"In recent decades, there has been a decline in breast feeding and a rise in marasmus and diarrheal disease which has considerably added to the problem of infant health and mortality.

Various factors are responsible for this change, but there can be no doubt that the high pressure promotion, advertising and distribution of milk formulas by commercial companies in developing countries has been one of the major factors in changing the pattern of infant feeding and in the consequent increased emphasis in mortality and morbidity in the early months and first year of life."

Summary of a Statement to the Bern Court, by Derrick B. Jelliffe, MD, FRCP, FAA, FRSH, FAPHA, DCH, DTM & H, School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, USA, November 1974.

"I have absolutely no doubt that bottle feeding is a major cause of ill-health, of poor nutrition and of deaths of children in many of these developing countries- in the Philippines, in Colombia, the Caribbean and Africa.

Undoubtedly, the multinational companies, the manufacturers of formulas of milk products for infant feeding, have been aggressive in their advertising and their promotion of these products, and undoubtedly this has led to a great spread in bottle feeding of babies. I can without doubt say that the bottle .feeding of babies has led to a great deal of ill health and many deaths."

Professor Michael Latham, Medical Research Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, in an interview for BBC Television programme, "Panorama", London, 1st December 1975.

"FAO has noted with great concern the decline in breast feeding in many developing countries. Early weaning under the conditions which prevail in developing countries can be singled out as the main cause of malnutrition in the infant. Furthermore, it is noted that early severe malnutrition of the type associated with early weaning may lead to permanent physical and mental damage and the developing countries may thus have to carry the added economic burden of many permanently disabled persons."

from "Summary of FAO's position on Breast Feeding and a Tentative Strategy for Action", in "In Defence of Breast Feeding, Food Policy and Nutrition Division of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations), Rome, October 1975.