Update on Nestlé-Free Week (30 October - 5 November)
Nestlé-Free Week is 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. This year has seen other organisations promoting the week or timing their own Nestlé campaigns for it.
http://www.babymilkaction.org/nestle-free-week
Why invite people to be Nestlé free for a week? Once people find there are alternative products available, they realise it is not so difficult to support the campaign. The more people boycott, the greater the pressure on the world’s largest baby milk company to change how it markets its products.
The Buycott smartphone app can be used to scan product barcodes to check for Nestlé connections.
Ethical Consumer profiled alternatives to Nestlé products in its newfeed in advance of the week.
Note: Body Shop is no longer connected to Nestlé as it has been sold by L'Oreal (part-owned by Nestlé) to Brazilian company Natura. Our boycott products list has been updated:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/nestle-boycott-list
Although Nestlé executives attempt to dismiss criticisms, they will make changes when sufficiently embarrassed. The boycott not only gives them a financial reason to stop putting profits before infant health, it shines the spotlight on what Nestlé is really up to.
IBFAN monitors baby feeding companies around the world
We monitor baby feeding companies around the world with our partners in the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). IBFAN's reports expose how Nestlé and other companies market infant and young child feeding products in ways that mislead parents, push up the prices and undermine breastfeeding. We monitor companies against the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant Resolutions of the World Health Assembly.
The latest report, Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2017, profiles 28 baby milk and feeding bottle and teat companies. The executive summary of the report, produced by IBFAN's International Code Documentation Centre (IBFAN-ICDC) is free to download. The full report is a valuable resource for governments, ethical investment fund managers, health and development organisations and others.
ICDC provides expert training for policy makers and legislators on how to implement and enforce the International Code and Resolutions.
- Nestlé-Free Week also saw an organisation called Changing Markets launch a report on Nestlé called Milking It, which draws on evidence from IBFAN's 2014 monitoring report.
- The petition website, SumofUs, launched its own petition on Nestlé baby milk marketing, citing the Changing Markets report.
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