Nestle (Nestec S.A.) has patents and patent applications at the US Patent & Trademark Office that makes claims on the use of human milk components to create new infant formulas, foods, food supplements, and pharmaceuticals. These patents and patent applications are destructive to the preservation and protection of breastfeeding. The commercialism of human milk component products reduces a natural, traditional, and free life-giving activity into a commodity that can be bought, sold, and profited by an industry. An industry that has made its profits on the destruction of breastfeeding. For centuries, breastfeeding has been a safety-net for babies against disease, hunger, and death. A breastfeeding mother need not depend on the whims of the market or the actions of huge companies whose purpose is profits. In 1955 Edward R, Murrow asked Jonas Salk, inventor of the vaccine against polio, "Who owns the patent on the vaccine?" Salk answered, "Well the people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" How times have changed and now we have an industry that believes that they have the right to patent from a natural substance.

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