Stuff That Will Make You Mad
 Things have come a little way from the days when Nestle would hire women with no special training and dress them up as nurses to give out free samples of Nestle formula, the free samples lasting just long enough for the mother's breast milk to dry up from lack of use. But abuses and unethical business practices are still prevalent, as you'll soon see! Scroll down or click on the following to go directly to your article: Expired Formula Given to Charity. Heinz subsidiary formula manufacturer Farley's donated 20 tonnes of formula months past their sell-by date to charities sending aid to the Ukraine. It cost the Charities Jubilee Outreach and Air Bridge Association, $2,250 to ship the milks which were turned back by the Frontier Health Controls Unit. Raisa Bakhtyn, head of the unit said, "It is disgraceful that a respectable British company is sending potentially dangerous food here." Do you suppose they still got the tax write off? Water Dumped on Nursing Mom and Baby. In the UK, a shop-owner tipped a rubbish bin of dirty water over a mother after she refused to stop feeding her child while sitting discreetly on a nearby wall. He had earlier berated her with the accusation that breastfeeding was akin to urinating. The police were called, but the man was not charged with assault. Nestle Receives Business Award for Countering. Breastfeeding Nestle has been honored by a business magazine for its success in countering Denmark's government breastfeeding promotion campaign. The Best of Europe Award for Big Brand Direct Marketing went to Nestle' for its Parents Club. Direct Response magazine reports: "Danish local health authorities, however, effectively promote breastfeeding and the majority of Danish women breastfeed their babies. As such they are suspicious of communications from companies like Nestle. Therefore the firm decided to tackle the issue of breastfeeding head on and create a dialogue with the health authorities, including midwives and health visitors, mothers-to-be and mothers with small babies. The target audience of the campaign were mothers with children aged from two months to one year." "To recruit new members, Nestle' used ads and inserts in Danish magazine Parents and Children and carried out quarterly promotional campaigns in supermarkets across the country. More information material about baby nutrition and the club was placed in hospitals and maternity clinics. In less than one year, membership of Nestle' Parents Club has increased from under 10% to over 75% of Danish parents." How much has this award cost the Danish children? PR firm says focus on "symbols, not logic". A report advising biotech companies to focus on "symbols that elicit hope, satisfaction and caring - not logic" was leaked to the Guardian newspaper in the UK, exposing the cynical methods of the food industry. The report was prepared by Burson Marstellar consultants. The company advised the industry that it could not win the argument over the risks associated with genetically modified food and so should use PR methods to persuade the public to accept the new products, which are cheaper to produce. The Unbiased Media: Brought To You By Nestle. In the Philippines at the end of July 1997 there was a special program on RPN TV to mark world breastfeeding week. The program gave advice on how to breastfeed successfully and presented evidence of the unethical marketing of breastmilk substitutes. The principal violator of the 1986 Philippine Milk Code is Nestle' and viewers heard how Nestle' uses midwives, traditional birth attendants and community based health workers as extended sales agents by giving money or gifts on a commission basis. Doctors appearing on the program supported the description of how Nestle promotes bottle feeding within hospitals. Nestle was quick to respond to the allegations. The next day RPN Channel 9 received a memo in which Nestle threatened to withdraw all of its advertising from the TV station. The TV executives placated Nestle' by reprimanding the programs host. Nestle also made threats to TV stations in the Philippines in 1987 following their coverage of a visit by Liv Ulmann, UNICEF Ambassadress of Goodwill for Breastfeeding, and again in 1989 following a protest march to Nestle headquarters in Makati City. Such examples are far from unique. In its home country of Switzerland few editors dare print critical reports of the company. Nestle: "If We Don't Do It Someone Else Will". Mr. Ian Smith of York, gave his account of the company's ethics: "As one the members of Synod from York, where we have a significant Nestle' presence, I was invited, before the last debate on this subject in 1994, to meet some of their directors to discuss the issue. At that time they freely admitted that they were the market leaders of a trade that was being mishandled in some parts of the world. I observed that this resulted in many thousands of infant deaths. The response was that if they didn't sell the product someone else would. We've heard that line with regard to landmines recently: In other words, it's better that they're killed by our products rather than someone else's. Nestle' admitted that the business has its unethical side, but they still push it hard. They say they will stop - if others do too." Formula Companies Argue Against Code. Breastfeeding advocates in the US are still waiting to see if the State Department will translate the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes into domestic law. The United States endorsed the Code in 1994, having refused to do so for 13 years. Now, baby milk companies are arguing that the US has a unique distribution system and cannot be covered by the Code. Formula Feeding Olympics: The Winners Lose Big. It was Reported in "Tokyo Newspaper" on July 23, 1996 that the infant feeding bottles manufacturer, 'Pigeon' planned to hold a Baby Olympics. Called 'Neo Baby Pigeonpic' it was to take place in Tokyo. Non-Japanese babies - 50 in all - were invited to participate in the contests, which included a 'milk drinking competition'. The baby who finished a bottle of 50cc milk the quickest would win. Prizes ranged between 30,000 - 1000,000 yen ($300 -$1,000). This contest was luckily found and stopped by Lactivist Ros Escott. A Ray of Hope: Firefighters Save More Lives.  Put this one under "things that won't make you mad":
Fire-fighters are making a difference in Brasilia where they collect milk from
12,000 donating mothers in an around-the-clock, door-to-door operation which
provides for abandoned babies and other infants. The local hospital has reported that,
after just one year of the scheme, infant deaths are down by 50%.
Many of these stories were from Baby Milk Action Updates.
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