thank you so much. [inaudible conversations]

>> welcome to the new school. and the vice dean and social research rand welcome back to the university and sent from canada at end new mexico. i am pleased to introduce

courtney jung whose new book "lactivism" how feminists and fundamentalists, hippies and yuppies, and physicians and politicians made breastfeeding big business and bad policy" we are here to celebrate. the book was published last month in november. a professor of political science at university of toronto and has published two previous books in the moral force of indigenous politics, she has been a member in has received fellow's steps from the national endowment of of humanities. and the social science research council.

to give an overview of her book and will respond with her remarks a professor and political science and the author of two books and inclusion without representation. >> in 2015 as day carnegie fellow with their international relations from stanford. before we began just won endorsement with of

professor of philosophy and politics and those that make it obligatory and then with victim blaming. but courtney jung explains the social forces with the breast pump with the failure to provide workers with state maternity leave. "lactivism" is a must read. ''.

>> and those for a working mother in communist poland the experience of deprivation and my son on either hand board in the liberal united states was breastfed extravagant or excessive very long for three years eight months 14 days. [laughter] and both cases maternity leave was the same. three months. so a victim of the

conspiracy that is so elegantly described in bin her book. professor courtney jung. [applause] >> thank you very much i cannot tell you how happy i am to be here to be held at the new school. i will fix the problem that robert created the. [laughter] thank you very much. with date topic like this for many interesting and to contemplate those i would get rid of the amusing introductory antidote's that would be at my expense and cut to the chase. paul lot of people have expressed surprise that i am

writing about breast-feeding. as if this would be a health issue or a gender studies issue and the political science issue but what is interesting about breast feeding was the surprising consensus surrounding breastfeeding and political scientists know that consensus is not easy to find. almost anywhere. is rare. when you have consensus it seems like a reasonable thing to study. so this project is critical social very to investigate how we've told the police that we have and how they shape our attitudes and affect public policy.

into looking at the science behind breast feeding one way to think about this is is a driven by science or scientific evidence? the answer is no or not really solve the information is a randomized there is no control trials in to breast-feeding and the problem with observational researches the past to control for the of variables that might account for differences with breast fed and non breastfed and it failed to control for those confounding factors.

but there is new research now that is better that better defines breast-feeding and controls for those confounding factors. that shows breast-feeding has some modern -- modest impact during the time the baby is actually breastfeeding. there is good evidence and has no impact on obesity diabetes allergy and most cancers. all of the rest of the literature that have been attributed where though literature is characterized as weak and conclusive and this includes type two diabetes celiac, crow's aziz cardiovascular disease high

blood pressure the list of things associated with breast feeding is extremely long and almost everything on that list, as some of that is pretty well this proven the rest of it we don't know but the literature is inconclusive. it is a driven by scientific evidence so with a political scientist the thing to study. what is a driven by? so i will answer that in the first piece of the puzzle what does breast-feeding mean to people in the united states today?

that too winded were sitting together at a christian family movement picnic breast-feeding their babies and lamenting the fact that not many other people were there and mothers didn't have enough support if they chose to breast feed. so they got together with five other friends and started le leche league in 1956. the centerpiece of the project was breast-feeding but already that the very beginning it was symbolic of a larger set of philosophies which included the mother staying at home, mothers should not work once they have children so of very

traditional conservative conception and a philosophical pitcher that goes along with the focus on breast feeding so already have of rise of the efficacy using it as the symbol for a larger set of philosophy the next important moment in the history of breast feeding advocacy is the industry boycott -- nestle's boycott they see nothing but the vast untapped market of potential for a beloved leaders said they initiate very aggressive marketing practices in order to get winded in core countries to buy either reduce formula. the most famous was the

nestle nurses they dress their employs up as nurses and sent them into hospitals and clinics and got them to convince others to use a formula in for what was medically recommended the from 1976 and malaysia. so what happened so too aggressively marketing formula import countries and mothers and those poor countries they cannot afford formula so they over dilute and mixing it with to whitewater because they try

to make a candle for below last longer so babies are becoming malnourished because it is over deluded they are recently drinking colored water in the second problem and with the sterilized water. said to have us bike of infant mortality in the response to this with the norm for infant feeding in developing countries so the nestle a boycott is something that happened in the united states and canada is europe and very widespread and popular. everybody boycotts nestle products in fact, it is the

