America tries to tell the worlds infants No Boobs For You.

[The Grand Nudger]

This is an interesting one..and I think I;ve probably shared this before...but since it;s cropped up again I'll share again.  I used to work in the industry.  One of my last real jobs before I went full on ditchdigger.

The heart of this thing beats on account of a single company that did two amazing things in one stroke.  Firstly, they produced a product (and engineered legislation and language for that product) that made every formula manufacture include their merch.  In the process of doing so, however..and owing to the near indestructability of their product (it has an indefinite shelf life, lol) they immediately put themselves out of business as formula manufacturers rushed to buy up their product before that legislation and language was reverted.  The last bit never came to pass.  Hilariously, and despite the fact that the product and the manner in which it;s derived came under intense scrutiny.....baby formula is pretty much untouchable and a massively profitable component of welfare.  The manufacturers thought that the gov would come to it;s senses but who the hell knows why they thought that.  

The products in question are synthesized DHA and ARA.  They;re produced by cultivating algae in retrofitted breweries and then extracting those fatty acids by way of hexane distillation (a military grade neurotoxin).   This process (and the product) created a problem.  Its meant to fortify formula with chemicals found in breastmilk associated with brain and eye development but the synthesized versions are not chemically or nutritionally equivalent...nuerotoxin distillation gives people the jitters..and there is no consensus by way of clinical trial that the fortified formula has the intended effect.  This is by design.  They don;t want there to be trials beyond their own informal in-house deal.  They got around all the tape by getting the FDA to recognize these products as GRAS ingredients.  Generally Recognized As Safe......like food coloring.  

Just as all of this bad faith business was coming to light a PR nightmare occurred.  Someone leaked internal company emails in which the leading producer flat out admitted that the product had no certain benefits and might have unknown risks...but concluded that it didn;t matter, in the end..because the marketing was too solid.  The stuff -might- help with brain and eye development, and if just one formula producer put it in their product..combined with the sweetheart GRAS classification..no other producer could afford -not- to put it in their product.  This is when every producer went all in, and because of the pressure and publicity of the issue..stockpiled so much of the product at once that there was insufficient continuing business to keep the synthesizers up and running.  Given the scope of it;s inclusion and how the fda works they knew that a recall would never happened even if the additive was phased out.  Massive layoffs ensued.  

This left the fda holding the bag.  The lobbying to get the gras classification was hinky, and the usda had already made deals with formula manufacturers to supply wic.  This need to save face combined with the fact that formula really is a net good for childhood nutrition and development meant that the gov took a hardline pro-formula stance.  Even though the primary actors in this baby formula cash grab have long since dropped out of the picture (this all happened a decade ago, lol - and theyre still not entirely run out of their initial stockpiles) here we are..carrying water.  

Murica!

Heres a fun link from consumer reports.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news.../index.htm

In the near future, we expect non-DHA/ARA infant formula to become extinct unless consumer demand keeps it in play.

LOL, yeah..thats pretty much how the synthesizers thought of it too.

TLDR version...it has nothing to do with tits and everything to do with additives.