Following on from the Nestle thread, what do you boycott, and why?

[UnderRated]

Other than Nestle (& its subsidiaries)?

Can I just make a point about air freight products that people have mentioned?
In terms of food, it is much better to buy only food in season, and completely local, rather than boycott air freighted food or look at air miles. It costs less in carbon terms to fly in vegetables from Kenya than it does to hothouse them in Europe...
It's also impossible to boycott all airfreighted products - a lot of drugs have to be flown for various reasons - so it's quite tough to boycott those. Same goes for computer parts - (they don't need to be, but they are).

Can I ask why people boycott China? I can understand about the human rights, but not buying chinese goods, which is pretty hard, will hurt the people first and foremost, and is unlikely on such a small scale to make the government change its mind.

Sagitta - seasonal British food is far better than anything, air-frieghted, hothoused or whatever.

I boycott China because the only thing that will make the regime think is economic slowdown. I don't see how buying a cheap plastic toy made in horrendous conditions with child labour/semi-forced labour using toxic chemicals that cause long term health problems for the employees is helping the poor Chinese. I also think that the vast and increasing environmental issues in China - desertification, poisoned river systems, massive pollution, are partly the responsibility of the consumers. If we all thought a little bit before buying the next piece of cheap shite that we just HAVE to have or we'll die, the world would actually be a marginally better place.

I've boycotted johnson & johnson. not for any political reasons. but i was watching 'hollywoods hottest heiresses' on mtv once. The heiress to the johnson & johnson's fortune was on their showing off her designer handbag and shoe collection and i decided she didn't need any more money if that's what she was spending it on.
Kind of a weird one, but you did ask.

Callisto, there in lies a huge problem about china, if you don't let the country develop markets internationally you automatically stop the government giving a *&Y about its people.
What is happening in China is that they are developing strong international markets, the people are generally being more educated about how other cultures live and they internally are going to have a ground swell of change but it is happening in a controlled manner. (OK not a democracy but as has been shown time and time again across the world a free vote doesn't often change the situation for the majority of people who live in that system)
There are also alot of examples internationally where the people believed "freedom" would buy economic success and it may be the case for a few but not for the masses.
Sorry gone off at a tangent..

This is far more interesting than I expected! Thanks for all the replies.

I boycott:

Nestle (& everything that they profit from) as much as I can,

Walmart - apart from their poor treatment of staff & exploitation, on my first visit to a US store, I was appalled to find guns and bullets being sold next to the kids bikes .

Gap & other big brands when I can

I never buy MacDonalds but I do work for their charity which, depsite the rest of the company, does a good thing that I believe in.

It is actually cheaper to buy store brand goods rather than Nestle etc anyway.

I buy:

Free Range Eggs.

Fair Trade tea & coffee & chocolate (although I rarely buy any of these things anyway)

If I have to buy meat or fish for someone, I make sure it is wild/ organic

I HATE that all toddler items seem to have Disney or Thomas all over them.

I hadn't really paid attention to the Israel thing, but don't think I buy much from there anyway. I'll investigate.

I boycotted Johnson and Johnson cos their products are full of harsh chemicals and made my ds look like a baboon with a bright red bum.

I also avoid aspartame and other artifical sweetners in products.

Re. China - Jingley I agree with you that it's very difficult - as with economic sanctions applied by governments, it's hard to tell whether boycotts are ultimately beneficial or not for the people at ground level.

Aside from the appalling state of human rights within China, I'm thinking about boycotting Chinese goods because of their record on foreign policy, particularly their involvement in Sudan and Burma, where they have a great deal of influence and seem happy to use it in the service of murderous and barbaric regimes.

Actually, Walmart because they sell guns, period. It doesn't matter where they are in the store, they shouldn't be sold somewhere like that at all. (I have issues with guns in the US)

Interesting re Johnson & Johnson - over here they advertise as an environmentally friendly, family company

I also avoid aspartame...buy Fair-trade when poss...avoid Asda and Tescos when I can...

Good points, Jingley...

