Iowa plant keeping the baby formula flowing

ALLERTON, Iowa — In January of 2023 there was excitement buzzing around the Wayne County community of Allerton. New owners were taking over the plant, just as there was a national shortage of infant formula. That's something workers here know about, as that is what they produced under the plant's prior ownership.

Since then the plant has expanded the workforce by 50% to 112 people. The plant was also re-certified by federal regulators to be producing the baby formula. On Wednesday the ByHeart plant was visited by Governor Reynolds, the Economic Development Authority, and the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

"We all know last year was one of the largest food security crises with the infant formula shortage," said Mia Funt, ByHeart Company Co-Founder. "We realize the importance of owning manufacturing not only to be able to innovate, but to be a reliable partner to parents."

Last year parents had to drive across state lines in some cases to find infant formula. Even though that is no longer in the news the pipeline for baby formula can be interrupted.

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"Even this year when there was a couple day port strike, we saw again shortages on the shelf," said Funt. "It only highlights the importance of having a three-site supply chain with back ups in the system to ensure that we could be reliable partners to parents."

Funt says her company has the three plants in Allerton, Oregon, and Pennsylvania as a way to keep a dependable supply of formula. Her company markets through Walmart, Target and Amazon.

"It's only five companies that provide this and so they have seen great capacity and great growth in just the year that they've been in the market," said Governor Kim Reynolds, after a briefing and tour of the plant. "We want to be able to work with them and hopefully continue to build that capacity right here in Allerton."

Already this company is the second largest employer in Wayne County.

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STORY: Shell has won an appeal against a landmark climate order for it to cut greenhouse gas emissions.The appeals court in The Hague dismissed the 2021 ruling that Shell must cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, relative to 2019 levels.That included emissions caused by the use of its products.The case had been brought Friends of the Earth Netherlands, known as Milieudefensie.But presiding judge Carla Joustra said Shell was already on its way to meet required targets for its own emissions."Shell has set a specific reduction target for scope 1 and 2 that means its scope 1 and 2 emissions will be reduced by 50% by 2030 compared to 2016. Furthermore, it follows from the documents provided by Shell that it had already achieved a 31% reduction by 2023. So Shell is already doing what Milieudefensie is claiming from it. Milieudefensie's claim regarding scope 1 and 2 is therefore not admissible."The Dutch court did say, however, that the oil giant has a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect people from global warming.It said Shell was already on its way to meet required targets for its own emissions.And it said that it was unclear if demands to reduce emissions caused by the use of its products would help the fight against climate change.The ruling coincides with the COP29 U.N. climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.On the agenda is a continuation of last year's talks about transitioning away from fossil fuels. Shell Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan welcomed the decision, saying Shell believed it was "the right one for the global energy transition, the Netherlands and our company."Milieudefensie said it was disappointed about Shell's victory and would continue its fight against large polluters."This really touches me. This should have been the moment of a real breakthrough in the fight against dangerous climate change. That didn't happen today, but the fight against dangerous climate change is a marathon, not a sprint, and the race has only just begun."