longest with of boycott ever even today because of the aggressive marketing practices. people boycott nestle more often than and philip morris if you can believe that. that is the history that establishes breast-feeding as the challenge against big businesses solidarity with the struggle against hunger against corporate greed and interest. once again it is appropriated as a symbol of something bigger of the we are what we believe it or the type of person that i am on the left that challenges corporate greed in the 1980's feminism picks up

breast-feeding it is the symbol of female empowerment with a sustaining force of the female body. and then to become symbolic with attachment parenting there are three pillars of attachment parenting the first is baby wearing which means kerry your baby in a sling rather they and to use a stroller in the second is cozy sleeping. sow attachment parenting once again is a larger philosophy is of a hallmark the larger statement and in

general. breast-feeding has been embraced by the christian right. said to be improved of intelligent decide the offers evidence of heterosexual marriage with different roles for men and women in the marriage. it is also picked up as an issue for people who believe in a locally produced sustainable food because what could be more locally produced they impressed not? so many of these groups of people that are opposed to one another and to see

eye-to-eye on any issue is the point that i am showing they all believe in press fit -- breast-feeding for fundamental reasons. and for many differing reasons. this is the power point that was supposed to show with the attachment parenting radio. her son who is three or four i thought though was the most part of that. camouflage pants. [laughter] she looks old.

that is the first part of the puzzle, the first part of the picture the way is the breast feeding in how much symbolic value it has. it is not all things to all people but a surprising number of things to a surprising number of people. the second part of the puzzle that there is a business angle that is surprising to those of buses still associate of the big four accompanies so that is long the challenge against breast feeding is and it is

far from free with 21st century america and the reason is if you ever plan to leave the house you will have to buy clothes and bras and baby the nutritional supplements to make sure you have a good milk supply pelosi and creams and all kinds of other things. most people who breastfeed in the united states today. >> most women who breastfeed will feel at some point in their careers to run anywhere from 200 through $500 per hour per zero harris's entire industry to make their living off of breast feeding. the final component is the

breast, the industry. in 2007 in the united states there was a really large study on pumping and breast feeding in discovered 85 percent of american women who breast feed him were also pumping and that is an enormous percentage of the population isn't it explains why 40 percent of of world market for breast pumps is the american market and nowhere else in the world to pump breast milk. in the world press, market is expected to reach 2. $6 billion in newly. and all love this pumping creates something that is

new in the history of humankind to build up in the refrigerators and freezers of american women. [laughter] so what happens your is the combination of the internet in their breast pump has revolutionized the wet nursing it used to be a service a woman would take your baby and nurse your baby and now it is sold on line routinely. i need to step back for a minute. think of the nestle nurses are a thing of the past here is astrakhan the upper east side is of the past but the long blond hair and if he

paul surrounding her are employees interested in love coates but the phenomenon to address people but bin nurses that is alive bin dwell right here in manhattan. so as a result of all of the pumping of the surplus of human milk in death ride the human milk market.

so the most common web site where people buy and sell bulk is called only the breast. here are four of them that i just took yesterday. that breast milk is still available people buy and sell breast milk any day of the week you can see between 12 a and 60,000 post for people who want to buy or sell breast milk. not leave the others looking to feed their babies but they are consuming in in large numbers and a lot of people are interested in drinking breast milk because

it is the new super food and better than yan wheatgrass to boost immunity or whenever they are looking to do. there is a big market in human milk. others are not necessarily there is the company that buys breast milk for $1 an ounce and turning it into a raw material. they by the breast milk for $1 an ounce then they sell those traditional supplements at $180 an ounce. there is a private company

they don't disclose what their profits are but they have disclosed they have received $46 million in venture capital the last couple of years. this is a growing industry it is the oldest company in this market but not the only one there are six or seven other companies competing to produce things like nutritional supplements it is the human milk. what of the things this is interesting the largest breast pump manufacturer in the world medela the

research into the chemical properties of human milk. which is a new line of research hopes but people who knew something about the breast feeding experts they are breast-feeding researchers going to conferences and those are called innovation and to a laboratory fed is funded by medela at the university of western australia that is run by a guy who's specializes with cattle and

p.i.g.s. lactation. so he blew says expertise it to the human sphere. in this is producing with the breast feed the inspector but they have the vested interest to make sure that breast feeding sector is not outside of the market. is drawn id and to what is valuable is not the of good child contraption that the consumption of human milk.

