I just read an excellent comment on a blog that says this is a different way. I don't know the original source, and I'm not sure if what I read was paraphrased or not, but here it is:

Consider formula feeding as convenience food. Not fast food, not Maccy Ds, but long life food, reconstituted food, tinned food. It can be fortified with vitamins to make it healthier for people to eat, it may have a few questionable ingredients (ie preservatives) but overall, you can live a healthy enough life on it, you’d get all your food groups in, and your vitamins.

Breastfeeding by comparison is fresh food, organically grown, direct from the farm. It would take more time setting up the farm, and some support from family members and outsiders to get things going. Once you were up and running, it would become easy, second nature. But if you worked outside of the home, or had limited help available, it would become more difficult than eating packaged food from the supermarket. Some people might have to do a little bit of both. Some people may be unable to do farm work due to physical problems, or lack of support/help in the day to day running. Some people may not want to farm, and choose to go straight to buying their packaged food at the supermarket.

You could even say that choosing to buy fresh organic food at the supermarket is the equivalent of pumping, or obtaining donor milk. Not the same as producing it yourself, and it would not be as fresh, but it would still be good.

Not a perfect analogy, but you get the idea.

I think most people accept that fresh organic produce is healthier for you than convenience food. But there isn’t a big debate over it. The only reason there is with bf vs formula is because it involves parenting which is always a hot topic.