Children's
Health,
Children's
Rights:
Action
for the
21st
Century

Alison Linnecar, from GIFA (Swtzerland). 

ccording to David Korten, food is big business. Considering this link between food production and marketing forces, Korten, one of the plenary speakers for Day One, told the Forum that consumers' choices are being dictated more and more by large food companies who are ruthlessly using the need for sustenance and survival for business and profits. 

An outspoken critic of global corporations, Korten warned: "We're moving towards a time when corporations will control all aspects of our lives." He said 358 billionaires have assets equal to the combined annual income of 2.5 billion of the world's poorest people. 

Korten described the breastfeeding movement is a "metaphor for the struggle between money and people." Corporations driven by the quest for profits do not want women to breastfeed, he said. Korten told the Forum that global financial institutions have robbed people of control of their lives, of their secure livelihoods, diversity, sufficiency and regenerative vitality. 

The only way to end corporations' control is to deprive them of the opportunity money. Imagine a world, he said, in which life moves at a slower pace with ample time for self-reflection, family, friends and community. 

The water is pure, the sky is clear and the landscape green. There is no need for personal automobiles, everyone has assured access to an adequate means of livelihood. "Is it a vision of sacrifice or utopian ideal?" he asked. 

For philosopher Josefina Semillan de Dartiguelongue from Argentina who spoke on the links between breastfeeding and ecology, the two are inextricably tied up with the issue of cultural preservation. "It is not possible to maintain development if we don't preserve our culture," she said. "Culture is cultivating links and breastfeeding is a part of culture; it allows mothers to cultivate links. It is good business to allow infants to grow up as balanced and mature humans," she said.