Tesco - cos it smells in the shop and I don't like them - so try hard not to use them

Oxfam - cos the money dosn't go where they say so again I try hard not to use them

I neeed to go and shop for tea, I'll nip into Tescos, oh no not allowed, I'll drive on up to asda, no can't go there either. Never mind I'll pay through the nose at my local shop. Ooops thats a onestop arn't they owned by tesoc? Sod it we'll have take away mcdonalds anyone or maybe chinese??!!!!
Perhaps I'll jump in the car and drive out of the city to some ethnically sound, organic, enviromentally friendly, farmer friendly, free range little shop (never mind the enviromental impact of the fuel I've used getting there). The fact is, as someone on a limited income I simply can't afford it. I'm standing in the shop choosing a chicken for tea... I would love to be able to buy the £7+ organic free range one but that is completely above my budget. So as unpalatable as it may be to some on here I do shop at these places you disapprove of and buy products you wouldn't but mostly I have no choice.
Incidently how much research do you all do when you buy alternatives to nestle. Some have mentioned that you buy own brand alternatives. Do you find out by whom and how they are produced? It could be become a fulltime job just researching what you can and can't buy!!!
BTW I do shop with a conscience when it would be financially disadvantagious to do so.

Sorry I mean WOULDN'T be financially disadvantagious .....that will teach me to preview my posts!!!!!!

and maybe learn to spell!!!!!

totally agree with you iloa

tbh I think the issue of boycotting a company based on one's political feelings about where it manufactures its products is a difficult one. Especially when those political views have to do with human rights.

So let's say we all boycott a company that manufactures in China, that is actually responsible for employing a lot of people who otherwise would not have an income. The boycott has a huge impact on the company, and they switch their manufacturing to another, more libral country, putting a large number of people in China out of work in the process. In the more libral country, the people might protest at the fact that their country's political leanings were causing companies to pull out and render large numbers of the population unemployed, but in a country like China, the residents wouldn't be able to protest because of the already questionable human rights of their government. So the poor get poorer, because the companies who were employing them have pulled out because of the demands of the westerners who have thought of the politics and not the people, and the government continues to do what it wants because the people don't dare protest for fear of repercussion.

I can see your point WanneBe, but it is also possible that if enough people work to undermine China's economic progress, the government would become sufficiently alarmed to think twice about what it's doing.

I realise that for this to happen there'd have to be a helluva lot of people operating individual boycotts, but aren't all these things based on hope rather than experience?

SUPERMARKETS in general are the only really thinga we are passionate about boycotting, and plastic bags. Have been supermarket frr for 6 months now and it feel s good.

I'm not sure anyone was judging. I started this thread because I was curious about what people avoid and why.

I think much of it depends on cost, convenience and availability how as well as political/ ethical views and how strongly you feel about those issues.

see personally I think that boycotting a product has more to do with one's own opinions rather than the ability to make a difference.

so for example, I don't eat veal, because I don't want to eat something that suffered horrendously so that I could eat it, iyswim? but my not eating veal isn't going to stop the farmers from producing it, there will always be people willing to eat it. You might not shop at the supermarkets because you don't agree with their monopoly, but you shopping there won't stop them from doing it, it just means you're not a part of it.

Yes, I'd agree with that. In developed economies, in which people are increasingly defined by what they consume/buy, the conscious choice to not consume/buy something is an act of self-definition.

I did not actually state a reason for not shoppping at supermarkets, nor am i trying to single handed trying to stop them for being part of todays society. IKWYM but thats not my only reason for not going to them.

I feel it's important to shop with integrity, and to teach my children to do what they think is right, even if I suspect it will have little or no effect on the market, or the company being avoided or whatever. Plus, if we think 'boycotts never work', then we wont bother and so they wont work.

not reading the whole thread but my dd asked me recently if we were 'still at war' with israel. i said no er,why? and she said because i want those strawberries and they're from israel. (she is 9 btw). i felt slightly guilty that I obviously impress her so much with my political rantings...and we didnt buy them.

always boycot barclays - still cant bring myself to use them not even to draw out cash, always go elsewhere!

also boycott: brussel sprouts, okra.