It’s the 20th anniversary of the Nestle Boycott this week. The theme is “Change Nestlé, Change the World”. This is one of few boycotts that I wholeheartedly support and participate in.
While reading a report from the NI cooperative, I learnt of a new outrage by Nestle. Over in Canada, Wellington Water Watchers document a Nestle plant that is (as I understand it), taking drinking water for free, bottling it as “Aqua Fina”, trucking it to cities and selling it. (Thanks to whoever it was gave me the WWW link – I didn’t find the email, so please claim it in a comment if you want it.)
You may remember that when Coca-Cola tried to do the same by selling contaminated Kent tap water as “Dasani”, it was widely ridiculed as Peckham Spring. Finally, “Dasani” was withdrawn from sale. It’s disappointing that Nestle’s Peckham Spring seems to be on sale in Canada, at a lower “manufacturing” cost than Coke’s UK one.
Do we really want multinationals selling us our tap water in an inefficient way? No. Boycott Nestle.
I somehow miss the “Boycott Coca-Cola” in there…
Nestle owns more than one brand of bottled water, in the states they sell seven, not including Perrier. They are currently using several legal loop-holes to sell Michigan’s ground water under the Ice Mountain brand.
Their full portfolio of brands can be found here: http://www.nestle-waters.com/en/Menu/NWToday/BrandPortfolio/Marques_locales
@Phillipp Kern: As I wrote, Nestle is one of the few boycotts that I personally support. I try to avoid Coca-Cola, mainly for cultural reasons, but I know I don’t achieve that completely. I’m not aware of reasons to boycott it. Why do you boycott it?
@Bob: thanks for the informative link. Like Phillip Morris and other Big Food, it’s not easy recognising the ever-changing list of Nestle brands.
Why boycott them? If people are stupid enough to pay for bottled water, then filling that need is a legitimate business.
It doesn’t really mater where they take the water from. It is all the same water in the end.
Just drink tap water.
Pingback: Looking Back: 2008 Part 3 | Software Cooperative News
Nestle’s latest global strategy (2010) is to promote its baby milk with the claim that it ‘protects’ babies, claiming it aids brain and eye development, supports the immune system and gives a blood profile similar to breastfed babies. It has added prominent, colourful logos to product labels in 120 countries, that undermine the obligatory ‘breastmilk is best for babies’ that the boycott helped to bring in. For further information and a message that takes ONE MINUTE to send to Nestlé, see:
http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/campaignblog260510