From the study summary: We combine birth record data from over 2.6 million infants across 38 countries in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) with reconstructed historical data from annual investor reports on the timing of Nestlé entrance into infant formula country markets. Consistent with the hypothesis that formula mixed with unclean water could act as a disease vector, we find that infant mortality increased in households with unclean water sources by 19.4 per thousand births following Nestlé market entrance, but had no effect among other households. This rate is equivalent to a 27% increase in mortality in the population using unclean water and amounts to about 212,000 excess deaths per year at the peak of the Nestlé controversy in 1981. https://haas.berkeley.edu/ibsi/research/mortality-from-nestles-marketing-of-infant-formula-in-low-and-middle-income-countries/
Seems pretty damning to me, but will it have any consequences for Nestlé or any of the big honchos at Nestlé from that time? Probably not as usual, since corporations are apparently allowed to kill people as long as they do it in an obfuscated way.
but will it have any consequences for Nestlé or any of the big honchos at Nestlé from that time?
Probably a retirement bonus
To play (actual) devil’s advocate … Is it Nestle’s fault the drinking water was unclean that was mixed with the formula?
That’s where I would say the whole, who’s responsible part of the equation gets fucky. To be clear, nestle should have done more to combat this and not have pushed formula feeding where they knew the water could be bad.
I’m not a fan of them by any means and would definitely need to read more and definitely know they’re evil (fuck I mean I’m pretty sure every large enough corp is evil, hell most of the small ones too) but it still gives me pause when it’s presented.
Just so I’m unequivocal here - nestle is bad and fuck them.
Access to safe drinking water was a known issue in loads of places at that time, not just in developing countries. My dad grew up in the 1950s and still drank table beer in his elementary school. There’s no way that a 1960s food scientist would have been so incompetent, to not know that not everyone had access to clean drinking water. We can also know that they weren’t acting in this way out of ignorance, because they continued with their unethical practices for years after the consequences became public knowledge. They only stopped because of the world wide consumer boycott. And only a few years after they promised to do better, they started rule dodging again. They simply don’t care about people, only profits matter.
I bought a jar of Nescafe recently, because my usual instant decaf coffee was out of stock. I wonder if people would hate me more for buying a Nestle product, or drinking instant decaf?
“Please hate both transgressions equally.” ~ Gemma
Instant decaf. You want the coffee flavor, it’s quicker and less hassle, and you’re sensitive to or just don’t want the caffeine. Am I right? Seems reasonable.
Coffee snobs are funny. I drink instant but I need that caffeine in my brain.
I have to buy purina wet food because it’s the only one my cat accepts and she can’t be without wet food because she refuses to drink water. I’ve try to offer other brands from time to time but no, only this fucking thing
In online stores you can find extreme numbers of different brands.
My mom’s cat ate Nestlé Purina until he stared vomiting too often. He had acquired allergies to the fillers in it and now has to eat hypoallergenic foods made of actual meat, or straight up meat. Read the ingredients and be appalled. It seems cheap, but there’s very little cat-digestible food in it.
My kitty will only drink freshly poured (we keep a pitcher of water around usually) cup of water. Out of a human cup. No saucers. She wants the cup. Shell jam her little head in there and be happy about it. I’m waiting for the day she gets stuck. Such a little weirdo!
Yes my cat won’t drink water from anywhere that is not the shower floor. disgusting
Dude I’m right there with you man
All of thankfully I’ve been able to get the new Folgers freeze-dried whatever. They don’t advertise it is different than their instant coffee. But it mixes cold a lot better than the old stuff
So I’m Nestle free again
And you can be too! if you want. No judgment here the fucking brand is endemic and in so many products
The unfortunate thing is the taste is unchanged no matter what nestle did. My wife told me not to buy Fair Life milk products because they abuse the animals. It felt so wrong, but tasted so much better to drink their chocolate milk. That being said, it isn’t always better to save money and buy the cheaper brand, than give up some more money trying to support a small business. However, we never know whether that small business will be the next nestle. It’s hard to pick these battles but separate the product from the ones who make it.
“I don’t want to support animal abuse but CHOKKY MIIILLLK!”
Oh wow do I fucking hate humanity today
Yea, morality doesn’t come into question when I buy products, it should, tho. This post made me rethink a lot of things though and the comments section. Thank the points of view of yourself and the other people who have commented for the fact that I might boycott these brands.
Firstly, FairLife is Coke, not any sort of small brand. Second, to say they abuse animals is misleading since they don’t own farms. There’s currently a class action against Coca-Cola and FairLife over them supplying from shitty farms that abuse animals. Some people will say support for is the same as the act, but I don’t think FairLife being deceptive is equally as bad as the farmers themselves mistreating their livestock.
I agree.
That was to make sure none of those babies would be head of the World Economic Forum. It’s a jungle out there.
The amount of Nestle fanboys in this thread is fucking disturbing
I got in a huge argument with my wife when replaced our coffee maker and she insisted that we get one that takes Nespresso pods so she could make espresso. She had no idea how horrible Nestle is.
Nestle is peak caputalism
“The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself,” wrote the philosopher Kant
That’s actually a slightly botched Jane Addams quote:
I once heard Father Huntington say that the essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of one’s self and I would like to add that to consider one’s self in any wise unlike the rank and file of human life is to walk straight toward the pit of self righteousness.
