Coco for the Coco God, Beans for the Bean Throne!
Nestle Chocolate has had a very rough history. The company has been known for the crimes it commits almost as much as it’s products. People have gone so far as to organize an international boycott of the company. Nestle’s transgressions against the World Health Organization’s rulings are manifold.
The World Health Organization estimates that one and a half billion infants die every year because they are being improperly fed by breast milk substitutes. Nestle is a producer of forty percent of breast milk substitute products and have a marketing strategy that specifically targets the third world.(http://www.babymilkaction.org/)
A big part of an infants development is receiving immunities from it’s mother via breast milk. In a first world nation, if a mother is unable to produce breast milk she compensates with breast milk substitute and vaccinations. In the third world this is simply not feasible. The World Health Organization decided that breastfeeding should be promoted in third world countries above all else. Despite this, Nestle breast milk substitutes use phrases such as “identical to breast-milk” all over their packaging, and the company gives out free samples to impoverished communities that don’t have as much access to the outside world.
You think that’s bad? Wait till you hear about what they caused in Ethiopia. Early in 2002, Nestle bought a company that owned one and a half million dollars in shares in ELIDCO (Ethiopian Livestock Development Company). In November and December of 2002 Ethiopia suffered from a massive drought. The backlash of said drought left eleven million people without clean drinking water or food. So, in a bit of a panic, the Ethiopian government temporarily federalized ELIDICO. Nestle demanded a 6 billion dollar payout as compensation. “Why six billion?” you may be asking. Well, the Ethiopian currency tanked so hard lately that six million dollars was the new value of the one and a half million dollar shares. The Ethiopian government explained that they were planning on using the money to construct six thousand and five hundred wells around the nation. Nestle responded by demanding the deal be attached to the 1975 (the year the shares were bought) exchange rate, making the price even higher.(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/24/debtrelief.development)
Still, Nestle is one of the most profitable food companies on the planet,so they must be doing something right! Their current stock is priced at seventy seven dollars and seventy cents. They made eighty three point three billion dollars in 2011, and it is only getting higher. The free cash flow per share is all the way up at three dollars and eleven cents. Of their sales, 44% comes from the Americas, 31% from Europe/Middle East/North Africa and 25% from Africa and Southern Asia.(http://www.gurufocus.com/news/430949/nestle-is-arguably-the-best-food-company-in-the-world)
The truth is, no one invests with their heart. You invest with your wallet. And while many people are boycotting the company based on some of the atrocities it has (and does) commit, it’s really just one of many. I mean have you seen some of the stuff that Academi (formerly Blackwater) does regularly? Oil doesn’t just kill polar bears, let me tell you that! But that doesn’t mean you’re going to just stop buying gas does it?
No, because you’ve got work tomorrow and getting up an hour early to bike there is absurd. Which brings me to my point. A Boycott means next to nothing in a globalized economy. If you want to change something, just vote for it!
