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Anyone going to the ABM conference on Saturday?

29 replies

ChairmumMiaow · 18/06/2009 19:54

I'm getting the train from Birmingham. Any other mumsnetters coming?

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foxytocin · 18/06/2009 19:55

me driving down fri night

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moondog · 18/06/2009 23:04

No, but I would love to, in particular to hear Gabrielle Palmer.
Report back please!

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ChairmumMiaow · 19/06/2009 11:38

foxy - we need mumsnet badge or something, for occasions such as this. Maybe I should put a picture on my profile!

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Tambajam · 20/06/2009 18:36

Just got back and saw this. Intrigued to see who other folks are. Definitely a code word was needed. I happen to know 2 mumsnet posters are SPEAKING at the conference.

I thought Gabrielle Palmer was fab. That was the first time I'd heard her speak. She speaks effortlessly and oozes charisma.

I also thought Prof Ian Williamson was really interesting. The attitude of British Muslim women to bfing (bfing as spiritual, emotional, prized with community support) was in stark contrast to the attitudes of British white women (who seemed to focus more on the nutritional element and were much more likely to judge themselves harshly).

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moondog · 20/06/2009 19:44

Ooh, let's have more details please!

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AnarchyAunt · 20/06/2009 19:46

Oh I'd LOVE to go, but sadly am not.

Please do report back

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foxytocin · 20/06/2009 20:42

yes, gabrielle was so charismatic. such immense brain power making a case with substance where none has made it before. i now have a signed copy of her book.

Chairmummioaw and I sussed out each other. i wasn't looking for any other mners as I didn't know who else would be there.

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foxytocin · 20/06/2009 20:43

yes the Muslim women's views - the fusion of ideas - something western women can learn a lot from.

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moondog · 20/06/2009 20:43

What did she say?
What did she say?

What is her f/t job?

I read 'Politics' about 8 years ago and it changed my life.

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ChairmumMiaow · 20/06/2009 20:54

I found the comments from Muslim women really fascinating too. It's sort of how I feel about breastfeeding without the religious aspect.
It was really great to meet foxytocin too!

Tambajam - I was wearing dark jeans and a purple long sleeved hooded top and carrying a brown and blue onbag - I wonder if I spoke to you!?

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Tambajam · 20/06/2009 22:13

Gabrielle Palmer focused on the economic and ecological aspects from her research but also did more general stuff.
Started with a slide with the pic from the European election with the laptop and bottle. And was appropriately scathing. Then showed a child's picture of a nativity scene where the Mary had a speech bubble saying, 'Joseph has just gone to get the milk'. i.e. what an uphill battle there is to normalize breastfeeding. She showed the Mary/Nestle/ Raphael style painting and talked of the way formula companies have shaped their market so cleverly. That mums using artificial baby milk pay for all these clever marketing ploys everytime they buy a can/carton. And it's incredibly hard for the pro-breastfeeding folks to compete. That it's perhaps even fruitless (though worth a go) to attempt the latest bfing campaign in the face of what formula companies get up to.

She showed a picture of an Ethiopian mum boiling up some water over a fire and said THIS is normal in the world. This is the image of a normal mum boiling up some water. Western world with cars and kettles is abnormal. And when you realize it takes Xkg of wood to boil water 8 times a day and Xkm of walking you realize how essential bfing is around the world. In HIV+ mothers in Africa the advice to formula feed simply makes no sense.

She talked about how the dairy industry is massively subsidized by the EU. That EU taxpayers effectively pay Nestle to process milk into artificial baby milk even though Nestle is a Swiss company i.e. not EU. She talked about the hidden economic value of bfing (mentioned in the book).

On ecology she discussed the food miles in formula, the greenhouse gases from cows. The WATER needed to make and transport formula. I didn't realize how much water was needed in the manufacture of basic food stuffs.

What am I forgetting? Can someone fill in?

Oh yes - she also discussed the kangaroo care at the South African hospital and how change is possible. That the policy change in one hospital can end up being national policy.

She also mentioned a book she had recently read and found fascinating. The Spirit Level by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. Talked about how societies with greater equality have the best health (not the same as the richest countries).

She didn't mention a job. I think she does 'this'. Talk and write about bfing. Who knows different? She has recently been made a grandmother for the second time (3 weeks ago).
She came across as a confident, inspiring lady. Very knowledgeable about her material so able to dip in and out of different areas.

