Joanne,

Posters on this board often say that to use modern concepts to analyze the AE is to 'steal' their culture. Similarily, we cannot ignore the past experience that nations such as India and South Africa have had with the Western 'science'.

35 years ago, western drug companies insisted that infant formula was better than breast milk. With your tax money and mine, these drug companies under the aegis of the WHO began an 'education' campaign to convince mothers in less developed countries to spend their meagre incomes on infant formula.

These women, mostly illiterate, listned to these preachings and began using powdered formula. Leaving aside the idiocy of the claim of the benefits of forumula over breast milk (since retracted), the drug companies didn't realize that most of these women didn't have access to safe drinking water. These women were forced to use water filled with bacteria and other impurities to mix the formula. In addition to losing the benefits of breast milk, these poor infants began experiencing severe problems with the digestive tracts.

If governments in India and South Africa are loathe to trust drug companies, perhaps this reluctance is borne from past experience.

Yet I am sure that had Johann Hari and his acolytes been around 35 years ago, they surely would have ridiculed anyone who stood in the way of introducing infant formula to less developed countries.

Barry