Do people have exceptions to their Nestle boycott?

[BelfastRingingOutForXmasBloke]

Lots of mentions on MN about eating Quality Street around Christmas time.

If you boycott Nestle, is that just a general guideline or is it a total ban?

I admit I can't turn down a Matchmaker.

Yes Riven I do. I live in a Yurt crafted from free-range Yak-shit and I'm wearing a coat made from woven dog-hair (not actually too far from the truth) and later my huskys will drive me to Tesco the hen-shed to collect eggs for lunch which I'll fry up using earwax.

No I don't think its harsh. I just think if you feel so strongly about a subject that you feel compelled to boycott a particular company then fair play, I applaud you.

But then to add "but i'll do it if it saves me a fair bit of money" is nothing but hypocrisy.

To be frank most people in this country have little understanding of the realities others live in.

You may think child labour is unethical and undesirable. Hell I even agree. But given the choice of seeing a child work or seeing him starve, I know what I prefer. Those are the stark realities facing third world countries.

Trust me, I have been to many of them. I've seen literally hundreds of people line up outside our offices on the off chance we have a job going. I've seen children living in "houses" which are in reality a sheet of corrugated steel against a wall, with a plastic sheet as the door. I've had my car mobbed by beggars after I gave a starving woman with a baby a couple of quid.

So sure, go without your Kitkat and fool yourself into thinking you are helping. Trust me, you are not.

But I gave birth to the Yaks myself!

You're exploiting your own yaks?! You should be ashamed.

What products do they make which are good to eat? I can't think of a single one. Why poison your body with rubbish?

Wow I dont know anyone who boycotts Nestle. I've been sat here thinking through Uni, work, baby groups and friends. Nope no-one. And I know we have Nestle products at work, in the vending machines at the gym, in school and also at Uni. I'd never heard of it til now either...

The uni I went to boycotted Nestle, and they were also one of the first to stock faitrade products in all their shops.

I do wonder how much it does achieve - the Nestle boycott's been going for decades, but has Nestle changed their practices?

For e.g. I keep on hearing from British people how much the UK boycott of SA during the apartheid era achieved - bollocks. I lived through that time. South Africa was pretty self-sufficient for food (and when for e.g. Mars stopped allowing Mars Bars, a South African company came out with its own version) and we didn't get UK tv shows, but watched American ones instead (quite ironically - we had things like Different Strokes - white man adopts two black boys, The Cosby Show - nice middle class black family, Fat Albert - cartoon about black children, Sesame Street - the most lovey, hippy TV show possibly ever produced). I can't think of any discernible effect on the economy, morale, politics the UK boycott actually had. Also, the economy went down after Apartheid officially ended. Before, it was pretty bouyant. In the early 80s, the Rand was on par with the £. In 1994 (the year of the first democratic elections) it hit R10 to the £ and by the late 1990s was trading at around R15 to the £. The only benefit I can see is that it made a lot of British people feel very smug (not really a benefit)

I boycott Nestle, to the extent that I can no longer eat my favourite mint aeros. I am always very sad when I look at them, think "shall I " but can't bring myself to do it. I try to buy ethically wherever I can although so much is owned by massive conglomorates that it's difficult to keep track.

I may only be one person and the small amounf of nestle products I bought pre-boycott was hardly rolling in the pounds for them but at least I know I've done my bit

Oh niceguy, who rattled your cage today?

I boycott nestle as I dont want them to have my money, personal opinion, I would like to boycott all companies that use child labour, but the fact that I cannot afford the very few companies guaratneed not to use child labour automatically makes me a hypocrite?

'So sure, go without your Kitkat and fool yourself into thinking you are helping. Trust me, you are not.'

What a lovely helpful phrase, so maybe I should just fuck it and not care about anything ever?

Come on then, what do you do to give you the moral highground over every other person on the planet?

Without the boycott Nestle may have gone onto kill millions more babies instead of thousands, who knows?

The only thing I miss are Rolos.

DH and I don't buy/eat Nestle by choice and we give money to Baby Milk Action to support their work. DD1 (just 6) knows that we don't want Nestle to receive any of our money so also knows that we won't buy things such as Smarties or Nestle ice-creams.

In our home there is no p/t boycotting of Nestle - if it's Nestle/Rowntree/Body Shop etc then it's not something we will be buying so long as Nestle will benefit from it.

I really don't understand this boycott. Are the "englightened" preferring babies to die because the mothers can't produce milk? Are we voting for dying of starvation or dying from a bacterial infection?

Instead of whining about Kit-Kats, quality street, Nescafe and the whole jamboree - why don't you go and build a bloody well if you care so much.

abs Likewise the Israeli Jaffa orange boycot - 'cept of course it was the Palestinians picking the damned things!

read this AlpinePony: I don't think it is so hard to understand. It is not about building a bloody well

Alpine Pony I'm not sure you understand the full implications of nestles actions with regard to formula in the third world.
Baby Milk Action has lots of information on this topic.

I don't buy nestle or rowntree but unfortunately body shop are the only maker I can find of shea butter soap which is the only non prescription stuff I can use in the shower due to my eczema. And the prescription stuff smells foul. Feel bad about being a part timer though. I'll keep looking for an alternative.

Tbh I have read those links - a lot of it seems to me to be just the same old "anti-formula-at-any-cost" bandwagon.

"I'd rather my child died than drank formula." Same ol', same ol'. Perhaps I'm over-simplifying things - but that's the way it seems to me.

I don't buy Nestle products because they taste of evil.

Nestle admitted a while back that the boycott hurts them.

Good.

AlpinePony, you are either being wilfully obtuse or you're a bit... no, let's go for wilfully obtuse.

I don't use any Nestle or Nestle-associated product. I am not under any illusion that it makes any difference to their profits but I just don't want them to have any of my money.
As for child labour etc, it may be a harsh view but I'd prefer them to be underpaid sewers instead of prostitues/beggars. Just saying like...

[shrug]

'I will not let the fact that i can do very little stop me from doing anything at all' (rough quote, sorry it's not exact).

Otherwise, what Panzee said.

I use alternative brands. Or I go without. I firmly boycott them, including their Rowntree's fruit pastel ice lollies...(I wish my conscience would pipe down sometimes!). But it's important to me, despite who buys them, I don't let them pass my lips. I've banned my MIL from buying their products too.