Harpers - The Tyranny of Breast Feeding

[Catherina]

14. The great Nestle boycott

The great Nestle boycott

Perhaps you’ve heard about the Nestle boycott before, but never really understood why it is going on. I hope the information below, including a list of all products Nestle sells, will be helpful in your quest to educate yourself on the subject.

Here’s an article – Eye witness evidence of Nestle© malpractice on eve of demonstration (http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/370977.html) – with links to several other sites/articles on the topic.

Nestle© is the target of an international boycott because of its aggressive marketing of baby foods. A newspaper article and new film reveal how Nestle© continues to undermine breastfeeding, breaking international marketing standards, where laws have yet to be introduced and enforced.

See also, Formula for Disaster – a five part UNICEF documentary series available on YouTube.

This eye-opening documentary reveals how the marketing of powdered milk has caused fewer mothers to breastfeed in the Philippines – including those who can ill afford artificial milk and suffer its harmful consequences. The milk companies’ formula for profits is a formula for disaster.

Part 1 of 5

Part 2 of 5

Part 3 of 5

Part 4 of 5

Part 5 of 5

From UNICEF – Rally for breastfeeding – Mothers demand truth about infant formula (http://www.unicef.org/philippines/news/070202.html)

Over 100 formula feeding mothers and their babies protested in front of infant formula manufacturers’ offices, claiming milk advertisements have deceived them into giving their babies infant formula instead of breastmilk.

“My message to the milk companies is to stop deceiving those who buy infant formula,” says Nadine Sylvano, mother of five children. “They say that their milk is good for children’s brains, will make children healthy, stout and give strong bones. But it’s not true.”

Also check out Baby Milk Action

Baby Milk Action is a non-profit organization which aims to save lives and to end the avoidable suffering caused by inappropriate infant feeding. Baby Milk Action works within a global network to strengthen independent, transparent and effective controls on the marketing of the baby feeding industry.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.5 million infants die around the world every year because they are not breastfed. Where water is unsafe a bottle-fed child is up to 25 times more likely to die as a result of diarrhea than a breastfed child.

That is why a marketing code was introduced in 1981 to regulate the marketing of breastmilk substitutes. Companies continue to violate its provisions. Find out how Baby Milk Action works to stop them and how you can help.

Baby Milk Action is not anti-baby milk. Our work protects all mothers and infants from irresponsible marketing.

There is even more information available on Wikipedia.

…Knowledge is power….

http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2007/05/19/the-great-nestle-boycott/