Archive site - new site at www.babymilkaction.org

URC ends support for the boycott - over a technicality

The United Reformed Church (URC) has been a long-time supporter of the Nestlé boycott and for many years provided a small annual grant to Baby Milk Action. We were surprised and disappointed, therefore, to learn in 2011 from the URC Secretary for Church and Society that the Mission Committee was instructing the Mission Council end URC support for the Nestlé boycott under the terms of a motion adopted by the Church Assembly in 2010.

The Assembly renewed support for the boycott until such time as Nestlé is admitted to the FTSE4Good ethical investment index. The motion was adopted as an alternative to a move by URC Church and Society to call off the boycott and invest in Nestlé, a position taken after a meeting with Nestlé Vice President, Niels Christiansen.

Nestlé was admitted to FTSE4Good in March 2011, not because it stopped violating the baby food marketing requirements, but because the FTSE4Good criteria were changed in September 2010 to allow companies to be included even while systematic violations are continuing. URC representatives have been advising FTSE on these changes - alongside other church groups that already have substantial investments in Nestlé (page 4).

Baby Milk Action asked if the URC Assembly could have the opportunity to revisit the issue given that Nestlé would not have been included in the Index under the criteria in force at the time of its 2010 decision.

We were told it is impossible to take the matter back to the Assembly and the motion is binding, even though superseded by events. The instruction to end the boycott was given to the Mission Council meeting in November 2011. For full details - click here.

Development agencies in Laos snub Nestlé prize

Save the Children Australia, Oxfam and 13 other Aid agencies working in Laos wrote to Nestlé’s Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé, and Chief Executive, Paul Bulcke, on 30 May 2011 stating that they will not be applying for Nestle’s half million dollar Creating Shared Value Prize:

We won’t be applying for the prize, because Nestlé continues to make millions of dollars of profit, at the expense of infants and children in Asia, through violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. 

 Unethical marketing by food companies, including Nestle, contributes to the situation of high infant and child mortality in Laos. 

 Babies and children are dying in Laos because food companies such as Nestle are weakening national regulatory frameworks and aggressively flooding the market with information that dilutes public health campaigns that promote breastfeeding.

 The letter cites specific examples of Nestlé malpractice. They say, for example, that company representatives visit hospitals to give health workers gifts and fund trips, and that breastmilk substitutes are promoted in public and at pre-school and health facilities.

Advertising is promoting unscientific and unsubstantiated claims that formula increases intelligence and enhances immunity. This creates a situation where family income is being spent unnecessarily on formula for infants and young children, keeping households poor.

The full text is available by clicking here. 

●  IBFAN’s suggestion that FTSE evaluate Nestlé activities in Laos, rather than in countries with strong legislation, was rejected (page 5).

Previous page

Next page