We’re in the thick of Nestlé-Free Week — are you participating? At my house it’s Nestlé-Free Week for 52 weeks out of the year, but those who do not already boycott Nestlé might try to do so for just this one week and for their Halloween candy purchases in particular. This year for Halloween I chose to buy Smarties, those little pieces of pure processed sugar and food coloring. The poor Smarties company has to put on the homepage of its website: “Do not confuse our Smarties with Nestlé chocolate Smarties”! I wanted something without corn syrup and something not …read more

As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health Subcommittee, Senator Edward Kennedy played a crucial role in the 1978 Senate hearing on the marketing of f*ormula in developing countries. In his opening speech, Senator Kennedy asked:
Whose responsibility is it to control the advertising, marketing and promotional activities which may create a market in spite of public health considerations?
In the hearing itself, Senator Kennedy put a Nestlé executive through a very pointed line of questioning on the company’s social responsibility in countries where poverty and the lack of a sanitary water supply make f*ormula-feeding particularly dangerous. Watch this fascinating clip:
Patti Rundall, Policy …read more

Protests against Nestlé began in the 1970s and continue strong even now 30 years later as Nestlé continues to be one of the worst violators of the World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes. If you are wondering “Should you boycott Nestle?” read that article and then come back here for the details on the protests planned at Nestlé headquarters and on Facebook!

Baby Milk Action operates as a non-profit seeking to protect mothers and babies from irresponsible marketing of artificial baby milks. The group supports breastfeeding and safer formula feeding. Baby Milk Action plans to target Nestlé with …read more

Welcome Blog Action Day and Carnival of Breastfeeding readers! As thousands of bloggers around the world reflect on the topic of poverty, Breastfeeding 1-2-3 and other breastfeeding carnival participants (see links at the end of this post) are discussing poverty as it relates to the topic of breastfeeding.
Myths about Breastfeeding and Poverty
1. Myth: If a breastfeeding woman is malnourished due to poverty, she should be told to wean and be given formula for her baby.

Are you participating in the Nestle-Free Week starting today, October 4, 2008? For more on the why and how of the Nestle Boycott and Nestle-Free Week in particular, visit Baby Milk Action’s Nestle-Free Week planning page.

Baby Milk Action is planning Nestle-Free Week surrounding this coming October 4, 2008. For more on the why, when and how of the Nestle Boycott and Nestle-Free Week in particular, visit Baby Milk Action’s Nestle-Free Week planning page.

~ The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program encourages breastfeeding through the offer of pumping supplies, support from breastfeeding peer counselors, and incentives to breastfeed (breastfeeding mothers who do not require infant formula are given extra allotments of food). Tanya at the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog reports that WIC is in danger of having to cut over half a million families due to a potential lack of funding.
~ Author Sean Taylor refused to accept the prize money for the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize 2007 after he learned about Nestlé’s unethical marketing practices. Thanks to Bliss-Breastfeeding for the heads-up on that …read more

When I asked “Should You Boycott Nestle?” that post generated a lot of interesting discussion. The poll results turned out to be revealing as well. The question “Do you boycott Nestle” showed that approximately 1/3 of the respondents already boycott Nestle and another 1/3 have now agreed to do so. Approximately 1/4 of the respondents do not and will not boycott Nestle, and 1/8 actually buy Nestle’s artificial baby milk. This pie chart illustrates the exact breakdown of the response to “Do you boycott Nestle?”:

Please take a moment to vote in the new poll in the sidebar. To see all …read more

Add Gerber baby food to the list of Nestle products to boycott. Today Nestle announced plans to acquire Gerber Products Company. Forbes reports:
The acquisition helps further Nestle’s recent focus on health and nutrition, following its purchases of U.S. weight control company Jenny Craig and [Novartis Medical Nutrition]….
“The acquisition of Gerber is the perfect complementary fit,” said Nestle Chairman and CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. “It not only gives Nestle the leadership position in baby food, but it also constitutes a decisive step to establish Nestle Nutrition as the undisputed global leader in the nutrition field.”
And here I thought “Nestle Nutrition” was an …read more

Let me put it this way instead: if you aren’t boycotting Nestlé, why not? Do you know:
~ The original Nestlé boycott started in 1977 in protest of Nestlé’s unethical, aggressive and patently harmful marketing of artificial baby milk in Third World countries. The company engaged women to dress up like nurses and distribute free samples that lasted just long enough to dry up a mother’s own breast milk. Impoverished women who could not afford to purchase enough of the expensive artificial milk would resort to diluting it with excess amounts of water which led to infant malnutrition. Furthermore, artificial milk prepared with unsanitary water supplies led to …read more