Nestlé

Nestlé is the leading and largest foods company, located in Switzerland. Nestlé has markets in many areas including coffee, chocolate, bottled water, baby formula, pet food, ice cream, refrigerated foods, and candy. If that wasn't enough, Nestlé has over 26% of the Shares of L'Oréal. It is a massive corporation whose reach has stretched across many countries of the world.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/07/top_brands/source/63.htm

The list of products covers many of my favorites:

• Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Bit-O-Honey, Power Bar, Crunch bar
• Coffee Mate, NESCAFÉ Coffee
• Dreyer's, Edy's, & Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream
• Goobers, Laffy Taffy, Fun Dip, Pixy Stix, Runts, Raisenets, Smarties, Sweet Tarts, Snow Caps, Spree, 100 Grand, & NERDS
• Lean Cuisine, Hot Pocket
• Nestea, Juicy Juice, Nesquick, Nestlé Hot Chococlate
• Purina, Friskies, Alpo

Nestlé produces many of our favorite junk foods. But wait! There's no such thing as Halloween without Nestlé! I'll be honest, NERDS are my favorite childhood candy. Giving that up would not be an easy task. What's the big deal? Who cares if Nestlé is such a big company?

There was a boycott against Nestlé in 1977 due to Nestlé's marketing of baby formula to mothers in developing countries. Mothers who substitute baby formula for breast milk will cease lactating, which casues a cycle of dependency on Nestlé's product. Uneducated mothers may be tricked into this marketing scheme and ultimately their children's lives are at stake. There are many risks of using formula, especially in the developing world, yet Nestlé continues to advertise its formula as a risk-free substitue for breastmilk. This distribution still continues today and the boycott is still in effect. 

http://www.landcoalition.org/cpl-blog/wp-content/uploads/fight-the-nestle-monster-logo-from-baby-milk-action-2.jpg

Apparently, Nestlé is also a fan of demanding $6 million from the Ethiopian government, one of the poorest in the world. If picking on African governments and mothers wasn't enough, Nestlé sold thousands of tons of contaminated Purina animal feed to Venezualans back in 2005. 

In 2006, Nestlé was accused of purchasing chocolate which was grown on plantations that employed slave labor. Slave labor. And some of you thought that ended back when Lincoln roamed the earth...

In 2007,  Nestlé was found guilty of partnering with other milk producers in order to fix prices in Greece.

In 2008, a NestleWatch was launched to address Nestlé's move toward outsourcing its manufacturing. Also, in this year, the Hong Kong government found melamine (metabolite of a pesticide) in Nestlé milk products made in China. After affirming the safety of its products, the Taiwan Health ministry made an announcement stating that 6 types of Nestlé milk powders from China contained melamine. Nestlé THEN did a recall. 

For those of us who avoid candy, Hot Pockets, and ice cream, Nestlé can provide you with not only Lean Cuisine but a multitude of brands of bottled water. Pure Life, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Poland Spring, and Perrier, just to name a few. The topic of bottled water is a whole other issue, but I just want to mention how Michigan has spoken out against Nestlé's desire to pump our water our from under us. Nestlé set up shop in Mecosta County, MI and began pumping 500,000 gallons of water every day from an aquifer. Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation tried to halt the pumping, but Nestlé was able to continue pumping water that they did not own, in order to treat it with chemicals, distribute it in plastic bottles, and make a pretty penny with hardly any cost. 

It doesn't appear that Nestlé is slowing down. Although they are slowly acquiring an undesirable reputation, they're still the rulers of the food industry. How did that happen? With such a long list of examples of their irresponsible use of power and greed. Are Toll House cookies and Häagen-Dazs so good, that slave labor, contaminated foods, price fixing, and an inconsideration for everyday people, are worth it? The amount of ground that Nestlé covers is unreal. I don't like the sound of giving up my favorite snacks. But enabling a company who disregards the value of safe food, honest advertising, fair business, and respectable treatment of employees and consumers, is not something I want to endorse. Just think twice before you purchase that packet of Nestlé Hot Chocolate. There are many alternatives that won't leave you with such a sick feeling. 

Starting With Me

It is hard to say when I started to care. I think it was a process beginning with my new housemate. These were my thoughts: "But fair trade coffee costs more! I bet those aren't really organic black beans. Sure, if you want to make a special trip to get those." My purchasing habits had always been based on buying the cheapest product on the shelf, unless it was a vice of mine (I have many), in which case the price rarely mattered. In my mind, only granola eating hippies bought organic foods. I'm just a college student, I can hardly afford Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, let alone organic vegetables and organic fair trade coffee.

After several documentaries, a house weekly tradition, and conversations about the futility of combatting big business, and the potential of individuals to enact change, my heart started to change. At some point, I realized that changing our own individual lifestyles is the first step to affecting the big picture. And changing your own behavior should not be underestimated. Some may notice your odd behavior and ask why you do what you do. Some may notice and judge you for it. Some may not notice at all. But the potential exists to change your own life, change the life of your family and friends. A changed community can have a major impact on other communities of individuals. The worst, but probably most commonly used, excuse for being complacent is the absence of hope. By doing nothing, nothing will change. By changing, you are a part of a ripple which can create a tsunami of change. Why not?

We have many choices in life. Probably too many. Last year, I had the privelege of living with a lovely Indonesian woman. I picked her up from the airport, our first meeting, and took her to Meijer to buy some essentials. She was overwhelmed by the great multitude of options for every product she needed to purchase. Wouldn't life be much simpler with only one option? However, our culture demands variety and endless options. Many people, like me, choose based on price. Others choose based on popularity -brand names. As a whole, I think we have lost sight of the fact that our choices impact not only ourselves, but others. The things we endorse, speak about what we value. If we say, "I don't care what the company does to make my favorite food. I'll still buy it," then our apathy speaks clearly. If, however, we say, "I won't buy this bottled water because I don't agree with how it is made," we are speaking on behalf of justice and accountability to the companies who believe they have all of the power. With no consumers, there would be no power. It is up to us to step up to our important role and do our job. Spend wisely. Be informed. Consume with compassion. Here, I hope to document what I learn and be held accountable to being a compassionate consumer.