Gerber

We're going to start to add in completely all natural bananas to their diet, then some strained squash.

How about that little Gerber bottle of peaches? We're gonna give them that.

And then we may give them strawberries, kale, apples.

And then when they get a little older and get a few teeth, we're gonna start to give them the little puff treats, right? Because they're advertised.

One of the first foods that my baby, when he was five and a half months old, ever ate was beef.

And the second food was chicken liver.

And I would encourage you to remember what kind of species we are and to think about what did we have to eat a hundred thousand years ago when we started to wean our baby? Did we have the little puffs that Gerber sells? Did we have strained peas and carrots? Did we have rice cereal? No, we didn't have any of that.

The babies ate meat, and that's how we actually developed into the apex species that we are today.

A lot of guys I know and the patrons love multi-tools, so they'll be happy about that, a multi-tool.

a Leatherman or a Gerber, just simple multi-tool.

It could be a gun-specific multi-tool, but it doesn't have to be.

A basic multi-tool is going to have a lot of what you need on there, a file, a screwdriver, both kinds, Phillips and a flathead, and a pair of pliers.

Perfect.

In 1974, baby food giant Gerber made the bizarre decision to launch Gerber Singles, a line of pureed meals specifically for adults living alone.

They came in flavors including Beef Burgundy, Creamed Beef, Ham casserole, Mediterranean vegetables, sweet and sour pork, and blueberry delight.

All packaged in jars that looked remarkably similar to Gerber baby food.

The idea was convenience for single adults and college students.

Gerber singles quickly died months later.

I, as a single individual, I am extremely offended.

You would eat

The industry was so hyper-concentrated that there was simply no other company capable of filling the void.

Abbott Laboratories Nutrition Division, along with Reckitt's Mead Johnson and Nestle-owned Gerber, has dominated the multi-billion dollar market for decades.

Abbott alone produces forty percent of all infant formula products consumed in the U.S. Its Sturgis plant, the one under investigation, accounted for at least half of that production.

Yet, even with that massive market share, Abbott's formula business is only a sliver of the company's forty-plus billion dollar a year healthcare empire.

But something about the arrangement feels almost too convenient to be accidental, especially when you consider how clearly Abbott understands the value of acquiring customers early.

Which brings us back to infant formula.

As mentioned earlier, three companies, Abbott, Nestle's Gerber, and Mead Johnson, have dominated the American formula market for decades.

One reason is WIC, the federal nutrition program that has historically accounted for more than half of all infant formula purchased in the United States.

an apple farm, and, you know, of course, I'm there with all the camera equipment, right, because I'm trying to get content and talk to people and look at the cars.

And the first thing out of the owner's mouth is no photos, no videos, right? Because they were under contract by Gerber, all their apples, go to Gerber baby food.

And I didn't realize all the stringent restrictions around that.

And they said Gerber is one of the... my words not his he had much better verbiage but like the higher end requirements and uh so they're super strict on how they're handled and what they did and like but that was their that was kind of their main account had some other accounts too but really really interesting we went to some other local places some we went to um um It just left me, the community college down there.

I can see the acronym in my head.

Anyway, I'll think of it in a second.