Why Is The National Trust Promoting Infant Formula and Baby Food?
The Partnership Between HiPP Organic and The National Trust is a Problem
This Friday, the National Trust for England and Wales announced a partnership with the company HiPP Organic. HiPP Organic is apparently the ‘official baby and toddler’ partner of the National Trust and for the first 50,000 people that join their ‘baby club’, they will plant a tree.
This came as a shock to everyone who knows anything about the issues with the marketing of baby food and breastmilk substitutes. The National Trust is not an organisation you would expect to promote a company that sells formula and baby food. The conservation charity is actively encouraging parents and parents-to-be to sign up to the company’s mailing list in return for planting a tree… This is a problem. The problem isn’t with people who choose or need to use formula or buy baby food. The issue is that guidelines and laws about advertising these products that exist for a reason. It’s also about the environment, promoting formula feeding damages the environment.
If you don’t understand why it’s an issue, here is a summary.
Firstly on the environmental issues, and then on the issues of marketing baby milk.