>> to transform pressed into consumption as the advocacy initiative so the president has been well-known for those initiatives. at at pharao will these issues are a major loan hands so there hasn't been president sludgy the initiative but the interesting thing is that not one single one has anything to do with breast feeding. all of them are about pumping.

but it in 2013 that was superseded with the affordable care attacked to require insurance for all you mothers off is needed states isn't so obviously that a 85% figure is not much closer because they're getting a free breast pump when they have the baby into medicaid is those of required.

of course, to refrain you are our expectations of what they are supposed to do. we still thank you could work or breastfeed bet you would not be expected to do both. not in the more. now they are expected to bring the pope to work and pump it on the unpaid work breaking the unused room or a supply closet most likely so there is a tremendous burden placed on women from the of breast pump phenomenon. so with these initiatives that are posting breast pumping rather than feeding.

i want to show you this other image as well. it implemented in advocacy program in this was the advertising campaign and you can see this advertising campaign doesn't actually mentioned breastfeeding at all but it is all about breast milk as a product. that with said director of health and i said to him why did you just referred to breast milk? wide to the you take breast-feeding? we'll think about it as a product.

if we said breast-feeding it will have been too hard for most mothers to do most return to work after they have a baby and don't have maternity leave and breast feeding requires too much of a change in the workplace. remember, that businesses would bear the cost through a maternity leave. this isn't there was not an explicit decision made it is in the advocacy campaign. that is the second slice

that what is the sow that is the story on the breast feeding. and finally i want to string around to but in particular division of race and class. every year the cbc the a dual breast feeding but then they break it down by state and also demographic in the days vice thrace, classics

socio-economic status and lovable of a generation. bin a hare says those are the women in their breast feeding and those that are failing our women who are african-american, pork, not married and under educated to have high school or less level of education. annually when the report card that comes out a kid's

in to see the story in the breast feed rates and but in a country with the tide deaf that also -- status as better parents entered into a health issue the american the catteries in its but it was a public health issue.

but it was costing $13 billion per year per but why that $13 billion number is perhaps inflated. but at any rate united states identified as an to it is less efficient the in the inf and was just bad parents but now to your phone book -- they needed the hints of context but if

only the with breast feed their children. so the problem here and have long been pressuring american inf and leroy a. f. and a from what public officials and it -- intervention in that terry particular bear population

in but and more of a of rest me there is said his vote -- they experience breast feeding editor-in-chief rarely with lactation consultants and the half with end you have leverage bin to influence on. >> so the united states and the program introduced with

the it and it did did swoon and says those who are breast-feeding year and in but which is actually not an entitlement program and it can run out. in the fed to end it to feed your baby formula that can exclude you from eligibility

of was and and that since he wrote the book, he subsequently went out and no we have better behavior with that question is there's a for anywhere between 60 or 85% but this is interesting. i feel like with all types

of interesting questions when you look through the lens of breast feeding advocacy. the first question mbb of food gets to decide in what is more like a shovel and a kick. it occurs to me what we is doing to withhold food for those under already at nutritional risk does not seem so much like an edge. as a matter of fact half does not steady wic. but since it bakes you think carefully and the sec can question that breast-feeding

advocacy is should we worry when bin edged doesn't just target particular behavior. but instead they consistently seemed to target particular categories of people if we could get on the data is that the case that african-american is our to have government alleges as white americans so will the government going to nudge me or all of the other people that are surrounding me to have bad behavior but

i will not be nejd. it forces us or not to that our reasonable ledges to embrace with the aid of a public health issue since the '70s the united states public health to increase attention on the individual behavior's first was smoking a then unsafe sex about the time all-star did in 1975 "the chicago tribune" offered the opinion and the idea of preventive medicine was safely to energize the

hamper to realize that the enemy is us. it occurred to me the idea is based bands to have the potential to be healthy and work at it to exercise moral fortitude to pull a cells up by the bootstraps and we will succeed. so in that health paradigm that increasingly and for the cost of american health care. but is an inches santa -- a matter of individuals but when we played we hear not

only blini practices of many we are rooftree -- so unsafe sex is associate with gave men and prostitutes in thai be drug users and it is more prevalent among those who are poor. obesity is more prevalent from those who are african-american and the failure to breast feed is the failure of women and women to our young so that it is practically perfect to expand as a marker of the we

