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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2015
PARTING SHOT
A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers
Lauren Smith, of Tacoma, Wash., walks with her skimboard along Cannon Beach in June.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
ODDITY
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At $4 per
ounce, market
competition
turns cutthroat
By MICHAEL CATALINI
Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. — It
could trade for 400 times
more than the price of crude
oil and 2,000 times more than
iron ore. If sold off the shelf,
it could cost more than 150
times the price of a gallon of
cow’s milk and 15 times more
than coffee.
Going for as much as $4
per ounce, breast milk is a hot
commodity that is emerging as
a surprisingly cutthroat indus-
try, one that states are seeking
to regulate amid a battle for
control between nonpro¿t and
for-pro¿t banks that supply
hospital neonatal units.
The debate among the
for-pro¿t and nonpro¿t or-
ganizations can be sharp-el-
bowed. It centers on whose
processes result in the safest
milk for premature babies in
neonatal intensive care units,
which need the milk if a
mother has dif¿culty produc-
ing enough or the child has
trouble latching. Each side
claims the moral high ground,
with nonpro¿ts generally say-
ing milk distribution should
be altruistic and for-pro¿t
companies arguing mothers
deserve to be compensated.
In the United States, there
are two for-pro¿t companies
and soon to be three, and one
nonpro¿t that oversees 15
milk banks in the U.S. in ad-
dition to three in Canada. Ten
nonpro¿t banks are in devel-
opment.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Rachel Palencik poses for a photograph with her frozen breast milk in West Chester, Pa.
About 4,000 mothers participate in 15 nonprofit milk banks across the United States, but
the entry of for-profit milk banks has led to tensions as state lawmakers begin regulat-
ing the industry. Palencik wants to be sure that her milk goes to a mom and infant who
need it.
)RU SUR¿W RU FKDULWy
Against this backdrop,
lawmakers in New Jersey
and Michigan are considering
legislation to license banks,
while legislators in California,
Maryland, New York and Tex-
as already have regulations.
Mothers have long had far
from a monolithic view on the
question of milk banking, but
what’s changing is the avail-
ability of more options as the
industry matures. For some,
the work involved in cleaning
bottle parts and in pumping
and storing their milk war-
rants being paid. Others view
donating their milk, consid-
ered superior to formula in
nutrition and immunity-build-
ing qualities, as a charitable
service.
“You just never know who
it’s going to,” said Kelli Rus-
sell, of Washington, N.C.,
who donates her breast milk.
“It could go to someone who
could someday cure cancer
or it could be someone that
marries my son or takes care
of me if I need help one day if
I’m in the hospital.”
Rachel Palencik, of West
Chester, Pa., said her breast
milk was taking up space in
her freezer, so she tried to
donate it to a bank but didn’t
have enough. So she tried
to sell it and wouldn’t try it
again.
“A lot of it was either
scammers or men wanting to
consume it, which isn’t my
cup of tea,” she said. So she
ended up donating to an in-
dividual mother rather than
through a bank.
There’s broad agreement
in the milk-banking industry
of a shortage of human milk
available for hospitals and
NICUs. The nonpro¿t +uman
Milk Banking Association of
North America estimates that
there are 4,000 moms using
its banks across the country
and that it would take 60,000
to meet the demand for milk
in hospitals nationwide.
There is also a largely
shared view that it’s import-
ant for donor milk to be thor-
oughly screened for bacteria,
drugs and adulteration by
cow’s milk.
But the agreement largely
stops there.
The nonpro¿ts say they
respect the right of moms to
sell their milk because it is
theirs, but they question the
pro¿t motives of companies
like Medolac, Prolacta and
the soon-to-be-operational
International Milk Bank.
“I don’t know if you want
the market inÀuenced. You
want the market served,” said
John +onaman, executive di-
rector of the nonpro¿t +uman
Milk Banking Association of
North America. +e said he
worries the for-pro¿t banks
draw potential donors away
from association milk banks,
which is a problem because
he believes a spirit of altruism
should govern the industry.
The for-pro¿t companies
offer moms the chance to
earn $1 an ounce to $2.50 an
ounce for their milk. (Only
the Breast, a for-pro¿t mar-
ketplace, can offer $2.50 an
ounce but does not directly
pay the women, just connects
them with paying clients.) In
turn, hospitals can pay as lit-
tle as $4 an ounce.
The companies say that
mothers have a right to earn
money for their milk and that
their model can end the short-
age.
MDVVLYH 6XSSOy
Glenn Snow, co-founder
of Only the Breast, is about
to launch the International
Milk Bank, which will link
the network of 49,000 mem-
bers and 65 million ounces
of milk within the Only the
Breast network with the new
for-pro¿t bank.
“We’re bringing a massive
supply to market,” Snow said.
“We’re going to save a lot of
babies’ lives.”
The competition also
centers on how the milk is
processed, which is import-
ant to reduce contamination.
Medolac, for example, high-
lights that it uses a steriliza-
tion process that kills poten-
tial contaminants and also
allows the milk to be stored at
room temperature. Nonpro¿ts
use a pasteurization method
and then freeze the milk be-
fore it’s shipped to hospitals,
according to the nonpro¿t
milk banking association.
Others, such as Prolacta,
specialize in the manufac-
ture of human milk forti¿ers,
sometimes needed to boost
the nutrients in milk intended
for premature babies.
Michigan is considering
requiring for-pro¿ts to abide
by nonpro¿t standards, and
lawmakers are calling for
regular audits at the for-prof-
it’s expense to make certain
they’re following the guide-
lines. The New Jersey bill
does not distinguish between
non- and for-pro¿t companies
and instead calls on the state
'epartment of +ealth to set
up licensing requirements.
The New Jersey legis-
lation does not detail what
those requirements should be
but says the department has
to create provisions for staff
quali¿cations and procedures
for selecting and screening
potential donors, as well as
standards for collection, pro-
cessing, storage, marketing
and distribution of donated
breast milk.
Other states, like New
York, have detailed regula-
tions that govern donor quali-
¿cations and storage and col-
lection protocols, along with
rules requiring records to be
kept.
Associated Press writ-
er Kathy Matheson in West
Chester, Pa., contributed to
this report.
W hile other n ew spa pers give you less, The D a ily Astoria n
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From left: Peter W on g, H illa ry Borru d , M a teu sz Perk ow sk i