Corporate Sweet Dreams?

Here I sit at People’s food Co-op on a Saturday, enjoying my Brewing Hope coffee “for here” (to avoid the paper cup) and taking advantage of the best public wireless connection in town.

My friend Celeste in Denver has just posted new picks to Ringo! A sure bet to be fun and revealing of her latest adventures, I click the link, and am prompted to sign up for a great offer to get the latest news on fashion and such, sponsored by Old Navy. Well, I find the “pass” button and move to the next page, which I hope will be a photo album. Alas, here is my next complementary offer from the Nestle family of products (i.e. Toll House cookies, Stouffers family style meals, the many candy offerings, Nesquick and Juicy Juice). “Good food, Good life” claims the logo, with the listserv offer for the “Very Best Kids” newsletter, “filled with creative ideas, crafts, activities and health information from nationally known experts to help parents and kids grow together.” Ugh.

It’s no surprise to most folks that I’m not a big supporter of Nestle products. Based in Switzerland, Nestle is the largest food conglomerate in the world, with around 7.9 billion in net income for 2005. You’re probably most familiar with Nestle from the various chocolate products that they started producing in 1920. In 2004 Forbes wrote an article on the use of forced labor, especially child labor, in the cocoa bean production operations of Nestle in Africa. It seems that no meaningful actions have been taken on this issue since this the publication of the article. Makes me wonder about that newsletter offering “Good life” to the “Very Best Kids”. They must define this a bit differently than I do.

I’m going to take this opportunity to talk a bout a couple of things. First, to serve as an example, I’ll share a bit about the Nestle corporation, their past actions, and their motivations for providing so much positive spin to the public. Secondly, I’ll explain a bit about the current structure of the food system, including the organic food portion of the market. Both the organic production lines and the food system as a whole have become increasingly consolidated, and I think it’s important that we take this into consideration when thinking about our food choices.

Comments

Hi..Love our Eat This! blog...I have a art/culture/food magazine in santa fe called THE magazine. Love the photo of food on Eat This! dated May 1, 2007 ...words above the photo read "
Slow Food Huron Valley events for May."

THE magazine (www.themagazineonline.com) will be doing a SLOW FOOD article in April. May we have permission to use this image?

My very best, Guy Cross, 505-424-7641

Posted by: themag1@aol.com at December 1, 2008 10:46 PM