Half Pint Pixie

It’s the start of Nestlé-Free week (see I told you October was a busy month), and today marks the 20th anniversary of the most recent incarnation of the Nestlé boycott.

So, what is Nestlé-Free Week? Mike at the Boycott Nestlé blog explains:

What is Nestlé-Free Week? It is a week to tell people about the boycott. If you are a boycotter, you will probably know people who say they can’t give up one or other Nestlé product. Ask them to do so just for Nestlé-Free Week, this year and every year until Nestlé makes the required changes to its marketing policies and practices.

If you don’t boycott all Nestlé products yourself (the focus in the UK is on Nescafé coffee) then give it a try during Nestlé-Free Week. You and your friends and colleagues may find alternatives that you will stick with. Fairly traded products are a good way to go as Nestlé is also criticised over its treatment of coffee farmers and for failing to act on child slavery in its cocoa supply chain.

Sound like something you’d be interested in? If you’re new to the boycott, pop on over to Baby Milk Action’s boycott HQ, which has all the information you need to know! You can also check out this post for some ideas on things you can do during Nestlé-Free week.

And even if none of this appeals to you, consider this: The recent baby deaths in China were a tragedy, but to Nestlé they represented a positive! Do you really want to give your money to a company that uses dead and ill babies as a marketing opportunity? From Reuters:

“All our products are 100 percent safe…Sales in China are rather being favoured,” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe told reporters in India’s capital, when asked whether the scandal would affect the company’s business.

“It’s rather positive than negative,” Brabeck said.

Are their products 100% safe? Boycott Nestlé has evidence that would disagree with that statement.

A new portal site, Nestlé Critics has been launched which will be bringing together information on the many different issues with Nestlé. It seems to be making an impact, there has already been an attempt to shut it down.

Nestlé are making a bit of a comeback in the UK recently, they are about to launch into the formula market and coincidentally have been getting involved in many high profile sponsorship deals with children’s charities, including the ISPCC in Ireland, hmm….

Anyhoo, give the boycott a go for one week or if you already boycott Nestlé try and get a friend to join you, the more the merrier!

You can see a list of Nestlé’s products here, they do seem to have a finger in every pie, but after a while I find you get used to avoiding them!

If you’re a fan of Nescafé, you could try Cafédirect. And if it’s Smarties or jellies you miss, you can get very yummy alternatives (which also happen to be vegan!).

And I know there are many people out there who think the Nestlé boycott is a waste of effort, after all it’s been going on now for years, but it’s not always about an instant result, sometimes you have to do something even if you don’t see an immediate return. For every one person actively boycotting Nestlé there are probably loads more people who have considered it but think it’s too much trouble.

Yes, it can be a hassle, but I think we have no idea here in the media-savvy developed nations how insidious their tactics are, we are educated, we understand advertising, we know to look beyond the gloss. Many people don’t and because of this babies have died and are continuing to die. And that is why I boycott Nestlé, because they have targeted women at their most vunerable and tricked them into choosing formula (their reps used to dress as nurses and hand out free formula samples) when they have no access to clean water knowing full well, even if the mothers don’t, that this action was risking the baby’s life, because they drive down standards and continue to exploit loopholes in order to advertise their formula and because they think dying babies in China are a positive marketing opportunity. For shame. Even if there was no official Nestlé boycott, I couldn’t in my heart support such a company.

I guess we all have to make our own choices in these matters, the facts are there, and they make for stark reading. As about a gazillion people have said before me “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything“.

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