Nestlé: the world's biggest food company and one of the 'most boycotted'

[TAFKAtheUrbanDryad]

Here.

Has it made any difference though, really?

For those of you who do boycott Nestlé, do you regularly check their list of companies and brands? They seem to make half of the content of my store cupboard and are expanding all the time.

but fairtrade is a misnoma. There was an article about this recently, while the fairtrade farmers get what is considered a fair price for their products, they are tied to those buyers so they are essentially not free to trade on the open market. Thus it isn't really fairtrade at all.

Body Shop are part-owned by L'Oreal. L'Oreal are owned by Nestle.

God bless Anita Roddick.

They also test products on animals, despite claims to the contrary. See here: "For instance, Entine charged in Business Ethics that The Body Shop in 1991 "purchased Vitamin E acetate from Hoffman LaRoche for use in sunscreen. According to company documents, the supplier had tested the ingredients on animals in 1989 and 1991. The Body Shop characterized the ingredient as a pharmaceutical, and as such, not subject to its rule banning animal-tested cosmetics ingredients." As source, Entine cited Hoffman LaRoche vice president of cosmetics specialties Dave Djerrasi.

"In an internal memo dated May 19, 1992," Entine wrote in the unpublished Vogue article, bootlegged copies of which have circulated among British and American media for some time, "the Body Shop's purchasing manager acknowledged that 46.5% of its ingredients had been tested on animals, up from 34% the year before." Body Shop memos issued in 1991 and 1992 indicate that from 53.2% to 59.7% of ingredients as of then were not animal-tested, while about 28% had been animal-tested within a decade."

MmeLindt, I do check the products regularly to see which are owned or part owned or benefit Nestlé.

I was really shocked at first to see the extent of Nestlé's market.

However, I've never bought the entire range of products e.g. I don't own a dog so don't need their dog food, anyway so really it's not been that tricky to avoid their products.

Regardless of whether it's ineffectual - I still don't want their products.

It gets tricky when kind people buy my dcs Nestlé sweets and Easter eggs though. I've still not worked out a way to deal with that properly to my shame.

I think the other issue with nestle or other large food procuders (and we have quite a few of the big names in the europe) is that aid to developing countries comes with the proviso that these countries are then forced to buy these products.

eg. - sitting on a beach side cafe in some developing country - oh - what should I drink - look up see nice mango hanging from tree - ok I'll havce a mango juice - order it and omg it's parmalat or nestle etc. Odd seeing you've got the raw products hanging above your head.

That kind of thing.

thanks for the info Winkywinkola and TAFKA, that is quite shocking, thought they were one of the better companies.

Boycotting Nestle was always a waste of time. Too large a reach across millions of retailers, too many brands, and too invisible to Nestle HQ.

If a boycott were to work then BMA should target the largest retailer eg Tesco because they are selling Nestle products. Far easier to implement - just one "brand" to think about, not 1,000s, and easy enough to shop in an alternative store for most people. Far easier to track as Tesco watches its own sales carefully and would spot something that affected its sales quickly. Just a 0.1% drop in sales would get Tesco acting fairly quickly imo. A 0.5% drop would be enough to keep it in the headlines. I reckon that if well enough publicised Tesco would be forced to announce some for of action by Christmas.

The downside: well it is a bit more brutal, and of course picking on Tesco could be seen as "unfair" since all supermarkets have Nestle of their shelves. But all the competition would know that it could happen to them next. Nestle doesn't sell directly to the consumer, the power of the consumer is with whom they relate ie the supermarkets.

Wannabe, I agree with you in a way about Fairtrade, I am unexcited about buying Fairtrade coffee in a supermarket which is undoubtedly screwing British producers in a thoroughly unfair way. However, I would question whether non-fairtrade buyers actually let their suppliers trade freely for the best price they can get. Also, the point of Fairtrade is that it's an amount above the market rate, which by definition the free trading suppliers are unlikely to get.

But I disagree with you about the pointlessness of boycotting a company because lots of others are equally awful. In my view every action I take should be checked for a moral dimension. I won't go into a long list of the things I do to try and ensure that, but I would say that food shopping is quite tiring . I'd also say my motto is 'I will not let the fact that I cannot do everything stop me from doing anything at all'.

What I should definitely do is not take any moral smugness from trying to boycott something, as what other people who don't boycott are doing is likely to be better. .

