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Nestle

3point14

Pi
3point14
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
23,073
It appears Reddit is angry at Nestle. And, if the reports are accurate, with good reason.


https://stayhipp.com/internet/memes...ries-of-scathing-memes-and-calls-for-boycott/


Searching Google news for anything Nestle related only really brings up a bunch of Nestle's own PR stories, nothing about the negative practices claimed by reddit posters. e.g.:

"Nestle is a horrible company and has been taking water from a village in PAkistan and refusing to allow them to pipe it to their village. They only allow them to get it if they buy thorugh Nestle. They have alos misinformed many mothers with their advertising of baby formula, causing many infant deaths."


Is this a storm in a teacup? Or are Nestle really evil?
 
They used to take breast milk from babies* so it's no surprise if they're taking water from Pakistani villagers. That's what capitalism does.
Nestlé boycott (Wikipedia)

* i.e. they tried to persuade African mothers to feed their babies with Nestlé milk powder instead of breast-feeding them. (See link)

- - - - - - - -

ETA: I notice that Pakistani water isn't on the list of Nestlé Products to Boycott.
 
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3point14 said:
It appears Reddit is angry at Nestle. And, if the reports are accurate, with good reason.


https://stayhipp.com/internet/memes...ries-of-scathing-memes-and-calls-for-boycott/


Searching Google news for anything Nestle related only really brings up a bunch of Nestle's own PR stories, nothing about the negative practices claimed by reddit posters. e.g.:

"Nestle is a horrible company and has been taking water from a village in PAkistan and refusing to allow them to pipe it to their village. They only allow them to get it if they buy thorugh Nestle. They have alos misinformed many mothers with their advertising of baby formula, causing many infant deaths."


Is this a storm in a teacup? Or are Nestle really evil?
Click to expand...


Is it because they use a font that doesn’t support an e with an acute accent?
 
3point14 said:
It appears Reddit is angry at Nestle. And, if the reports are accurate, with good reason.


https://stayhipp.com/internet/memes...ries-of-scathing-memes-and-calls-for-boycott/


Searching Google news for anything Nestle related only really brings up a bunch of Nestle's own PR stories, nothing about the negative practices claimed by reddit posters. e.g.:

"Nestle is a horrible company and has been taking water from a village in PAkistan and refusing to allow them to pipe it to their village. They only allow them to get it if they buy thorugh Nestle. They have alos misinformed many mothers with their advertising of baby formula, causing many infant deaths."


Is this a storm in a teacup? Or are Nestle really evil?
Click to expand...

I don't know... you're one quote is a little light on detail. That usually isn't a very good sign with regard to how closely it's matching reality.

I did however easily find a number of articles concerning these alleged wrong doings. However, the following seems the most serious and deals with the water situation in Pakistand and the role that Nestle plays there. Haven't gone through it in detail though.

https://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/Rosemann-2006-Drinking.pdf
 
Amazer said:
I don't know... you're one quote is a little light on detail. That usually isn't a very good sign with regard to how closely it's matching reality.

I did however easily find a number of articles concerning these alleged wrong doings. However, the following seems the most serious and deals with the water situation in Pakistand and the role that Nestle plays there. Haven't gone through it in detail though.

https://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/Rosemann-2006-Drinking.pdf
Click to expand...

Once you get past all the premises and backstory, the nut of it seems to be that Nestle is extracting groundwater and putting it in bottles and selling it, in Pakistan. Other communities get their water from wells that tap the same groudwater source, and Nestle's use of that source is unsustainable and may or may not impact the water quality in wells tapping the same source.

Also Pakistan has a water quality problem, and improved water supply is a human right, and Nestle may or may not be evil depending on how much you squint when you read between the lines.

But seriously, if you just want to find out what exactly Nestle is up to in Pakistan, scroll to about halfway down. The entire first half of the paper is filler.
 
Amazer said:
I don't know... you're one quote is a little light on detail. That usually isn't a very good sign with regard to how closely it's matching reality.

I did however easily find a number of articles concerning these alleged wrong doings. However, the following seems the most serious and deals with the water situation in Pakistand and the role that Nestle plays there. Haven't gone through it in detail though.

https://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/Rosemann-2006-Drinking.pdf
Click to expand...

That's quite useful.

The main issue seems to be that there is no effective regulation of groundwater extraction in most of Pakistan. Nestle's Lahore plant currently looks to be account for around 1% of the total deep-well extraction around Lahore (difficult to estimate without regulation) but most of the others are taking the water for drinking water, not profit.

In other words, it is making the situation worse, and taking advantage of a lack of regulation to get free access to what should be a licenced resource.
 
theprestige said:
Once you get past all the premises and backstory, the nut of it seems to be that Nestle is extracting groundwater and putting it in bottles and selling it, in Pakistan. Other communities get their water from wells that tap the same groudwater source, and Nestle's use of that source is unsustainable and may or may not impact the water quality in wells tapping the same source.
Click to expand...
If Pakistan is somewhat similar to most large cities in the subcontinent, then I suspect that Nestle is contributing to the problem but that it isn't the only source that is impacting the quantity and quality of the water supply.

