My sister in law called from Taipei. Here Pingtung an aunt came by and said the same thing. So, I’m stocking up.
Anyway, I listen to talk radio and watch news quite a lot. I’ve heard nothing.
Is it true? Please post an English language news source. My relatives say that there is some kind of drought in New Zealand or something. But the brand of milk we use comes from Germany.
What’s the real story.
My wife said something similar yesterday: that a drought in Australia will lead to huge increases in future prices of baby formula. Apparently she read a Chinese news article that reported that. The drought part seems to be true, though I don’t know how that will affect baby formula prices in Taiwan.
[quote]Australia could be importing stockfood from New Zealand for its cattle within weeks, as the crisis in the country’s rural sector worsens, says Australian Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran.
The “real problem” facing beef and dairy farmers across the drought-struck country was the unprecedented lack of stock feed, he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“Unless there is substantial rainfall this weekend and over the next couple of weeks, Australia will have to look to our neighbours for help,” he said.
Mr McGauran said if that ended up being the case, it would be the first time in history that Australia imported stock feed other than grain. . . .
While there was enough grain for sheep and cattle at the moment, it was the lack of roughage – such as hay and other coarse feeds – that was panicking Australia’s 80,000 beef and dairy farmers . . . [/quote]
stuff.co.nz/stuff/4039296a3600.html
For those who are breastfeeding, maybe this is one more reason to prolong that as long as possible.
My wife has said the same thing. So I guess everyone has seen the same report but I’m not sure how true it is.
Breast is Best.
Formula should only be available for women who cannot breast feed… not for women who don’t want to. Listen to the doctor for your kid’s sake: future immunity, intelligence, weight problems, growth rate, cancers, etc etc. Formula cannot replace the many things that breast milk gives.
Australia is currently in the grip of the worst drought ever recorded in many places. Most affected are the dry interior where a lot of beef cattle are raised, but dairy areas nearer the coast and in irrigation plains are also at risk of stopping production now. No water = No Milk. Whether the price of formula will double is not clear: it might be a case of ‘any chance for producers to price gouge, they will’. I mean, you’re dealing with rapacious monster companies like Nestlé here.
At this point, I’d be happy to have a link to the Chinese news story that everyone aparently read that actually references the 100% rise in milk prices.
It’s times like these that make a western trained mind feel that it is living on mars. It was drilled into me to trust no story unless it comes from a reliable sources or in the case of Taiwan, an identifiable source.
Maybe the government is withdrawing subsadies or something and is leaking this informaiton to warn people and to divert blame.
Right now it’s a “she said, he said” thing. It doesn’t hurt to stock up on canned formula but this lack of proper sources of information drives me nuts.
At this point, I’d be happy to have a link to the Chinese news story that everyone aparently read that actually references the 100% rise in milk prices.
It’s times like these that make a western trained mind feel that it is living on mars. It was drilled into me to trust no story unless it comes from a reliable sources or in the case of Taiwan, an identifiable source.
Maybe the government is withdrawing subsadies or something and is leaking this informaiton to warn people and to divert blame.
Right now it’s a “she said, he said” thing. It doesn’t hurt to stock up on canned formula but this lack of proper sources of information drives me nuts.
[quote=“urodacus”]Breast is Best.
Formula should only be available for women who cannot breast feed… not for women who don’t want to. Listen to the doctor for your kid’s sake: future immunity, intelligence, weight problems, growth rate, cancers, etc etc. Formula cannot replace the many things that breast milk gives. [/quote]
All you say is true, yet what is a career woman supposed to do? A woman who is trying to make a go in an engineering department of a national university here is not exactly living in a world of feminist ideals. Pumping is not always a viable option to many women out there. Sometimes formula is the only option, and thank god it is an option.
I highly doubt this price increase will be realized. At least not this dramatic. Companies will as soon look for dairy other places in order to remain competitive with those brands that don’t get their milk from Australia.
[quote=“jwbrunken”][quote=“urodacus”]Breast is Best.
Formula should only be available for women who cannot breast feed… not for women who don’t want to. Listen to the doctor for your kid’s sake: future immunity, intelligence, weight problems, growth rate, cancers, etc etc. Formula cannot replace the many things that breast milk gives. [/quote]
All you say is true, yet what is a career woman supposed to do? A woman who is trying to make a go in an engineering department of a national university here is not exactly living in a world of feminist ideals. Pumping is not always a viable option to many women out there. Sometimes formula is the only option, and thank god it is an option.[/quote]
I understand your point and there’s some truth to it. But I believe women make excuses too often on this subject. I wish my wife had breast fed longer (she went to about 9 or 10 months I believe), but I was very proud of the efforts she did make. She worked as a senior accountant in a Taiwan tech company and would lock herself into a supply room to pump, then store the milk in a fridge at work till she came home. Lots of women do that. Not easy, not comfortable, but it’s definitely the best thing for the baby.
