To write to nestle?

[Fishface77]

All i want are tubes of orange smarties. They are the only ones with flavour. Shall I write to them and ask them to make only tubes of orange smarties?
Will anyone join me in this quest?

So rather than not look at it, you prefer to make a little more work for some minimum wage shop worker who has to put the papers back where they should be? Cool.

I don't touch the papers. I just put another one over it. Not every time. I hate that the local coop puts it facing the door so I have no choice but to see it when I walk in. I did ask if they could maybe put their copies of the local one there instead, but they said the old folk don't like having to look for it. (It's around the other side of the same display.

I also don't use McDonald's or Tesco.

You could just not look? If you put another paper over it someone has to put it back. It just seems like a waste of their time when you could avert your eyes.

I bet they pissed themselves when you asked them to move it though - it may be bigoted and hateful but it's not like it's the Daily Sport with tits all over the cover

The person I spoke to is a friend who hates it too.

Averting my eyes would probably see me in A+E. it's a clear Perspex display that's about 4.5 ft tall and 3ft wide.

He Fair enough - I had visions of you ranting at some random shopworker

Whenever anyone tries to do something "ethical", people rubbish them. Walk rather than use the car - what's the point when there a a billion Chinese with their coal fired power stations and smog crisis? Become a vegetarian because of the carbon footprint of the meat industry - ha ha what's the point? Avoid trawled fish because of collapsing fish stocks? Don't be so stupid, the Japanese have factory trawlers! Choose a green energy supplier - so you have a computer/car/lawnmower? You're such a hypocrite! Choose not to buy certain products because of the company's practices - ha ha, as if it will make any difference. Stop virtue signalling, don't be so smug.

Maybe people do stuff not because they think it will actually change the world, but because they choose to make a tiny stand?

What chocolate am I allowed that is supporting British business, fairtrade, doesn't cost a fortune and tastes lovely?
I don't like divine. It doesn't tast of anything to me. I like green and blacks but don't think it's British anymore.

But bottle would you not stop boycotting if they adhered to the code? The point of boycotts are that companies profits are affected by them so they change their objectionable practices in order to regain profits. If the boycott continues even after they stop the practices it completely gets rid of any incentive to change. If they make more money being boycotted and taking advantage of questionable practices than they do sticking to the code and still being boycotted then of course they're going to break the code.

The apparent aim is to get the company to change its practices so people in poor countries aren't harmed. If that was genuinely what boycotters wanted they would break the boycott when the code was adhered to, to provide the incentive for that to continue. But they don't, which means they've started breaking it again and so the boycott has actually led to restarting the harm rather than minimising it.

This says to me that the boycott is more about moral posturing and virtue signalling than it is about genuine concern. I find it very hard to take the boycott seriously when those who take part in it have wifully jettisoned any part of it which can make a difference to those they claim they are so concerned about.

Essentially the boycotters are saying that their moral posturing and virtue signalling is more important than actually getting Nestle to change its behaviour and stop harming people. They're putting their vanity above those harmed, just like Nestle puts its profits above them.

For that reason I think the boycotters are just as bad as Nestle and are hypocritically doing exactly the same thing.

Bill - yes, I would stop boycotting if Nestlé changed its practices. What I mean is that I will continue to boycott even if Nestlé doesn't care that I am. For the same reason I buy free range eggs even though that doesn't mean battery egg farms will go out of business.

I tried to find out about Nestlé abiding by the code, because I didn't know about this, and it looks like the boycott was cancelled in the 80s after Nestlé agreed to the code, but it was reinstated after an investigation showed they still weren't complying?

I always wonder how much Nestle stuff people bought before they began to boycott.

There are some products that I have never had cause to buy for any reason, for example Boden, so if I decided I was going to boycott them for whatever reason, it's going to make sod all difference to them

Before Xmas it was like my office was sponsored by Nestle. I've pretty much eradicated it now. Individuals might buy a toffee crisp or a kitkat - that's up to them - but 3 jars of Nescafé have been finished and replaced with better, non-Nestle stuff. People were just buying Nescafé because that's what their parents bought rather than because any thought had gone into it. One member of the team is African and I was chatting to her. She remembers women where she was when she had her children being surprised that she was breastfeeding because "the nurse at the clinic said formula was better and gave me some to try". She always thought it off but never knew why it had happened.

