Boycott Nestl

Nestle, owners of Rowntree's chocolate factory, continue to push their powdered baby milk around the world where contaminated water supplies lead to death from diarrhoea and malnutrition.

Despite years of pressure from major international organisations such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and smaller bodies such as the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) and Baby Milk Action, Nestle continues to rake in profits from sales of milk powder.

This despite the fact that UNICEF says that every day, more than 4,000 babies die because they are not breastfed. WHO, UNICEF and a study published in the Lancet show that improved breastfeeding practices could save some 1.5 million baby deaths a year.

Yet Nestle continues to aggressively promote and advertise its baby milk powder against WHO and UNICEF guidelines (see http://www.babymilkaction.org/resources/yqsanswered/yqanestle06.html and elsewhere).

If you weren't aware of Nestle's behaviour before, you are now. So what are you going to do about it? Why not join the long-running consumer boycott and refuse to buy Nestle products (you'll be amazed how many they make)?

Why not check out the links below to find out for yourself how Nestle behaves and how you can campaign against them? If you are considering going to work for them you may choose not to now you know what they are up to.

- If you currently work for them why not question the way your employer behaves, or if you are able, make a change to the way Nestle behaves.

Maybe just support the campaign by buying a "CAMPAIGN AGAINST NESTL.

Stop bottle baby deaths." T-shirt. This way you both contribute funds and raise awareness of the campaign. Visit http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/tshirts.html

For further information visit the sites below:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/index.html

http://www.ibfan.org/english/ibfan00.html

Nestl replies:

Nestl firmly believes that breastfeeding is the best way to feed a baby, and we are strongly committed to the protection and promotion of breastfeeding. However, when mothers cannot or choose not to breastfeed, infant formula is the only product recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a suitable alternative.

Nestl universally follows all countries' implementation of the WHO code. In developed countries, Nestl follows national regulations/laws implementing the WHO Code. Further, in all developing countries, Nestl voluntarily adopts the WHO Code as a minimum standard. Should there be national legislation in place, stricter than the WHO Code, we follow that country's national legislation.

As such, we:

Do not advertise or promote infant formula in the developing world.

Do not give incentives to health workers to promote our products.

Do not have pictures of babies on our packaging.

Do not employ 'milk nurses' to persuade mothers to use our products; our employees responsible for the marketing of infant formula have no direct contact with mothers in the developing world.

Do not give free supplies to hospitals unless requested for by Governments in very special circumstances.

State on our labels that "Breastmilk is best for babies" and provide preparation instructions, both graphically and in the relevant local languages.

Welcome discussion and dialogue on infant formula with stakeholders.

In 2004, Nestl commissioned Bureau Veritas, a major global auditing company with substantial social auditing experience, to review Nestl infant food marketing in three African countries of their choice. Bureau Veritas spent five weeks auditing Nestl practices in South Africa, Nigeria and Mozambique and reported that they found no systematic shortfalls in terms of Nestl's implementation of its Instruction on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

More detailed information can be found at our website located at www.babymilk.nestle.com; www.nestle.co.uk/studentissues

Updated: 14:21 Thursday, November 17, 2005