IBFAN 2004 Breastfeeding calendar now available in the on-line Virtual Shop.

• 36% of 7,729 respondents to a National Childbirth Trust survey said they had seen advertisements for infant formula on TV or in parent magazines in the preceding 4 weeks, showing how the legal advertising of follow-on milks and other promotion serves to promote formula.
  

“intrinsic contamination of powdered infant formula with E.sakazakii and Salmonella has been a cause of infection and illness in infants including severe disease, and can lead to serious developmental sequelae (health consequences) and death” and that “E Sakazakii is more commonly found in the manufacturing environment, which is a potential source of post-pasteurization contamination.”

• You can help by writing a letter of support to the Minister of Health in your country. In the UK it is: Melanie Johnson, Minister of Public Health, Department of Health, 79 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2NS. Department of Health website: www.doh.gov.uk/infantfeeding/

“We are aware of the differences in United Kingdom legislation compared with the international code.

“We are exploring with the Foods Standards Agency ways in which the UK regulations could be better aligned to the international code.”

• London, Thursday 11 March 2004. New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden (9.00 - 9.45)
• Newcastle, Thursday 25 March 2004. Copthorne Hotel (9.00 - 9.45)
• Leeds, Thursday 29 April 2004. Weetwood Hall (9.00 - 9.45)
• Glasgow, Thursday 6 May 2004. Details to be confirmed.
• London, Thursday 10 June 2004. Details to be confirmed.
• Southampton, Thursday 8 July 2004. Details to be confirmed.
• Manchester, Thursday 9 September 2004. Radisson SAS Hotel.
• London, Thursday 7 October 2004. Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists.
• Leicester, Thursday 14 October 2004. Leicester Race Course.
• Bristol, Thursday 4 November 2004. Marriott City Centre Hotel.
• Birmingham, Thursday 25 November 2004. Motorcycle Museum.
• London, Thursday 2 December 2004. New Connaught Rooms.

A small number of people are required to hand leaflets to participants as they arrive, explaining something of Wyeth/SMAs appalling ethical record around the world and that the event breaches the World Health Assembly Resolution. We aim to gain local media coverage for the protests. Contact Mike Brady if you would like to be involved (tel: 01223 464420 email: mikebrady@babymilkaction.org).

If you hear of similar events being organised by other companies, please let us know.

WHO rejects Grocers

Two trade associations (representing US Grocers and the EU food industry) were refused official relations with WHO in January. South Africa, New Zealand, the UK and others questioned the legality of the application on the basis of the existing policy for relations with NGOs and possible links to the tobacco industry.

Europe to move on baby food legislation?

The EU advisory body, the Scientific Committee for Food (SCF), has produced an important Report (see below) which could influence and improve EU baby food legislation (and Codex standards). Notably, it endorses six months exclusive breastfeeding, recognises that existing formulas are not optimum and concludes that claims for formulas for treating transient health complaints (reflux etc.) cannot usually be supported.

However, there are also many omissions and unexplained conclusions. For example, the report recommends that ‘probiotics’ be allowed in follow-on milks even though no conclusion could be drawn regarding their safety and it leaves the door open for new claims.

Unlike the rules for the new European Food Standards Agency (EFSA), the rules governing the SCF are very weak. Limited information is given about the financial interests of SCF members, and then only in the minutes of an SCF meeting. So the extent of industry influence is not clear. The Rapporteur of the report was Prof Koletzko, who is one of the coordinators of a project which aims to develop new Danone infant formulas. Another SCF member has an interest in probiotics. MEPs Glenys Kinnock and Caroline Lucas have written letters about this.

SCF Report on the Revision of Essential Requirements of Infant Formulae and Follow-on Formulae. see: archive.babymilkaction.org/policy/policyindex.html
www.childhood-obesity.org www.childhood-obesity.org/partners/germany.php

UK advisers settle 6 months doubts

The baby food industry continues to defend its marketing of baby foods from 4 months with the claim that bottlefed babies may need solid food earlier than 6 months. Meanwhile the Subcommittee on Maternal and Child Health of the UK’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition looked at the issue and concluded that “any risk associated with delaying complementary feeding to 6 months in bottlefed infants was likely to be very low and recommended that this matter be addressed through risk management.”

See: www.sacn.gov.uk/mcn.htm and www.sacn.gov.uk/minutesoct03.htm

Code courses in schools

Baby Milk Action member, Julie Dyball, had a spectacular success after alerting her MP, Annette Brooke (MP for Mid Dorsett and North Poole), to ask in Parliamentary Questions to Education Ministers why the four GCSE syllabuses on Child Development failed to mention the International Code and the benefits of breastfeeding. The Department of Education Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has agreed to make the changes at the “earliest opportunity.”

• Junk food vending machines are being removed from many schools because of health concerns and because of the Nestlé Boycott. Hear an interview with student’s who achieved this at Cardinal Newman School in Brighton on BBC Radio 4’s Learning Curve via the broadcasts section of the Baby Milk Action website.

Julie Crawford Award

We were delighted to award Gill Rapley, of UNICEF's UK Baby Friendly Initiative, the first Julie Crawford Award for Breastfeeding Support. The award was set up in memory of Julie, a health visitor and former Director of Baby Milk Action who died in 2001.

Hipp - human rights violator

Members of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), at their regional meeting in Poland in November, once again reported that Hipp is marketing its products as aggressively as Nestlé in some countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. IBFAN has asked the German authorities to take action. For more details see: www.ibfan.org/hipp/

South African law under threat

Health campaigners around the world, including many Baby Milk Action supporters, have been sending messages of support to the South African Government which has drafted regulations implementing the Code and Resolutions.

In a vicious media campaign attacking the law the industry has said it: "would infringe on the manufacturers' right to freedom of speech and mothers' rights to information."

