BIOMILQ: The More Sustainable Option to Formula?
It’s hard to believe that even the tiniest beings can have such an impact on carbon footprint. In the midst of the climate crisis, breastfeeding is a significant way women can help to make a difference. Using considerably fewer water or land resources compared to formula feeding, breastfeeding produces no carbon emission and little to zero waste. A study showed exclusive breastfeeding early in one infant’s life saves 95-153kg of carbon dioxide equivalents, making breastfeeding the best option to decrease a baby’s carbon footprint.
As with any product, infant formula has an environmental footprint. Formula preparation is resource-intensive. Sterilizing powdered formula alone is responsible for the massive carbon dioxide emissions. And data shows that production and use contribute large numbers of waste, with 550 million baby formula cans, 86,000 tons of metal, and 364,000 tons of paper added to landfills yearly. Not to mention the addition of palm oil to powered formulas to maximize shelf life, which is a major contributor to global warming that requires the destruction of carbon-rich forests. With the formula industry growing, these facts are alarming to any environmentally conscious parent.
Investment in education, policy changes in support of breastfeeding working women, community awareness and advocacy, specialist healthcare support would all enable the majority of women to successfully breastfeed. However, there is still a small percentage of mother-baby dyads that due to medical, anatomical, and other reasons are needing to find an alternative resource. Thankfully, there is an exciting new option available that can check many boxes in regards to nutritional value and sustainability. Two women, one food scientist Michelle Egger and one cell biologist Leila Strickland, founded BIOMILQ to create just that. They aim to create a cultured product of human milk that provides families with a new choice for feeding infants, one that is nutritionally similar to breast milk and cultivated using one-of-a-kind technology.
Egger and Strickland developed a technology that has produced cultured breast milk that mimics the vital protein and sugar components of human-made breast milk. While the product is still in the experimental stages, we should expect BIOMILQ to greatly reduce a baby’s carbon footprint compared to alternative formula feeding. This is because BIOMILQ is grown from mammary glands found in the breast ducts of adult women and harvested free of waste using their own bioreactor systems (an apparatus that grows cells), unlike infant formula which requires mass production by the dairy industry and large degradation of land and water.
However, the milk cells created in a bioreactor would still be lacking the true components that make breastmilk breastmilk. Mainly antibodies, which are responsible for building up a baby's immunity from the mother’s own immune cells in her blood. Additionally, fats and hormones, necessary for nutrients and brain development, would be lost in this process. But it is still a better option, nutritiously and environmentally, than formula if breastfeeding is not an option.
Raising a baby takes a toll on the planet. But everyday breastfeeding mothers feed their babies, they contribute to protecting the environment. Not only does it protect your baby, but also your planet. Of course, if breastfeeding is not an option, lab-grown ‘human’ milk has become a new promising and environmentally friendly force in the industry that should be further explored.
By: Caroline Middleton