are in but we believe bin. with the accessory support and supplement market the demographic is social distribution to play another front in and infection with obesity and diabetes and asthma and allergies pretty much any condition they could get over the course of the entire lifetime and that is the deal with breast feeding. [applause]

en now he will comment on my book. >> i am happy to be here with my dear friend and former colleague courtney jung to talk about her book "lactivism". this book has and i have the jury reing it. there will be three minutes bin but it just want to redeploy its of the barrier pressure for highly feet

about gender equality. it can anyone undermine their roman per cent -- their own cars? but to briefly analyze the of breast-feeding that is impressed babies into breast milk but she did talk about today through the public. she also calls out the policy-makers and business interest said to make batch

without any change to a the structural framework. the second to last point it in the brilliant book to show the way breast feeding is the tip of the iceberg. underneath that water is a whole package of the agenda so people are investing in but five area and a personal note this book has succeeded in two other women who are not breast-feeding as well. and i am riffles to used a

maya he and to say this is the book about. >> then there is the slippage of "lactivism" and breastfeeding and the consequence but we could do that later.

>> it is women in the work place more broadly but the marginal as a shin is in shares and that is now resolved in breast feeding effect but even the competition in judge read in shaming among women that i

have been admitted the been guilty of i don't think that is the fault of breast-feeding there rather as a vehicle to express that competitive behavior. so the next ambivalence is especially with the critique of the science there is of resumption or a her trail of pork period team decisions as a cost-benefit. the formula is sitting right there for erica and i can give you that 2.i air. that is not the way i never made any parenting decisions they were never responding to a cost-benefit

calculation of the relative pay up of certain types of behavior is more of instinct and survival. the other thing is an ambivalence i did not recognize myself that it's to be greed and a fitness teas but further down the road. >> we're not furthering an agenda. >> i will wrap up in it and that it.

to hundreds of commons on "the new york times" web page. lots of colors. even people responding to my facebook page. why are so many people worked up about this? now courtney gives us an answer to say people with a lot but what is absent in this it is hers and that is huge ears. they have their own but when

it comes to parenting invest f but is important to see this as a reflection the policy makers tvs and.

>> so just finally with about how do i achieve that? but on either hand we have the choice models but we are president indeed to be fully present like many of our with the accessories of children tariff it gave hands over.

that is one of models turn this story bin that care giving roles i do think it is a good teacher for this model that we can now control face and in dead a enhance the ku. [applause] >> now we will take

questions. [inaudible] >> the key difference between the united states and other advanced western democracies is the defense they are not that stark. in that is the.

>> so the numbers are fairly comparable but the huge difference is women have maternity leave some vague kidney of choice with what works for them for of but

there is inundated attorney believed but the fraises but to the pump? speesix live interested of the kemp but with their movements it seems it is good conversation but somebody on the if he's afraid that they would have

a research study of their own sphere and because those studies would be dismissed. but that is the say from

accompanies with $6 billion in insurance and. >> we agreed to take tougher highest big problems but it is not complete the apples verses oranges. selassie and.

there is a particular food weird for europe to urals but have had been to remain competitive. >>.

but the of course, we were used.

>> gift breast-feeding is the key n still neck there

is the discussion then we will take a responded.

event it is hard to top about your own experience but a line of the things but with breast cancer this bill

nicholson did serial data storage and then to have that masculine bodied, etc., etc. that opens up to a great point. in additionally, with this distinction and model is in your commentary are a we utilizing breast-feeding to be completing as an act? and i wonder what everyone thinks is that possible? can you separate those fleshy bits out from the process?

it just cannot judge women so that is complicating that's i guess. >> i was surprised of the science. >> she told me at lunch. [laughter] i dunno if that is the conversation that least

today but trying to you justify i carried that stupor -- says stupid pomp for one year old over town. [laughter] it is like universal so we could just be your agenda also the international question so when you translate these those that do not have the money to buy that afford a.

>>. >> guest: to respond now? >> of lot of what people have said is the lead want to respond to put i do want to respond to the question because is a puzzle what is going on there? [laughter]

there is space a consensus with the benefits of breast-feeding and is presented as day hegemonic consensus but since i wrote that op-ed i have received many, many emails from doctors including family practitioners who had said to me this is exactly what the rest being literature shows you do very brave 2.it out. . .