of Formula. Bottles and rubber nipples need to be sterilized by boiling them in water for ten minutes. Otherwise, disease and infection will result. When one considers the global or even national scope, even the water and energy used in homes to prepare formula and the bottles and nipples themselves (washing, boiling, etc) have a tremendous impact.

Human milk, on the other hand, requires no transportation, only a little more food for the mother, and can stand covered, in a clean cup, for up to six hours without becoming contaminated. This is true even in warm climates. Also, the production of breast milk creates no waste in need of disposing.

Breastfeeding and Overpopulation

In addition to sustaining lives that might otherwise be lost, breastfeeding actually helps to curb overpopulation by preventing more births than all other forms of contraception combined. This is largely because exclusive breastfeeding postpones the return of menses. In Africa, breastfeeding prevents an average of four births per woman; in Bangladesh it prevents an average of 6.5. A study in Chile found that none of the exclusively breastfeeding women had become pregnant within six months of birth, compared to 72% of non-breastfeeding women. Also, when survival rates are higher, as they are with breastfed children, birth rates naturally tend to be lower. In addition, the world's cow population is growing faster than the human population, and since cows are even bigger than humans and require more space, this is a particularly bad problem. Cows need lots of open grassland, and they tend to trample on it, which leads to erosion. When dairy farmers need more open grassland to raise more cows, they cut down forests, often rain forests, which leads to the extinction of various species and depletes the amount of oxygen being produced. Cows' waste products account for 20% of the world's annual methane emissions. Methane is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect. Solid waste from cows can contaminate local groundwater. In short, we need fewer cows. One way to accomplish this is to have more breastfeeding mothers. Of course, not all artificial baby milk comes from cows. Some of it comes from soya beans, which, in addition to being equally incapable of matching the benefits of human milk, is also a high-input crop, meaning that it needs a lot of pesticides and fertilizer (not to mention land) which can cause a lot of pollution. Major lending institutions encourage the production of soya beans, as well as the raising of cattle, as a way for poor countries to pay off their debts. Cows and soya beans are not the end of the ecological destruction wreaked by artificial milks. Transporting milk to processing plants (often a considerable distance) and transporting the final product to consumers (usually from overdeveloped countries to developing countries) requires enormous amounts of energy and adds to pollution and the depletion of global resources.

How the Environment Affects Breast Milk

The flip sise of the environmental impact of nursing formula is the ways in which the environment affects breast milk. PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs are all toxins that filter up the food chain and are present in human milk. These poisons come from insecticide use and large-scale burning of some substances. In the Great Lakes Basin, in Canada, a General Motors Plant is the site of perhaps the biggest PCB dump yet uncovered. The primary recipients of this contamination are the residents of the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation, downstream and downwind of the GM plant. A study of this population, undertaken by the women of the reservation, found elevated levels of a number of toxins in their breast milk, which are passed on, in concentrated doses, to their children. The media and some environmental groups tend to play up issues of environmental contaminants in mother's milk. In fact, except in situations of toxic spills or occupational exposure to hazardous levels, breastfeeding has caused no ill effects in babies. To the contrary, studies comparing breastfed and bottle-fed babies in the same environment have shown better development and less cancer in the breastfed babies. Furthermore, despite concerns about PCBs in breastmilk potentially producing infertility in the offspring, the major burden of PCBs gets to babies during pregnancy. Rather than calling for women to avoid breastfeeding, the call needs to be to continue to clean up the environment to safeguard everyone's health. Breastfeeding will contribute to this clean-up effort.

Despite this, the media and some environmental groups tend to play up issues of environmental contaminants in mother's milk. In fact, except in situations of toxic spills or occupational exposure to hazardous levels, breastfeeding has caused no ill effects in babies. To the contrary, studies comparing breastfed and bottle-fed babies in the same environment have shown better development and less cancer in the breastfed babies. Furthermore, despite concerns about PCBs in breastmilk potentially producing infertility in the offspring, the major burden of PCBs gets to babies during pregnancy. (Note: cows get exposed to PCBs, too, so artificial milks are not necessarily "pure," either.) A lesser known and less publicized issue is the fact that soy formulas contain phytoestrogens, which may have just as serious long-term effects. Rather than calling for women to avoid breastfeeding, the call needs to be to continue to clean up the environment to safeguard everyone's health. Breastfeeding will contribute to this clean-up effort.