I boycott Nestle (and L'Oreal and Body Shop etc) but it just doesn't occur to my husband to. I think because he sees it as futile whereas to me its better than doing nothing.

My 4 year old is very good at spotting Nestle stuff and tells Granny 'we don't buy things from Mr Nestle because he's not kind to babies'. If people give us chocolate/easter eggs that are Nestle I do eat them though as it seems a waste not to. They get a lecture from DS anyway so maybe it spreads the word a bit.

Winky, I end up letting DC eat any Rowntrees/Nestle sweets that they get at parties.

But any that family (e.g. aunts, grandparents) buy them are binned. Because they know I boycott Nestle and I see that as undermining me. And there are sufficient other sweet treats to buy the children.

Oh god oh god. Am struggling with this ATM. Dh bought home a Nespresso Coffee maker this w/end (the one that Swoony Clooney advertises). The capsules have just arrived. You have to buy them online. I know it's Nestle BUT the coffee just tastes sooooo good. And I have just frothed too, with the milk frother.
Honestly, it's like Starbucks (oh god, think they are bad too) in my kitchen.
But waay nicer.

What to do?

Smash it up with a hammer Merrylegs

Oh dear oh dear oh dear merrylegs.

I think you'd better smash it up as 4sucks suggests, then submit yourself for a public flogging, sell tickets, and then donate the money to Baby Milk Action.

"Has there ever been a boycott that worked?"

MmeLindt, the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama in 1955 had pretty spectacular results!

Btw, does anyone know of an alternative to Nestle Condensed Milk? Am gutted Fussells is no more.

I like chunky KItKats tho ..are they allowed

Fussells was owned by Nestle, Beveridge

Sainsburys and Co-op do their own condensed milk (not sure if you can get it in all stores).

I have heard that Lidl stock an alternative brand too.

Good grief, they really do get everywhere! (Were Fussells always owned by them or was it a takeover at some point?) Mind you, as I have hardly led a life of intense toffee making, I won't have added much to Nestles coffers.

Thanks for the suggestions 4sucks, I have a booklet of things that are Really Bad For You that I fancy having a go at (never going to shift the baby weight now!)

Ah, the Alabama boycott. Ok, I will concede that one.

I have a Nespresso machine too, Merrylegs. No way am I smashing that with a hammer. I am addicted.

I read today about Nestlé buying milk from the farm of Mugabé's wife. They are getting a lot of stick for that here in Switzerland.

Not sure about the Lidl condensed milk, there is a good chance that it is made by Bärenmarke, also a Nestlé brand.

Well, of course a boycott won't work. It won't work against Nestle because nobody really gives a sh*t, do they?

That's the crux of the matter. If you really gave a sh*t, you wouldn't have a Nespresso or buy their products.

never heard of this boycott untill I came on mn, tbh I couldn't be bothered to boycott something like this,

Me too, MmeLindt. Why does the Devil have all the best tunes?

I have never eaten at McDonalds, if that redeems me?

ItsGrimUpNorth
It won't work because too many people would have to boycott Nestlé for it to have an impact.

Considering that I am a reasonably well informed person and that I had not even heard about the boycott until I came on MN, I don't think that it is likely.

I do think that it is admirable, but I cannot see the point in it.

I give a shit and I don't have a Nespresso machine, or buy Nestle.

It depends what you mean by 'work' anyway.

The boycott keeps the issue in the public eye, it puts pressure on Nestle (and other companies) to operate within the law, and also it means that you can criticise them without facing accusations of hypocrisy. I'm sure that if people just moaned about Nestle all the time, there would be no shortage of posts saying "well why buy their stuff then".

I totally agree that it is better to be doing something than nothing at all. It helps that it is pretty easy in our spoiled Western society to boycott Nestlé as alternatives are right there on the shelves.

I've had my moments of nom-nomming KitKats and thinking 'they don't give a fuck if I have this or don't have it' but I agree it is the wider knowledge of what's going on that's important eg within the family.

Can I just put a word in for Starbuck's? They are not squeaky clean but they tend to pay more to farmers via their fairtrade agreements than any other organisation which professes to be fairtrade. (Roughly a dollar a day on top of normal prices, I heard, which makes fairtrade look crap, really.) They have also been influential in society in kickstarting local coffee shops because a significant number of people hate them therefore go next door to get their coffee