Archive site - new site at www.babymilkaction.org

This is my last campaign blog on this website as we are activating our new website at http://www.babymilkaction.org/

We hope you like our new website!

It was developed after you told us how you would like to see our old website improved.

In particular, it should display well on smartphones and tablets as well as laptops and desktop computers.

We asked you for your comments on the new website from the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). That feedback was positive, with a large majority agreeing we should follow a similar style.

That is what we have done.

Baby Milk Action is the UK member of IBFAN and we wanted to make this more obvious. You will see our new logo also mentions this.

New postings will be made to the website at http://www.babymilkaction.org/

Our old websites are still online, because we think it is important that the historic information continues to available.

Our previous website can be found at http://info.babymilkaction.org/ 

Our original website was on the 'www' domain name. All those pages can still be found by replacing the 'www' with 'archive'.

For example, if the address was:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/resources/yqsanswered/yqasindex.html

The archive address will be:

http://archive.babymilkaction.org/resources/yqsanswered/yqasindex.html

We have updated a lot of the addresses within our new site already, but do let us know if you find dead links so we can fix them.

The online Virtual Shop continues to operate on the archive site for the time being, using the Romancart secure shopping cart and a variety of secure payment options. In the near future this will be moved to this new site – and again it is being designed to work well on smartphones and tablets.

We hope this new approach meets the requirements you told us about and would love to hear your opinions.

Either contact us or post them to this post on our new site.

I attended the Nestlé shareholder meeting on 10 April 2014 with a colleague from the Geneva Infant Feeding Association (GIFA), a partner in the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). We both raised concerns about Nestlé's marketing of breastmilk substitutes - and exposed how Nestlé endangers health and misleads shareholders. There were over 2,700 shareholders attending the meeting, representing 66% of the shares, with more watching the live webcast. We will continue to remind them that Nestlé needs to change its ways.

To support our work holding corporations to account, please become a member or make a donation.

For other action to take, see the Nestlé-Free Zone.

A story has appeared on the nutraingredients website about US research that "benefits of breastmilk over infant formula are 'overstated'".

In the expectation that this will be seized on by sectors of the more mainstream media, here's a closer look.

Danone promotion of its Cow & Gate brand of baby milk in ASDA has been brought to Baby Milk Action's attention.

We are communicating with ASDA about the promotion and the misleading claims being used in it. Curiously, ASDA told us it was unaware of the promotion and we encouraged management to investigate and take action. The promotion has appeared on table displays in the ASDA café, on shelf-talkers next to products and in leaflets promoting a "Baby and Toddler Event" currently taking place in ASDA stores. People are encouraged to put questions to ASDA pharmacy staff. They are also encouraged to visit ASDA's "Baby and Toddler Club" website, though a disclaimer states no responsibility is taken for the accuracy of the information provided.

ASDA has told us: "We are looking into your concerns."

We have been receiving messages from supporters and the wider public about comments attributed to Dr Christian Jessen appearing in the current edition of Closer Magazine. Baby Milk Action tried to contact Dr Jessen via his agent and has confirmed that Dr Jessen's comments were taken out of context. A corrected statement - over which we still have some concerns - has been posted on the Closer website and we await news on what correction will be made in the next print edition. Further details below.

The following article was written by Franklin Fredrick (originally in German). Franklin campaigned successfully against Nestlé's destructive water bottling operation in the historic spa town of São Lourenço, Brazil, publicly challenging Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé, about his company's failure to comply with Brazilian regulations. It finally took the threat of daily fines to persuade Nestlé to stop over-pumping, ten years after the campaign began. Similar campaigns continue in other communities from Pakistan to Canada. 

Nestlé's Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé, is boasting an interview he gave has been named "the top water story of 2013 in Guardian Sustainable Business". 

Actually, Guardian Professional - "supported by funding from external companies and organisations" - listed its  interview with Mr Brabeck as one of its "top five stories":
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/water-top-five-stories-2013

I posted a comment to the Guardian site, repeated here with useful links:

Please sign and share Baby Milk Action's petition against Nestlé and Danone involvement in the Department of Health Change4Life health education campaign in England and Wales. 

Click here for the petition.

The blog below provides supporting evidence.

The media is picking up on reports of a pilot study in Yorkshire and Derbyshire that will reward mothers with shopping vouchers if they breastfeed their children. According to The Guardian report: "Women will be offered vouchers worth £40 if they are breastfeeding when the baby is two days old and then further £40 vouchers at 10 days and at six weeks. The last two vouchers are spaced further apart – at three months and at six months."

Nestlé held its Creating Shared Value Global Forum in Colombia on Monday 28 October 2013, opened by the President of Colombia and Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé. 

As luck would have it, International Nestlé-Free Week started the same day, a time for people who boycott Nestlé over the way it pushes baby milk to do more to promote the boycott - and for those who don't boycott to give it a go.

Which meant that Nestlé's twitter feed from the Global Forum became a channel for exposing its marketing malpractice.