coming up on in the loop. Is the U.S. Doing enough to
fight climate change. As President biden gets ready to
travel to one of the biggest global climate conf
of the year, we look at what other countries are say
about America's efforts. Plus could we be making
progress against misinformation online We explore how
social media platforms were abl to step up their fact
checking in this election cycle This is in the loop.
I'm Cody logro in for christian Bryant. We'll hav
plenty more on both of those stories and we've got a
ton of other great reporting packed into today's
edition of in the loop. But first let's start today
with a story that's still creating challenges for
families across the country. The baby formula shortage.
Baby formula is easier to find in most parts of the
country than it was back in the spring. But the
shortage is not completely over In some regions of the
country, parents in search of baby formula in their
local store are still finding empty shelves and not
every brand has been able to get back up to 100% just
yet. Which can have huge consequences for parents w
rely on Formulas to keep their babies healthy. Data
from late October released by market research firm I ri
worldwide found that 87% of store shelves had baby
formula back in stock that's near the level from before
the shortage and well above the low of 69% from near
the peak of the shortage in the summer. But just
because it's on the shelves does not mean it's easy to
find everywhere. A U.S. Census Bureau survey found that
the shortage still looks fairly dire for many parents.
Their data showed that nearly a third of families with
infant Children reported they had trouble obtaining it
in september and nearly one in five households has less
than a week of formula at home. As a reminder the
formula shortage was an issue tied to the long running
global supply chain cry But it spiked in February after
a voluntary recall by the Formula Manufacturer Abbott
They were responding to four reports of a dangerous
bacteria parents found in formula produced at their
Michigan plant. Abbott produces 43% of formula in the
US and the Michigan plant where it stalled producti
is the company's largest producer. The market for
formula in the U.S. Is pretty concentrated. Two wit
90% of formula being made by just four companies.
Families in need have an even slimmer selection as the
U.S.D.A supplemental nutrition program for women,
infants and Children. Or WIC for short gives out
contracts to one company per state. Nearly half of the
1.2 million babies receiving wi help had to rely on
Abbott for their formula. The federal government
enacted several short term solutions that have helped
improve the flow of baby formula. In addition to
working with Abbott to reopen production at their
facility. The White House allowed for baby formula to
be flown in from other countries and Congress passed a
law loosening restrictions on what companies the WIC
program has to rely on in order to help them get around
the shortage. But a lot of those actions were taken to
provide short term solutions. Congress actively
realized there wasn't time or bipartisan willingness to
pass more comprehensive long term solutions so what can
be done to make sure a shortage like this does not
happen again. We're bringing in someone who has worked
on answering just that joining us now is Alyssa
Rosenberg, she's a columnist for the Washington post
opinion section. She focuses on culture, parenting and
gender and she wrote a three part series examining the
baby formula shortage. Alyssa first of all, thank you
for joining us um what solutions do you see as
necessary to preventing the formula pipeline from
breaking down and making sure parents have access to
safe formula for their Children. Well, first off, than
you so much for having me and for asking. And second I
hope you have a lot of time because this is a story
that um is about parents is about what Children deserve,
but it's also a story about the the complexity of the
american economy. There are two key aspects to this
story. Baby formula is a very concentrated market and
so you need to address that market concentrati
it's also a product that's highly regulated and jus
so right, I mean if you or I have a bad leaf of lettuce
in a sandwich, we're not going to feel great. We might
never go back to that deli again. But we're not going
to get life threatening lee il because we eat and drink
a lot of things over the course of a day. On the other
hand, if you're a baby and all you consume is formula
from a single tainted tin formula, the contamination
can build up over time and make you very sick. This
shortage starts at a plant in Sturgis michigan and it's
a really useful way to talk about what we need to do to
make the system better because first off that plant
produces about 20% of the formula that's made in the
United States. And it produces 100% of certain kinds of
formula that are critically important for Children with
what are called terrorism, metabolism, serious
allergies. Their bodies can't, you know, get the
nutrients out of or even necessarily digest your
standard, you know, cow's milk protein based formula.
And so they need these products. There is no world in
which 20% of any kind of formula should be produced i
a single factory. And there's absolutely no universe
which 100% of a certain critical brand should b
produced in one place. And so you need a more
diversified um manufacturing operation for these
companies. You also probably need more formula brands
in the company in the country. And one of the things
the biden administration did during the worst of the
baby formula crisis was the Food and Drug
Administration used what's called enforcement
discretion to say that companies that were
manufacturing formula from overseas could essentially
get into the U.S. On an expedited basis. And the FDA
has actually taken steps to make sure that those
companies can stay here a permanent basis. And third
you probably just need more startups in the US. And
this is a very expensive product to develop. Not only
do you have to come up with a recipe and get it
certified, you have to do a study to make sure that
babies who are fed it grow adequately when they're
eating the formula. And if you want to start your own
factory, that is just very expensive and time consumi
Is the solution just kind of lying with the biden
administration. Can Congress do additional work to
ensure there's an adequate supply in this country
Absolutely. And we've actually seen some of that work
happening there. You know, congress has passed a tariff
exemptions on some of the base ingredients that are
coming into the US rosa del Oro, who is the chairwoman
of the House appropriations committee has been working
on this really hard, has introduced one significant
bill in the spring is working on another targeting
domestic supply issues here and the agencies have a
role to play to write, you know, at least a funny who
has a lot of dairy farmers in her district and so is
very interested in baby formula has introduced another
good bill that has a whole package of proposals for
to change the, the way the FDA regulates baby formula
and allows a new entrance. And so you know, the
agencies have a role to play to. One of the things to
phonics bill would do is require the FDA if it's going
to do a recall of baby formula to take back, fill
that supply into consideration. It was wild watching my
friends who are parents on instagram even just updating
on their stories of like there's formula here, I grab
some, let me know if you need it. So how much more
competitive is the market set to become in the next few
years. Um and how might that prevent another shortage I
mean I think hopefully a lot, you know Aussie bob's has
inked deals with a bunch of retailers to you know, be
in their stores permanently. Um you know, they started
out I think in Target and Kroger and they're gonna be
in walmart and whole foods as well. So you're starting
to see these companies broker long term deals. So I
think we'll see a lot more brands. Um and I think the
first ones will see will be from overseas, but I would
not be surprised if we see some more startups in comin
years and that's a great thing. I have talked to folks
who are running formula finding groups that have
thousands of members where people are still trying to
source formula for each other. You know, we're still
not back at 100% and you know those those families n
shelves that aren't empty and they need more options.
And I'm I'm actually for all, I've been frustrated and
angry while reporting these columns over the last six
months. I'm also hopeful that things are gonna be
different and hopefully different permanently. I mean
just sitting here, you've you've inspired my shark tank
of a brain to maybe come up with the baby formula
recipe. So I've To give you 10%. If I follow through
with that, I will I will take your 10%. But I also will
expect that I will not be getting about five years dow
the line and you know, that's if you can get in the
queue with Perry goes exactly exactly. A lot of work to
be done. But thank you so much for shedding a light on
it. Alyssa. We appreciate your time. Thanks for having
me. We're always glad to get some expertise from
someone like Alyssa. So thanks to her again for joining
us to break this all down up next. We'll be turning to
a few other big stories we've been keeping tabs on
including the latest dangers from the deli counter and
updates on the landfall of hurricane Nicole