Also Pakistan has a water quality problem, and improved water supply is a human right, and Nestle may or may not be evil depending on how much you squint when you read between the lines.
Click to expand...
I guess it depends where you're coming from whether they are evil or if they're not. I lean towards it (Nestle) not being evil but sometimes just not caring enough.

But seriously, if you just want to find out what exactly Nestle is up to in Pakistan, scroll to about halfway down. The entire first half of the paper is filler.
Click to expand...
Not quite that interested... but the quote from the OP seemed suspiciously light on details and I thought that the link I provided might provide a little more insight.
 
I must confess that I did not read every word of that link, but it appears from what I did that there are two separate issues here. The first is that Nestle is using ground water rather than spring water, in an unsustainable way, and thus diminishing the aquifer that is used by others, and lowering the quality of what is left. The second is that their purification of that groundwater is suspect, but there seem to be many interests and points of view involved in the latter claim.

"Evil" is a pretty far reaching term, but I would not be at all surprised to find that Nestle's approach is cynical and ignores or spins the ethical issues of what they do. I don't think that would be new for them.
 
3point14 said:
It appears Reddit is angry at Nestle. And, if the reports are accurate, with good reason.





https://stayhipp.com/internet/memes...ries-of-scathing-memes-and-calls-for-boycott/





Searching Google news for anything Nestle related only really brings up a bunch of Nestle's own PR stories, nothing about the negative practices claimed by reddit posters. e.g.:



"Nestle is a horrible company and has been taking water from a village in PAkistan and refusing to allow them to pipe it to their village. They only allow them to get it if they buy thorugh Nestle. They have alos misinformed many mothers with their advertising of baby formula, causing many infant deaths."





Is this a storm in a teacup? Or are Nestle really evil?
Click to expand...
Evil. Yes.
Anyone promoting the " war on breast milk" is evil. The mothers they persuade to use formula often can't afford to use it and it's not as good as breast milk. We are talking about babies being abused for profit here.
 
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Nestlé's position on baby formula has been controversial for over forty years, and it does not seem to do them any credit. They marketed baby formula in a way that fostered dependency in masses of people so poor that they could not afford it, leading to many deaths by malnutrition (which Nestlé could of course blame on the ignorant mothers rather than their marketing blitz). It was an international scandal that brought in the World Health Organization, and resulted in some new codes, but whether this changed their marketing in any substantial way is dubious, and though I don't have the full story here, it's more in character, I think, for them to be doing wrong than to be wronged.
 
bruto said:
Nestlé's position on baby formula has been controversial for over forty years, and it does not seem to do them any credit. They marketed baby formula in a way that fostered dependency in masses of people so poor that they could not afford it, leading to many deaths by malnutrition (which Nestlé could of course blame on the ignorant mothers rather than their marketing blitz). It was an international scandal that brought in the World Health Organization, and resulted in some new codes, but whether this changed their marketing in any substantial way is dubious, and though I don't have the full story here, it's more in character, I think, for them to be doing wrong than to be wronged.
Click to expand...

As well as the malnutrition, there was the problem of unclean water meaning the babies were at risk of waterborne illnesses that weren't present in the mother due to her having acquired immunity to them.

There was also the problem with lack of immunity - breastmilk helps confer some of the mother's antibodies to the child.
 
Nestle believes the tears of children may be the secret ingredient in making a more delicious chocolate.
 
Ziggurat said:
It's cheaper than ground-up Oompa Loompas.
Click to expand...

In the short run, yes. But once you have a herd of Oompa Loompas they become a renewable resource, whereas harvesting the tears of children causes boycotts and are an ongoing expense.
 
Mojo said:
The Wikipedia page has a “controversy and criticisms” section: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nestlé&oldid=906951879#Controversy_and_criticisms
Click to expand...


Related to the "Status of potable water" entry in that link, the CEO in 2005 said that it was "extreme" to claim that humans have a right to drinking water.

“Water is, of course, the most important raw material we have today in the world. It’s a question of whether we should privatize the normal water supply for the population. And there are two different opinions on the matter. The one opinion, which I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means that as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution. The other view says that water is a foodstuff like any other, and like any other foodstuff it should have a market value. Personally, I believe it’s better to give a foodstuff a value so that we’re all aware it has its price, and then that one should take specific measures for the part of the population that has no access to this water, and there are many different possibilities there.”
Click to expand...
 
In India, they actually bribe paediatricians to recommend that mothers complement a baby's diet with their baby formula even before the first six months. They are also notorious for appropriating water sources to the detriment of the local populace.
 
dann said:
They used to take breast milk from babies* so it's no surprise if they're taking water from Pakistani villagers. That's what capitalism does.
Nestlé boycott (Wikipedia)

* i.e. they tried to persuade African mothers to feed their babies with Nestlé milk powder instead of breast-feeding them. (See link)

- - - - - - - -

ETA: I notice that Pakistani water isn't on the list of Nestlé Products to Boycott.
Click to expand...

I remember them drawing fire for the baby formula thing a long time ago (20 yrs maybe), but I haven't run across anything recently.
 
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