See the February 2004 Campaign for Ethical Marketing action sheet for further details.

India’s law - strange things happen!

The IBFAN groups in India have been taking legal action against Nestlé since 1994 over its labelling and advertising. Nestlé took out a Writ Petition against the Government seeking to strike down the law, then sought several adjournments of the trial through ‘criminal revisions’. Finally, in May 2003, the courts rejected the company’s pleas and decided to continue with the prosecution. Now, with no excuses left, and the date of trial (28 February) looming, we hear that the whole file has gone missing!

The Writ petition still stands, even though it lost its purpose when the law was strengthened - rather than weakened -in May 2003.

Indian IBFAN groups: www.bpni.org and www.indianngos.com/acash/

Nestlé and the UN Global Compact

An expert briefing on Nestlé and the United Nation's Global Compact initiative by Judith Richter has been published. Building on Quicksand? The Global Compact, Democratic Governance and Nestlé can be downloaded from the IBFAN website - click here.

Nestlé boycott and news

Nestlé’s Brazilian travails

IBFAN Brazil has written to President Lula calling for Nestlé to be excluded from the ‘Zero Hunger’ project, in which the company is distributing processed food, including powdered wholemilk, to poor families. Nestlé is gaining kudos from its involvement - except from those concerned about the company’s contribution to infant suffering and the epidemic of obesity.

Meanwhile Chief Executive, Peter Brabeck, speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, was put on the spot by campaigners from São Lourenço who object to the company’s extraction of water from mineral springs. He said the extraction would stop. Is this because he knew that the company’s attempts to obtain a retrospective licence were about to fail?

More bad news for Nestlé: the Brazilian monopolies commission has blocked its purchase of the Garoto chocolate company as it would have given the company 55% of the market. To pressure the Government, Nestlé has halted its planned construction of a coffee processing plant in Espirito Santo State.

Monitoring conducted by IBFAN Brazil has revealed that Nestlé has attempted to get round the new regulations banning promotion of baby foods for infants up to 3 years of age by, for example, attaching to magazines for new mothers, wholemilk samples labelled for use from 6 years of age!

German TV exposes Nestlé

"Every day, about 6.000 children are born here [the Philippines], most of them at home. A lucrative market for the companies – and almost no control. So the worldwide leader in the market, Nestlé, is sending its representatives across the country, apparently with success. The promotion works. Nurses like Darlene are the best publicity media, though after the WHO Code that is not allowed. There it is stated explicitly: No gifts or free samples to health care personnel. But the practice is different."

Panorama, NDT Television, September 2003.

View the film via the broadcasts section.

Industry offensive against US health promotion

A US Government campaign for Breastfeeding Awareness Week, highlighting the risks of formula feeding, was postponed at the end of 2003 after Carden Johnston, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, objected that it was too negative. Lawrence Gartner, who heads the pediatrician group’s section on breastfeeding, disagreed with the Academy’s President and wrote to members claiming the President had fired off a letter after a meeting with baby food companies. The AAP receives funding from baby food companies, including from its one-time legal opponent, Nestlé. (see above and www.thehill.com/business/120303_breastfeeding.aspx)

Nestlé sponsors pregnancy show in Canada

Nestlé Infant Nutrition is sponsoring Nestlé 9 months, a cable TV show following five mothers-to-be during their pregnancy. Nestlé says the deal “has provided us the opportunity to associate Nestlé with an innovative, educational and entertaining programme... Canadian parents can only benefit from this type of programming.”

• Also in Canada, organisers of a Registered Nurses Association of Ontario conference asked Nestlé to withdraw as an exhibitor and sponsor after receiving ‘expressions of concern’ from nurses.

Trade unions unimpressed by Nestlé execs

Protests from public service unions meant that Nestlé was not permitted to have a stall at the TUC Conference in Brighton in September. Unions with Nestlé workers as members, led by the Transport and General Workers Union, held a fringe meeting with Nestlé and invited Baby Milk Action to speak. This demonstrates the need for a tough stand with Nestlé: in 1997, when Nestlé did have a stall, it refused to debate with Baby Milk Action at a UNISON fringe meeting. Nestlé came in force with its Head of Corporate Affairs on the panel and, in the audience, its Senior Policy Advisor and Director of Communications, a PR consultant from Webber-Shandwick and paid advisor Lord Ahmed, who made two lengthy interventions (see press release 10 September 2003). The performance failed to impress: in February, UNISON Women’s Conference adopted a motion calling for Nestlé to be denied a stall at the TUC and for Baby Milk Action to be supported.

• A debate at Nottingham University had to go ahead without comedian and investigative reporter, Mark Thomas, as Nestlé objected to him supporting Baby Milk Action. All the same, Nestlé lost the debate and a cross-campus referendum (1,304 to 559). The Union is now publicising Nestlé malpractice. (see press release 20 October 2003)

Funding dilemma vote

Thank you to the 21 people who replied to our question in Boycott News 33 over whether we right to accept a generous donation from author Richard Platt, equivalent to his unwanted Smarties Silver Book Prize money. 86% (18) said under the circumstances it was right to accept Richard’s donation.

Nestlé demo - Croydon 15 May

There will be a demonstration from 11.00-12.00 noon on 15 May at Nestlé (UK) HQ, St. George’s House, Croydon. If you are interested in demonstrating at another Nestlé site on the same day, Baby Milk Action can support you. Contact Mike Brady (tel: 01223 464420 email: mikebrady@babymilkaction.org)

Nestlé is the target of a boycott in 20 countries as monitoring by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN - Baby Milk Action is the UK member) finds Nestlé is responsible for more violations of the World Health Assembly marketing requirements for baby foods than any other company.