Nestlé: The Most Evil Business in the World

Nestlé: The Most Evil Business in the World

Nestlé is one death ray away from cinematic levels of evil. If there weren’t laws about it, they would use lead-based colorants and shit like that in their food.

This company has been involved in some of the worst atrocities against humanity.

From refusing clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan to using “experimental” baby formula in Africa — and you’re probably also unaware of the child labor and forced labor involved to get your last choccy bar.

These are some very bad hombres.

Here’s everything that makes Nestlé the evilest company in the world.

Experimental Baby Formula in Africa
Baby formula.

Nestlé used to give out free samples to mothers in third-world countries — most notably in Africa. They coupled this program with an advertising campaign promoting formula as a superior alternative to mothers’ milk.

It would have turned out fine. But it didn’t. The samples that Nestlé gave out had been calculated to last long enough just for the mother to stop producing breast milk, but nowhere near enough to feed the baby until it could be weaned.

This left almost all of the African mothers without any alternatives once their free supply was exhausted.

Many infants grew up malnourished or died.

Nestlé remained largely indifferent to the issue until they faced consumer backlash and boycotts in Western countries.

Source
African Slave Children
Nestlé is the largest food company in the world.

Sure, besides candy most of that “food” is powdered crap that you shouldn’t feed your dog, but it’s technically food nonetheless.

And as the largest “food” company Nestlé has a market capitalization of $270 billion — in fact, cocoa futures are a thing too btw. In 2018 cocoa even outperformed Bitcoin.

So, how does Nestlé become the most valuable food company? Easy, companies like Nestlé and Hershey have their own cocoa plantations and African slave children. They cut out the middle man and the high transportation costs that other food companies deal with.

Back in 2005 the International Labor Rights Fund actually filed a lawsuit against Nestlé on behalf of three Malian children. The suit alleged the children were trafficked to the Ivory Coast, forced into slavery, and experienced frequent beatings on the plantation.

(There’s an excellent documentary called The Dark Side of Chocolate that goes into this more)

africametro
Well, guess what? Nestlé got off scot-free!

In 2010, a US District Court in California determined corporations cannot be held liable for violations of international law and dismissed the suit.

It didn’t matter that Nestlé profited, knowingly so, from child slavery.

Nestlé Pays $200 a Year to Bottle Water Near Flint — Where Water is still Undrinkable
Water is still undrinkable in Flint, Michigan. It’s pure insanity.

The lead lines are almost all replaced but there’s still more to go.

Meanwhile, during the height of the Flint water crisis (and to this day), Nestlé only pays $200 a year to pump hundreds of thousands of bottles’ worth out of a nearby reserve.

Flint residents were pissed.

“It’s almost like a civics class for us Flint folks. You shouldn’t be able to profit off of water — it’s free. It came out of the ground.”

— Gina Luster, Flint resident

It wasn’t the first time Nestlé pulled off a stunt like this.

Years ago they bought up land in South Africa preventing people from accessing groundwater and selling them Nestlé Pure Life brand instead.

Takeaway
And we didn’t even cover it all.

Here’s what else they’ve done:

Nestlé used an army to kill union workers in the Philippines
They work with dictators, which included buying a farm owned by the wife of Robert Mugabe, one of Zimbabwe's most brutal leaders.
They had a cartel in Canada
While we’re at it, Nestlé Pure Life is the worst brand of water I’ve ever had. It tastes like crap and the plastic bottle is so thin that it feels like it will crumble under its own weight.

Nestlé sucks.