In nearly every aspect of American life – perhaps particularly those centering on children – there are very serious, yet fundamentally mundane, problems in front of us. But, over and over, we do what we are doing amid this formula shortage: debate about what should be while ignoring what is.

When parents are no longer struggling to find food to feed their babies, there will be ample time to spill (more) ink over whether breast is best, and to arrive at the old impasse: Breast isn’t best, empirically: Increased maternal IQ and education levels are each correlated with breast-feeding (the positive effects of which on outcomes like children’s IQ and body mass index disappear when you control for those variables). But breast might be best, experientially: The stories of moms who feel they and their babies gained something invaluable (even if that something can’t be objectively measured) from the nursing experience are stories that merit telling. So, rest assured, this conversation is not going anywhere.

There will also be ample time, once the shelves are again stocked with Similac, to worry about whether it was economic policies too unfriendly or too friendly to large corporate manufacturers that made the wealthiest nation in the world a formula desert in 2022. There are strong arguments for each side. And – so long as there are markets, economists, politicians and people who want to talk and write about all three – this old political debate is not going anywhere either.