to expect politically correct snacks from the BBC?

[Elasticwoman]

Dh and I had free tickets to see a BBC show being filmed. In the break between filming they didn't want the audience to disperse so they gave us all cartons of juice and (oh no!) chocolate biscuits made by Nestle - boo! hiss! I could have murdered a chocolate biscuit but not that one.

When I pointed this out to a BBC flunky she had a blonde moment and claimed never to have heard of the Nestle boycott.

Comments from any one who works for the Beeb would be much appreciated. Shame on you!

YAB so U!!! I have no idea what the politics of the BBC are and I like it that way. FWIW I do agree with the boycott but I value the fact that the beeb are supposed to be independant!

This thread has really cheered me up :D

The Nestle Boycott has been going on for 30 years and more because Nestle has used aggressive marketing tactics to introduce artificial babymilk (aka formula) to the 3rd world. They give the stuff away in hospitals, and then women's own milk dries up; they come home and find the formula costs 90% of their income, the instructions are not in their language, they don't have clean water at home or sterilising facilities. Formula fed babies in the 3rd world are thus TWENTY FIVE TIMES more likely than bf babies to die of diarrhoea and other infectious diseases.

As a huge multinational company, Nestle has more power than many governments. Of course my boycotting Nestle products will make little financial difference to them - but they do hate to be the subject of a boycott all the same, and have fought many court battles with organisations such as Baby Milk Action - and lost.

The Church of England supports the Nestle Boycott.

In the 80s I also refused to buy South African apples, along with many others. Economically our action made little difference to South Africa, but the Apartheid government was very aware of it and eventually crumbled.

For more information on the politics of breastfeeding, read The Politics of Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer.

Sorry - this has nothing to do with the boycott, just interested in what you went to see,where you went and where you got the tickets from? Apart from the Nestle thing was it good fun? Thanks

There's no such thing as a free ticket. Now you know.

EW though the boycott may (or may not) be something worthwhile I don't think you are being at all reasonable to expect an organisation like the BBC to take this into consideration. Should they also provide only (free) organic egg sandwiches etc, or are bog standard (and therefore cheaper) egg sandwiches also OK?

There's no such thing as a cheap egg at the bbc

i bet they thought you were a right pain in the arse.

As you say the Nestle boycott has been going on for 30 years and yet it remains one of the world's most successful food companies. Obviously the people who follow the boycott are in a tiny tiny minority.

Personally, I would be annoyed if the BBC took it up as a cause as it would be inappropriate for them to pursue action against a private company given their role. Where would they draw the line? No American products because of capital punishment ; no Chinese products becuase of human rights abuses ; none from the Arab world due to the treatment of women?.

beanie

PMSL at the idea of EW full of self-righteous indignation interrogating the "flunky" - I bet she could not give a sh*t.

the title of this thread makes me larff every time i see it

wel amused smile anyway

i was brought up with two channels on tv and my dad had a rule that BBC had priority

Can you imagine... BBC spends licence fee on giving organic fair-trade biscuits out for FREE.

yabu.

btw - the eggs in the canteen: battery.

Agree zippi, there's something about the phrase "politcally correct snacks" that does it.

what a crock of shite

get a grip

its a bit surreal yep

i just have a vision of john cleese in the context of bbc 0polkitically correct snacks

and it is against the remit

LOL PC about a bleeding biscuit, but not bothered using non PC term flunkyget a grip.you were entertained for free, offered free refreshments...still grumbling

oh dear i only seem to be on nestle threads at the moment.

yes i'm afraid you are being unreasonable. sticking to a boycott means you are sometimes going to find that there is no other option but to not eat/drink what there is on offer.

i kind of know what you mean - i expect the bbc to agree with me at all times but, erm, 60 million of us - not going to happen.

Are Nestle still doing the baby milk in the Third World thing? Thought that had been ditched ages ago?

YABU. They gave out free snacks and you are complaining that they should not have given you Nestke biscuits.

lol this thread is nuts

PMSL. I ha ve h4erd uit all now1

I would imagine that it would be difficult to find snacks that didn't offend somebody somewhere. I don't believe I just wrote that. Are snacks offensive? I had never heard of the nestle boycott till I read this and I don't know anyone who has so it is obviously not a very well publicised campaign or I would have wouldn't I. Perhaps op should concentrate efforts on raising the campaign's profile than getting so worked up about a biscuit. It is obviously a issue that is very important to her. I'm not saying I agree with what I have learned Nestle did but I have 2 questions

1. Is it still going on?
2. Don't they give formula away in hospitals here too?.. My dcs are older but they certainly used to where mine were born in nice sterile bottles with disposable sterile teats.... Very tempting to all but the commited breast feeder if like me you're struggling to establish bf with boobs like a couple of water melons because your body has decided to produce enough milk to feed the whole ward!!!

madje2, you've just found out about the Nestle boycott... why not spend a few minutes having a look at this and see if you think it is something you want to support?

In my opinion the boycott is worth supporting because the companies do at least recognise they have something to lose if/when they break the international codes of practice on infant feeding.

It's a truth though that formula feeding rates in many developing countries are rising. I believe that this situation would be worse without the boycott, but who knows.

So are they still giving formula to new mothers in developing countries? And is it just nestle or do other manufacturers do the same.
BTW I did stick with bf but it would have been very tempting to accept the offered bottle of formula when I was finding it a real struggle.

Also having read the list of products I should boycott my poor rescued cat would starve as she is the fussiest cat in the world (even the vet was surprised the extent she would starve herself in refusing different foods). She will only eat one variety of felix and gocat. I'm not just talking about in preference to other cat foods I'm talking about anything. I don't know.....get a cat from the rspca you'd expect it to be grateful !!!!

Also I'm curious is there no education program for these women? I mean so they know what they are doing when they accept formula feeding.
Thank you for the link.........Had a quick look but will read more later when I get back from work.