Nestle's Unethical Business Practices

I am an outspoken critic of Nestlé's unethical business practices. Although I have been aware of some of the issues with Nestlé for years, I have become more aware of the depth and breadth of the issues since my interaction with both Nestlé and the Nestlé Family Bloggers starting last September. This post provides an overview of the Nestlé problem, links to key resources, and links to my past posts and discussion on this issue.

Nestlé is accused by experts of unethical business practices such as:

• Promoting infant formula with misleading and harmful strategies that violate the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and put babies at risk (see Baby Milk Action's Briefing on Nestle Updated July 2010 and the Boycott Nestle - and other action to protect infant health blog);


• Using suppliers that violate human rights (e.g purchasing milk from Mugabe, buying cocoa from suppliers that use child slaves) and destroy the environment (e.g. palm oil from rainforest);


• Controlling and abusing of water sources in its bottled water operations (e.g. in United States and in Brazil);


• Promoting unhealthy food, especially for young children;


• Trade union busting activities and denying the rights of workers to collectively bargain;


• …and more (see Nestle Critics Portal and Corporate Watch: Nestle SA: Corporate Crimes).

Nestlé defends its unethical business practices and uses doublespeak, denials and deception in an attempt to cover up or justify those practices. When laws don't exist or fail to hold Nestlé to account, it takes public action to force Nestlé to change. Public action can take on many forms, including boycotting Nestlé brands, helping to spread the word about Nestlé's unethical business practices, and putting pressure on the government to pass legislation that would prevent Nestlé from doing things that put people, animals and the environment at risk.