Newborn health affected by food industry action.

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A new report, Checks and balances in the global economy: using international tools to stop corporate malpractice, was launched in January 2004 by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). Case studies in Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, England, India, Kenya and Mexico show how the baby food industry has operated over decades to undermine breastfeeding and to oppose regulation of its marketing activities.

The lobby of the food industry against the WHO Global Strategy to combat obesity has recently been exposed in the media. Meanwhile health campaigners in Brazil have protested against Nestle's involvement in the government's 'Zero Hunger' programme, which will see the company distributing processed foods to the poorest families. Nestle is also distributing powdered milk, a strategy which has devastated breastfeeding rates in the past, contributing to unnecessary infant and young child mortality and morbidity.

To counter the impact of industry lobbying, IBFAN members have attended the WHO Executive Board meeting to make interventions in the debates on obesity and on infant feeding.

The report examines:

* how breastfeeding rates declined over the past century and the impact this has had on infant and young child health

* the successful campaign mounted by public interest groups to bring in the International...