Gerber Products Company is an American purveyor of baby food and baby products headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey (Credit: Wikipedia)

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

WASHINGTON    DC   –   A baby formula shortage has swept across the United States with many moms panicking about how to feed their infants. There had been a lingering  shortage since the pandemic that has worsened due to current supply chain issues, compounded by the February recall of several baby formula products due to possible contamination, and the voluntary closure of a facility in Michigan by Abbott Laboratories – the country’s largest manufacturer of infant formula.  The White House announced “Operation Fly Formula” on Thursday to transport  badly needed baby formula from abroad that meets U.S. health and safety standards.  The first shipment — reported to be the equivalent of up to 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles — will come from Nestlé S.A. in Zurich, Switzerland and arrive in Plainfield, Indiana this weekend. As of Friday, the Pentagon was still working out the logistics. 

 “We’re doing the sourcing work — on the sourcing right now to — to arrange for the first flight to get — to get formula from Zurich, Switzerland, to the United States,”

-Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters during  press briefing at the Pentagon Friday May 20, 2022. 

Photo by Gary Raynaldo  /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby briefs reporters at the Pentagon in Washington DC. 

The Biden administration said the baby formula shortage will extend into June. Biden authorized use of the Defense Production Act in an effort to help manufacturers ramp up production of vital ingredients to make the formula.    “I don’t have a specific update for you in terms of exactly what carrier it’s going to be. And you know, exactly what — what time and date. But obviously, this isn’t — this isn’t classified information,”  Kirby said of the DOD’s efforts to arrange for the first flight to  get formula from Zurich, Switzerland, to the United States.  

“Right now, the extent of it is using DOD, really Transportation Command’s contracting vehicles to find commercial aircraft to fly this formula. And as I said yesterday, that’s — that’s a cheaper and usually more efficient way to do it. Because we have contract, we fly contract air every day; much of the security assistance that goes to Ukraine goes on contract air, quite frankly, not — not gray tails. I do want to stipulate I said it yesterday, but I want to make sure I make it clear again; today, it is possible that through Operation Fly Formula, that we would determine that the most efficient way to do it would be on a gray tail, a U.S. military aircraft. And so, we are working the sourcing right now for this first flight.”

-Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby