INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – This week, the Joplin Globe ran Lucas Kunce’s op-ed about the current baby formula crisis, Abbott’s criminal actions, and the FDA’s failure to keep people safe. Below is full copy of the op-ed:
They’re guilty of corporate manslaughter. Prosecute them.
By, Lucas Kunce
Parents are rationing food for their babies because of a crippling baby formula shortage. In my state of Missouri, more than half of the baby formula supplies are sold out. This is a national emergency, and the people responsible should be in jail.
The baby formula industry is run by a corporate cartel — just four companies make nearly all the formula that Americans buy. If we had a real functioning market, we wouldn’t be in this situation. But in America, industry lobbyists and government bureaucrats have put just a handful of giant corporations in control of the price and supply of formula.
Their fancy public relations teams are trying to blame the current shortage on supply chains, but the truth is way more screwed up.
It is the direct result of Abbott Nutrition negligently killing two babies with contaminated formula and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s failure to respond.
In October 2021, a whistleblower from Abbott’s Sturgis, Michigan, plant sent the FDA a 34-page document outlining potential concerns, including contamination and sanitary issues. The FDA sat on the allegations until Jan. 31 before starting an investigation. Three months. By then, the bureaucrats were too late. Two babies who drank the contaminated formula had already died, and more were hospitalized.
After the FDA finally warned parents about the products in February, Abbott “voluntarily” recalled the contaminated baby formula — a move that gutted the baby formula supply across the country.
So why did the FDA wait so long to do something?
Because the FDA is captured by the very industries it’s supposed to protect us from. According to one survey, 40% of FDA employees are afraid to publicly voice safety concerns. And nearly 20% of FDA scientists had “been asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or their conclusions in a FDA scientific document.” The corruption runs deep, with drug companies seducing FDA employees by frequently hiring the same “agency staffers who managed their successful drug reviews.” The agency that’s supposed to protect us from getting killed by these giant corporations is literally owned by those same giant corporations.
It’s criminal, and our babies are paying the price. Here’s how we fight back.
First, we break up the baby formula cartel. The Department of Justice needs to actually enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act and break up the baby formula cartel so that it’s a functioning market, not just a few giant companies. Political elites won’t act because Abbott Nutrition’s corporate PAC has spent over $700,000 in campaign donations to Democrats and Republicans (nearly evenly split) in the last election. A classic American tale — bought-off politicians keeping their donors happy.
Next, we prosecute everyone at Abbott who helped hide the unsanitary plant conditions from the FDA. They killed two babies.
The Department of Justice must conduct a federal investigation, working with the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, into the whistleblower’s allegations, and real justice must be served — those found responsible should be prosecuted and jailed. This is corporate manslaughter.
Finally, we need to go after the FDA for failing to protect us. It is clear that FDA did not act with the urgency demanded by a threat to our babies’ food supply, and there must be accountability both for the individuals who dragged their feet while babies’ lives were at risk and for the system that let this happen. Fire anyone asleep at the FDA wheel. Redesign inspection processes to swiftly respond to real-world threats to food safety.
Crimes have consequences. And the criminals have to feel them. We everyday people have to stand up and demand justice. Especially when our feckless political class won’t.