The Corruption of Nestle’s!
Nestle is an extremely rich and powerful company with a disturbing list of unethical business practices such as the use of slave labor, the use of child labor, the unethical promotion of products, the exploitation of uneducated mothers in third world countries and more.
The Nestle Company owns tons of different products on the market, including Gerber baby food and baby formula, Pure Life bottled water, Cheerios, KitKat, Smarties, Lean Cuisine frozen food, Stouffer’s frozen food, Garnier products, Maybelline makeup, a collection of different ice cream brands, a collection of different coffee brands, a collection of different perfumes, a collection of different pet food brands and more.
In 1974, Nestle had its first big scandal. Nestle’s baby formula profits started to decline, so they started marketing their formula as a “necessity.” Nestle even deployed sales women dressed in nurse uniforms to give away free samples and gifts in maternity wards to convince mothers that Nestle baby formula was healthier than breast milk.
These “nurses” were paid on commission, so the more formula they deceptively sold, the more money they made. The longer a woman goes without breastfeeding, the harder it becomes for her to lactate, so by the time people started realizing that Nestle was deceiving them, many of the women using Nestle baby formula had stopped producing breast milk, which made them completely reliant on Nestle’s formula.
Nestle then expanded their marketing and started selling their baby formula to developing countries. In many of these countries, clean drinking water is in short supply, so many mothers were using contaminated water to mix Nestle’s formula. Babies started getting sick after drinking this contaminated formula and doctors noticed that infant mortality rates and malnutrition were increasing in countries where Nestle’s formula was being sold.
Around 1977, the Infant Formula Action Coalition called for a boycott of Nestle’s baby formula.
The boycott spread to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. The World Health Organization created a health code in response to the boycott, which Nestle eventually agreed to follow after they continued to lose money. In 1998, an African newspaper reported that work on Nestle’s cocoa plantations was being done by enslaved children.
The U.S. government found that around 15,000 children were working on cocoa and coffee plantations that supplied the Nestle company. In response to this, Nestle agreed to take steps to reduce (NOT END) child labor by 70% by 2015. Clearly, this response shouldn’t be celebrated, because Nestle shouldn’t have been using slave labor and child labor in the first place. In Colombia, a trade union was overseeing conditions at a milk factory that Nestle co-owned, which had ties with a paramilitary group.The union was causing disruptions in the factory, which led to rising tensions between the union and the Nestle’s funded paramilitary group.
A leading union member overseeing the factory’s conditions, Luciano Romero, realized he was being targeted by the paramilitary group. On September 10, 2005, Luciano was kidnapped, tortured and killed by paramilitary members. After Luciano’s death, both the Colombian and Swiss government launched investigations into the assassination, which uncovered that Nestle knew Luciano was going to be kidnapped and that his life was in danger. Nestle ignored his pleas for help (probably because getting rid of him was profitable).
Before Luciano died, he informed Nestle that he was receiving death threats, but they again refused to help him even though Nestle is a global company that was required by international law to protect Luciano. Nestle was sued for their involvement in Luciano’s death, but Nestle stalled with high paid lawyers and the case was dismissed in 2014. Luciano’s family never received a dime in compensation for their loss.
The dismissal of this case shows how huge companies, like Nestle, are intentionally too complex to be held accountable for their involvement in these types of things. People who make a fuss in third world countries can be quietly deleted.
In China in 2008, Nestle used a chemical called melamine in their milk to make it look like it contained more protein than it actually did. This deception led to the hospitalization of 54,000 babies in China. The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a significant food safety incident in China. The scandal involved Sanlu Group's milk and infant formula along with other food materials and components being adulterated with the chemical melamine, which resulted in kidney stones and other kidney damage in infants.
The former chairwoman of China's Sanlu dairy Tian Wenhau was sentenced to life in prison and three others received death sentences. This is where the story gets crazy. Tian Wenhua, had been a hero of the Chinese economy, the former general manager of SDC, became President and general manager of Sanlu. Under Tian, Sanlu led the Chinese powdered milk market for 13 consecutive years in terms of sales with no problems. Tian was considered one of the most successful entrepreneurs in China for her role in building the company. She was named deputy chairman of the China Dairy Industry Association!
In 2009 as a result of the tainted milk scandal that killed at least six infants and sickened nearly 300,000 others she lost everything including her freedom for life. Sanlu produced one of the oldest and most popular brands of infant formula in China. Yet New Zealand's Fonterra owned 43% of Sanlu.In December 2005, a joint venture agreement had been signed which involved New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra taking a 43% equity stake in the Chinese dairy this was the kiss of death because Fonterra had previously entered into a dairy alliance with Nestle in 2001 and Nestle is only concerned with cheap ingredients and higher profits! Craig Norgate, CEO of Fonterra, stated in 2001 that Nestlé, was “a major customer of long-standing of New Zealand dairy ingredients,”
The two companies expect considerable benefits from their alliance, especially in the following areas: combined sales progression in existing and new markets, optimization of capital expenditures through optimal use of each others' assets, cost efficiency through the use of their respective infrastructures, optimal use of resources, distribution and manufacturing strengths, purchasing synergies and optimal use of research and development as well as product development resources. In short they were going to find ways to make higher profits by tweaking the ingredients. No one from Nestle’s ever saw the inside of a court!
It doesn’t end here; Nestle has been linked to many other scandals such as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Nestle’s Purina Beneful food poisoning around 4,000 dogs, E-coli outbreaks and more again a Chinese company was used as the patsy. People don’t talk enough about how corrupt big corporations like Nestle can become. Nestle is an extremely unethical corporation that must be held accountable for its actions.
Did you know Nestlé owns 67 bottled water companies? including…
1. Perrier
2. San Pellegrino
3. Poland Spring
4. Deer Park
5. Arrowhead
6. Ozarks
7. Ice Mountain
8. Zephyrhills
9. Aqua Panna
10. Pure Life
11. Essentia
Do you really trust these brands with your health?
With unethical business practices such as taking clean drinking water in areas that sorely need it, participating in human trafficking and child labor, and exploiting third world countries…Nestle is quite possibly one of the world’s most corrupt corporations. They even have class action lawsuits against them FOR SLAVERY OF CHILDREN.
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