I only drink Nescafé coffee - and that's what we have in the office as I do the ordering (and it's the only brand approved by management). If anyone wanted a different brand, it's tough

Fair enough to explain why you boycott but I'm a bit that you have obviously pushed it at people to the extent that you have 'almost eradicated it'.

Still well done for educating the African colleague - although I'm surprised she hadn't heard of it as it was at the same time.

Livia you make the decisions that you can live with. Personally, I didn't buy South African grapes, I didn't buy Chilean wine and I still don't buy Nestle. It's not perfect, I'm sure I buy products from other compromised companies but I do what I can do.

Do boycotts work? Not always, but sometimes, and it's better than nothing. Just because everyone around you accepts something bad doesn't mean you have to.

bottle, yes, it was called off in the 80s but reinstated on dubious grounds. Initially the boycott was on very clear grounds such as saleswomen being dressed as nurses and telling mother's formula was better than breast milk which was stopped in the early 80s. The reinstated boycott was because IBFAN and baby milk action had a problem with clinics being supplied with free or low cost milk. Which they claimed broke the code, but that was only their interpretation of it. They didn't have any real external support from NGOs etc.

IBFAN and BMA have a 'breast feeding at all costs' ethos which ignores circumstances where it's not possible and mothers need support. For example mothers with HIV can transmit it by breastfeeding so will probably need to use formula and this is common in 3rd world countries. Ditto malnutrition stunting milk supply. And women in 3rd world countries don't get generous maternity leave and pay and frequently have to be back working long hours for little pay without access to fancy breast pumps or electricity to run them. And these are women in countries with no free health services or very poorly funded ones which can't really afford to give formula to those who need it. So arguably stopping that would have killed many more babies, but they're so swivel eyed in their determination to promote breastfeeding at any cost. So that restarting of the boycott was very much questionable. It also rather gave the impression that IBFAN and BMA were rather searching for something to criticise Nestle for as they'd lost their raison d'être and needed to find one to survive.

However in 2011 Nestle were found to be definitively breaching the code in Laos and a boycott was launched with the support of several high profile and respected NGOs. And they remain in violation now.

I really think it's worth questioning whether they would be so flagrantly flouting the conventions if it hadn't been demonstrated to them that even when they were following the guidelines the boycott wouldn't stop because organisations like IBFAN and BMA would reinterpret the guidelines and put their own spin on it to find new ways they could say they were breaking the guidelines even when they try to comply. It does seem to defeat the object because if they will never be satisfied Nestle are complying then Nestle just won't bother trying.

What a load of Conspiracy Theorist rubbish Bottle!!! #LOVENestle

Op - Do it! Would be lovely x

Actually with HIV the risk of transmissible via exclusive bf is minimal and it is therefore recommended practice where formula is not likely to be a safe option ie lack of clean water supply, sterilising facilities etc. What increases the risk then is mixed feeding, for example where mothers are given free or discounted formula and then return to bf or partially bf. Ff changes the way the gut works to the extent that the virus is more likely to get through.

I've boycotted Nestlé for 22 years. I boycott some other companies too. It's my tiny stand as a pp said. Lots of other places such as schools and student unions used to boycott (I first learnt about their practices at school), doesn't seem to be as much of a thing now.

Bodicea Montezumas is British made, organic, and (I just looked this up) operates upon principles of trading fairly, but don't certify as fair trade because they believe it is limiting for their farmers.

You can buy it in big supermarkets and it's bloody delicious.

Thank you for your reply Bill- you've given me some things to think about. The WHO disagrees with your point about HIV: www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/1/10-030110/en/

We'll have to disagree on how much credit to give Nestlé on their interpretation of Articles 6 & 7.

Treacle- pardon?

bottle, that advice is based on the assumption that anti-retrovirals are available and affordable which frequently they're not.

Boycotting is fine as long as:

First, it is an individual decision, or at the highest a household decision; not one imposed by your employer, your union, or the council - even if the council is the employer. Those councils which in the Eighties "forbade" their staff to go to South Africa were out of order;

Second, it involves some sacrifice, big or small, by the boycotter. Not buying a newspaper you don't enjoy doesn't count; doing without citrus fruit in the apartheid era when only Outspan was available did;

Third, you accept that you are doing it because it makes you feel good, not because you are harming the company or country concerned.

Well thank you for making those rules clear Andrewofgg I though I was following my moral compass but know I know what I should do.

Do you have any rules about when I can be a patronising twat?

Which of them is wrong?

For example were those councils wrong?