Breastfeeding is Green. 

While it is common knowledge that breast milk is the best source of food for babies, many people are not aware that breastfeeding is great for the environment. Do you know how truly green it is to breastfeed? Consider the following:

1. The fabrication of artificial baby milk is an inefficient use of land. Each cow used to produce baby formula needs 10,000 square meters of land, which leads to deforestation and soil erosion.

2. The manufacturing of packaging for artificial baby milk creates toxin and uses paper, plastic and tin. For every 3 million bottle-fed babies, 450 million tins of formula are consumed. The metal in the tin cans is not recyclable.

3. The manufacturing of artificial baby milk contaminates water. The sewage from dairy cows and fertilizers used to grow feed for cows pollutes rivers and ground waters.

4. The production of artificial baby milk, baby bottles, nipples and other bottle-
feeding accessories require a great amount of energy worldwide. Not to mention it takes vast amounts of water used clean used bottles on a daily basis.

5. The transportation of the raw materials for the manufacturing of formula and the transportation to and from the store use up precious fuel and create CO2 emissions.

6. Breastfeeding is a natural birth control. Women who are exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months after childbirth have a less than one percent chance of getting pregnant. This helps to control the world’s population.

7. Mothers who exclusively breast feed have their menstruation delayed, saving on insurmountable amounts of paper used in sanitary products. The nursing baby uses breast milk efficiently therefore they have fewer diapers. Producing diapers, tampons and pads require fibers, bleaches, packaging, and fuel used in the manufacturing and distribution, especially if cloth alternatives are not used.

And the list goes on.

Footnotes:

1. N. Baumslag & D. Michels, Milk, Money, and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding (Westport, CT/London: Bergin & Garvey, 1995), p. 93.

2. Associated Press, "Pediatrics Group Urges a Year of Breastfeeding”, Chicago Tribune, 3 December 1997, Sec. 1, p. 3.

3. N. Baumslag & D. Michels, Milk, Money, and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding (Westport, CT/London: Bergin & Garvey, 1995), 74-80.

4. "Breastfeeding Remains Best Choice in a Polluted World" (Schaumburg, IL: La Leche League International Earth Day press release), April 1996.

5. "Formula Recalls," Mothering, January-February 1998, pp. 62-63.

6. N. Baumslag & D. Michels, Milk, Money, and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding (Westport, CT/London: Bergin & Garvey, 1995), p.141.

7. A. Radford, "The Ecological Impact of Bottle Feeding," Breastfeeding Review (May 1992), pp. 204-208.