Chairmummiaow - I was one of the lasses talking about slings. The one who went second with the flowery red top who talked about babywhisperer.

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moondog · 20/06/2009 22:42

The Spirit Level

She was and is waaaay before her time. Got into the whole ecological aspect yonks ago while everyone else still scratchnig their arses.

I would love to hear her speak.

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peppapighastakenovermylife · 21/06/2009 08:10

I couldnt go as had too much on and am off to a different conference this week. I really hope to go next year though and am hoping may be able to give a talk .

I really want to see Gabrielle Palmer speak and am off to a conference she is at in September - am really looking forward to it.

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moondog · 21/06/2009 09:25

Where is she speaking Peppa?

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foxytocin · 21/06/2009 11:07

extending on what Tambajam said:

"it takes 200g of fire wood to boil 1 "litre of* water and a woman can spend 2 hrs a day looking for firewood which brings into sharper focus of how expensive it would be for a 80 percent of women to use formula.

that 50% of the milk produced by EU farmers is turned into powdered milk and that it is the processors of milk who get the lionshare of the EU subsidies, not diary farmers. So EU taxpayers effectively pay Nestle to process milk into artificial baby milk even though Nestle is a Swiss company i.e. not EU. She talked about the hidden economic value of bfing (mentioned in the book).

I didn't realize how much water was needed in the manufacture of basic processed food stuffs.

"What am I forgetting? Can someone fill in?"
yes the big aha that went through the audience when she said that Glennis Kinnock lobbies/lobbied for Nestle and that she is now an advisor to Gordon Brown. [anger]

Oh yes - she also discussed the kangaroo care at the South African hospital and how change is possible. That the policy change in one hospital can end up being national policy.

re the Spirit Level:
Talked about how societies with greater equality have the best health (not the same as the richest countries). that in societies with the greatest disparities in the distribution of wealth also have the most unhealthy 'ruling class'. IE white men in the United States are the most unhealthy she extended this finding into how it reflects on the bottlefeeding culture.

She didn't mention a job. I think she does 'this'. Talk and write about bfing. Who knows different? She has recently been made a grandmother for the second time (3 weeks ago). I think she is focusing on being a grandmother more as a way of reducing her own carbon footprint and giving back to the next generation by giving her time to her extended family.

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MrsMotMot · 21/06/2009 12:13

O I didn't know she was speaking yesterday

peppapig where is it you are going in sept to hear her??

I suspect that she spoke at the International Conference of Midwives last year and I missed it because I didn't know about her/Politics then

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Tambajam · 21/06/2009 12:49

Foxytocin - I missed that about Kinnock. I thought the opposite - that she was working in the baby milk action coalition circles and being a radical! Fairly terrifying I got the opposite impression. I was clearly in a daze.

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foxytocin · 21/06/2009 13:02

eeek! hope you are right. now we need another person to verify which is right.

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foxytocin · 21/06/2009 13:03

eeek! hope you are right. now we need another person to verify which is right.

i was chasing a baby around the conference floor nearly the whole day.

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Tambajam · 21/06/2009 16:04

I just did a little google and nothing comes up for Glynis Kinnock and nestle. TBH it would fit her history to be anti-nestle. She has a strong history of campaigning for justice and union work. Currently involved with drop the debt, Burma campaign. Would be very odd if she had been working for Nestle and something somebody would have jumped on based on her current rep for being pro-human rights.

Being curious now - If you had a baby that narrows you down...did you ask her a question at the end?

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moondog · 21/06/2009 16:07

Glenys Kinnock and Nestle????

Surely not????

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foxytocin · 21/06/2009 16:23

in the sling show with a pink wrap.

has anyone seen what is written about glenys on wiki.

fully aware that some thongs on wiki is a load of hooey.

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foxytocin · 21/06/2009 16:24

yes the cuba one. nearly forgot already

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Tambajam · 21/06/2009 17:47

No mention of Nestle on wiki.
Found Kinnock on this press release though: www.babymilkaction.org/press/press22apr99.html
Would suggest she was on the radical side back then and not pro-Nestle.

Foxytocin - I can place you now. We did obviously speak but only in so much as I said your name when I was lining up sling show folks and checked your text

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peppapighastakenovermylife · 21/06/2009 20:21

mrsmotmot I am going here

It looks fantastic but is expensive - nearly £500 I think for the three days. I am speaking on the wednesday [scared, very scared emoticon]. Obviously I am not in the same league as Gabrielle!

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