I suspect you’re right, especially because there’s apparently no English language news on the subject – just one Chinese story probably published for the usual sensational “news” purposes.
[quote=“urodacus”]Breast is Best.
Formula should only be available for women who cannot breast feed… not for women who don’t want to. Listen to the doctor for your kid’s sake: future immunity, intelligence, weight problems, growth rate, cancers, etc etc. Formula cannot replace the many things that breast milk gives. [/quote]
I’m all for breast feeding too, don’t get me wrong, but there are some women who really have issues about this, and IMO shouldn’t be FORCED to breastfeed, if they - even after good advise and consulting - still refuse to do it.
Better to have a happy mom, than a unhappy one that might grow some disgust for her child, if she is forced to breastfeed against her will.
Formula can’t replace many things, right, but it’s not really THAT bad! Other wise the world would look a whole lot different than it does today.
Like I said, formula should only be used by those women who can’t breastfeed. The reasons she may not be able to are myriad. I am only giving some qualified medical advice here, I am not trying to force anyone!
Anyway, I’ve never done it so it would be hypocritical of me to insist that others do so.
The world is a whole lot different than it used to be, and who is to say that formula feeding is NOT partly responsible? Have a look at the alarming growth in autoimmune diseases for a start… and the deaths of so many children in Africa and South America from 2 reasons: companies like Nestlé, Kraft and Hoechst running deliberate misinformation campaigns (for about 50 years) that breast feeding is bad and formula feeding is better, thus directly causing the death of hundreds of thousands of children through malnutrition and infection from dirty drinking water used to make up the formula, and secondly, the substitution racket whereby formula is stretched by adding gypsum, sugar, etc to make more profit (on a more local level: I am not implying that the agrofood companies are responsible here, though others have implicated them) leading to digestive problems, diarrhoea, and chronic malnutrition as well as stunted intelligence and growth.
Breast milk has evolved over millions of years to be the best start for your baby. Formula has evolved over a hundred years to be the best start for a company’s profits.
hi all,
My wife is currently in taiwan with our new born and i am in australia. Anyway, she also told me of the 100% price increase in taiwan due to the drought in australia. While the story of the drought in australia and of its severity is true, the prices of milk formula or powdered milk HAS NOT RISEN in recent months - that is, the prices of such products in Australia have remained the same.
So someone is deliberately profiteering.
Now i’m not going to speculate as to who is profiteering, but it may pay for those people who are in Taiwan to make this publicly known to the shops and to ask for answers on the price increase. It just happens that I’m going to Taiwan in 10 days time and needlessly to say, I’ll be bringing some milk formula and powder with me - as long as i can get it through customs.
G
Good answer G. That seems very plausible – that a baby formula distributor in Taiwan intentionally leaked a phony story to the press about how the drought would cause a huge shortage and resulting huge price increases, so they’d have an opportunity to artificially raise prices and gouge the gullible public. We don’t know for sure if that’s true, but it sounds like a likely theory.
As most of us our college graduates, I believe we were all trained to seek out the original source first. Then reference it or discredit it. My wife, the only family member who speaks English, is quite busy with the twins and hasn’t seen the story.
Taiwanese don’t seem to want to ask people where they heard a certain story.
Right now, this is a story that every Taiwanese person seems to have heard but can’t tell us where they’ve heard it.
Please put a link to this story. Once we get the name of the author or newspaper, his opinion and his quote, we’ve got a story.
As most of us our college graduates, I believe we were all trained to seek out the original source first. Then reference it or discredit it. My wife, the only family member who speaks English, is quite busy with the twins and hasn’t seen the story.
Taiwanese don’t seem to want to ask people where they heard a certain story.
Right now, this is a story that every Taiwanese person seems to have heard but can’t tell us where they’ve heard it.
Please put a link to this story. Once we get the name of the author or newspaper, his opinion and his quote, we’ve got a story.
Apparently the story has now been discredited in the Chinese speaking community. At least my wife, who seemed to believe the story a few days ago, when I mentioned the forumosa discussion about the story this morning, appeared to have already heard that it was probably false. Easy come, easy go.
Sorry, still no link. My wife seemed bothered by my request for one.
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]
Sorry, still no link. My wife seemed bothered by my request for one.[/quote]
:taz:That says it all .:taz:
My little one was also breast fed (via pump/bottle/storage) for as long as possible. Originally we had so much milk that some had to be thrown out from going bad while in the freezer… but yeah, as long as the supply was there, she was using it~
About the prices… my wife says the exact same thing, and we are stocked up already - though not buying much more atm, as ours is starting to lose interest in milk and prefers rice and noodles. Try Babyhome~ I’m sure there must be some info on there.