Why America’s baby formula crisis is an entirely self-inflicted problem
In the name of safety, the government has protected the current oligopoly of formula manufacturers in the U.S. And the problem goes beyond baby formula.
In the two years since COVID first arrived in the U.S., Americans have had to get used to things being out of stock. Refrigerators, stoves, washers—at various points, global supply-chain issues have meant that each of these has been tough to come by. But while those stock-outs may have been annoying, Americans today are dealing with a shortage that’s actually serious: a dearth of infant formula. In the first week of May, the national out-of-stock rate for infant formula was 43%, and there’s no sign that things have improved since. And this supply-chain problem is different from those earlier ones in two ways. First, formula is not a product you can afford to wait for. (Babies need to be fed!) Second, this problem is largely self-inflicted.