Nestle is the world’s largest food producing company. On March 11, the company announced stoppage of a number of activities in russia but it did not leave the russian market completely.
“Good food. Good life “- this is the slogan of Nestle. There are some doubts that Nestle is concerned about good life of its customers and the planet as a whole, especially in terms of basic respect for the environment.
Below you can find a few stories on the functioning of this manufacturer, confirming absolute irresponsibility of the brand in relation to the environment.
Nestle is the world’s largest producer of bottled water. The corporation owns more than 50 brands, including Perrier, San Pellegrino and Poland Spring. Where does it get water: it drains natural springs, provoking environmental problems. This issue applies to both third world countries (Pakistan, African countries) and the United States. In 2005, Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck said: “One point, which I would call extreme, is that water should be declared a human right. Another opinion is that water is a grocery product. And just as every other product, it should have a market value.” After a series of criticisms of such statements, a company representative said that the thesis was taken out of context. He then suggested that people have free access to only 30 liters of water a day, paying for additional use.
In the San Bernardino National Forest Reserve (California), Nestle extracts more than a hundred million liters of water annually, despite severe droughts. Fierce fighting between the local government and the corporation has been going on in the region for several years. So far – in favor of the latter. Nestle pays only $ 524 a year for unlimited water extraction, according to a permit issued in 1865. Environmentalists say the corporation consumes on average 25 times more water than it deserves.
In 2018, the company pumped water from a reservation near Toronto, the residents of which lacked clean drinking water.
Since 1998, Nestle has been producing bottled water in Pakistan. In 2005, researchers studied the impact of water extraction on the quality of life of locals and concluded that they could not afford to buy bottled water and that its production drained local rivers. Given the constant droughts, nonprofit organizations demanded that water be recognized as a common global good. In 2013, Pakistani villagers fell ill because they had to drink dirty water as Nestle dried up their last source of water.
Importantly, back in 1977, at the UN International Conference in Mar del Plata, Argentina, it was proclaimed that all people have the right to sufficient clean drinking water to meet their personal needs. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women contains Article 14.2, which states that “ States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural development and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right to enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications. ” There is Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides that “the Parties recognize the right of a child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment and recovery of health, States Parties shall pursue this right and, in particular, take appropriate measures to fight diseases and mal-nutrition including within primary health care, by, inter alia, providing sufficient food and clean drinking water.” The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities contains Article 28 (2) (a), which requires that “States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social protection and to the enjoyment of that right without discrimination on the basis of disability, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right, including measures: (a) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services”.
The International Bill of Human Rights, which includes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has documented the human right to water, sanitation and other water-related rights.
It should be also mentioned that according to the audit conducted by environmental NGOs in 2019, Nestlé is the largest plastic polluter in Canada. It also refuses to support waste collection systems that prevent plastics from getting to the environment. At the same time, the company’s strategic documents stipulate that it seeks to comply with water conservation measures and to timely clean up the resources that have been polluted as a result of its activities.
These are just a few cases of this brand going beyond moral principles, without taking into account discrimination against Ukrainian-speaking workers, selling goods with lead and melamine, selling dangerous baby milk powders, and so on. So, it is not surprising that the management of this company considers it ethical to continue working in the territory of a terrorist country. This poses a question whether Ukrainians have a moral right to buy products of the company that remains in the russian market and thus destroys the environment for profit?
