tuesday

Little man and I went out last night for a date. We saw 'Over the Hedge', which was really very entertaining. Tristan enjoyed it also. Best exchange, remembered as well as I can:

Verne: What is that?
RJ: It's a SUV.
Verne: Why do humans use them?
RJ: Because they are slowly losing their ability to walk.

Yeah, I'd see it again. I really like it that we can still make fun of ourselves.

The Prolacta milk bank story is the weird news of the month. This pharma company is soliciting unpaid donations from lactating mothers, homogenizing and pasteurizing the milk (thereby turning it into a dead substance and destroying many of its benefits), adding calories, and then selling it to hospitals at the tune of $45 an ounce. Prolacta boasts that they have the capacity to process 10 million ounces of breastmilk a year.

Oh, there is so much about this that gets me riled up. First, they are assuming that they can get that much --- 10 million ounces a year! --- without even paying the mothers for their time and effort. Natural breastmilk is worthless, after all. And then they process it and sell the resulting substance --- and I don't think that processed, dead, fortified breastmilk is authentic breastmilk anymore --- and sell it as superior to "regular" human milk, and at prices that ensure that only the very rich or very well-insured can afford it. Sounds like the formula makers (processed breastmilk is, essentially, commercialized formula) are getting smarter; I hope mothers don't give them what they want.