Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Most enlightening report of the week: GAO on infant formula
After two years of work, the Government Accountability Office has just published: WIC Infant Formula:Single-Supplier Competitive Contracts Reduce Program Costs and Modestly Increase Retail Prices.
Here’s its quick summary:
Over half the country’s infant formula is bought through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). States must contract with the formula manufacturer that offers the lowest price after a rebate to be their sole supplier for WIC.
Two formula manufacturers hold most of the contracts. In 2022, the U.S. had a formula shortage because one of them halted production after a recall.
While sole supplier contracts make states vulnerable to supply disruptions, the rebates saved states about $1.6 billion in FY 2023. These savings offset other WIC food costs, allowing the program to serve more eligible participants.
This is such a weird system—monopoly infant formula in action!—that’s it hard to fathom. But take a look at this:
Let me just say that all infant formulas have to meet the FDA’s strict nutritional requirements. This means that they are all the same nutritionally.
But the prices differ by four-fold, as far as I can tell.
So this is all about marketing share. Take a look at the effects of WIC on this market.
