Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Guardian investigates Nestlé in Bangladesh

As I wrote yesterday, it is Breastfeeding Awareness Week in the UK. See:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/05/uk-breastfeeding-awareness-week-begins.html

The Guardian newspaper has today published a major article on the activities of the baby food companies and the Nestlé boycott after conducting its own investigation in Bangladesh. This is flagged up on the cover of the newspaper and is the front-page story of the G2 section.

You can read the article, by journalist Joanna Moorhead at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2079757,00.html

I am not going to quote from the article, because I would like you to read it all.

We hear the same things as in The Guardian article time and again from our contacts in the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), the UN and development agencies with which we work, health workers and mothers.

Please read the article.

I will not comment on it here, because everything that needs saying has been said so many times already.

You can read IBFAN's overview of the issue by clicking here.

You can find out about the action you can take to support the Nestlé boycott in the boycott section of our website. See:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/boycott.html

For my blog on the 30th anniversary of the first Nestlé boycott see:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/01/30th-anniversary-year.html

You can sign up for the demonstration at Nestlé (UK) HQ in Croydon on Saturday, 19 May using our on-line form or order leaflets for handing out around that date at a Nestlé site, shopping centre or other location linked to Nestlé or its products in some way. See:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/action/demo07.html

You can prepare for International Nestlé-Free Week by visiting this page:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/resources/boycott/nestlefree.html

You can send letters to Nestlé and other companies about aggressive marketing practices, by supporting our Campaign for Ethical Marketing. See:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/campaign.html

You can help to keep us operating by becoming a member, sending a donation, or buying some of our great merchandise, which can also help you to promote the campaign. See:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/index.html

If you know some who finds it difficult to read websites or you prefer to listen to information rather than read, then please make use of my weekly podcasts, which bring together the information in this blog. See:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/podcasts/podcastsindex.html

But even if you are not going to do any of these things, please read the article. Buy the newspaper and show it to your friends and colleagues, particularly those who accuse Baby Milk Action of being 'biased'. Send the link around. It is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2079757,00.html

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Digg it Mike, I just did

http://digg.com/health/Shocking_314_Children_Dying_Daily_due_to_Irresponsible_practices_of_Nestle/who

Mike Brady said...

Given the title used on the digg it link, I would like to point out that the figure of deaths is an overall figure for deaths due to inappropriate feeding. While Nestlé continues its aggressive marketing despite these deaths, it is the nature of the epidemiological of the data that it is not possible to say how many deaths are attributable to a particular company's practices. What we do know, is the promotion Nestlé is engaged in is extremely irresponsible, breaks international standards and contributes to the unnecessary death and suffering. Monitoring conducted by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) around the world find Nestlé to be responsible for more violations of the marketing requirements for baby food introduced by the World Health Assembly than any other company. This is why Nestlé is singled out for boycott action.

Mike Brady said...

There is a short summary of the article in The Guardian business section at:

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2079816,00.html

Mike Brady said...

The Guardian has published a response from Nestlé to the article. To read it and our analysis see:

http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/05/nestl-responds-to-investigation-in.html

Carolyn said...

Just wanted to say you're doing a really good job of getting your message across. Yesterday in Christchurch, New Zealand Nestle were giving out free coffee, so 4 of us decided to give out free information with facts from Baby Milk Action. It seemed all the British tourists knew about Nestle and it's bad pratices while, sadly, our job of educating New Zealanders has just begun.

Keep up the awesome work!