Comments on: Nestle Answers: Outsourcing Accountability in the Chocolate Industry

By: Wired For Noise » Is Nestle Trying To Do Better?

Wired For Noise » Is Nestle Trying To Do Better? — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:45:05 +0000

[...] few chocolate companies come out of this clean, Nestle is often the biggest target because it is one of the largest, if not the largest, buyers of cocoa in the world. If they were to take one step towards reducing slave trade chocolate if could practically change [...]

By: Alina

Alina — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:23:25 +0000

I have worked for big companies… we are NOT being too hard on Nestle. It is not hard to run even a large, multi-national company in an ethical way. It truly is “smoke and mirrors” with Nestle!

By: Lisa C

Lisa C — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:43:03 +0000

I’m glad I found this post, very coincidentally, but I guess a lot of people are talking about this right now. It seems to me that in order for Nestle, or any other company that purchases their cocoa from non-fair trade sources, would have to be willing to take a loss in profits until a change comes about. From everything I’ve read about Nestle, they only seem to care about the bottom line and not about what is right.

By: mamasapplecores

mamasapplecores — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:03:10 +0000

Another great post!!

I gave up most “mainstream” chocolate several years ago after listening to a BBC documentary on the cocoa industry. Sad sad sad.

By: crunchy domestic goddess (amy)

crunchy domestic goddess (amy) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:06:54 +0000

I’ve been wondering lately, maybe we are being too hard on Nestle. Maybe they are making progress and we are not wanting to admit it, BUT then I read things like this and I see we are NOT being too hard on them and they are NOT making progress. Like Candace said, if they could show concrete examples of how they are working to change (even if it’s a tiny bit at a time), that would be something, but they can’t even do that. It’s all smoke and mirrors with Nestle.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:57:14 +0000

OMG… I cannot believe the BS in this answer you received. Nestle should be deeply ashamed, as should any of the “family” bloggers who defended them. In essence they stated that they encourage the farms to behave ethically and not use slave labor and child labor… they also join groups that “encourage” but that is far as they are willing to go. Why would that be?? I am SURE it must have nothing to do with the fact that if they did lean on these farms or refuse to buy from them they would in fact be forced to comply and that would in the long haul be bad for Nestle and other junk food chocolate companies. The prices would be sure to go up once they actually have to pay living wages and stop employing children. If Nestle candy bars were the same price as the fair trade stuff in the specialty isle why would anyone buy Nestle? They HAVE to keep things cheap to dominate the market and thus they have to make conditions favorable for slave labor on chocolate farms but of course if they talk LOUDLY about how they “encourage” change.. no one with half a brain will be the wiser right? What a ghastly company…

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:45:13 +0000

@japraker: Nestle did answer these questions. I put their answer under the “Nestle’s Answer” heading. They sent me this answer in the same e-mail as the one on sodium content and also copied and pasted that e-mail into the comments section of the post with my list of questions. I agree though that this answer seems much more like a form answer than something specifically crafted in response to my question.

By: Naomi

Naomi — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:44:56 +0000

They might as well say “sure, it would be nice, look!!! we are even involved in this group who also think it would be nice, but we are not willing to ask any questions about the working conditions at any of the farms or congloerates that we buy from. Ignorance is bliss and if you can’t say that we knowingly bought from a ‘bad’ farm then we did not!”

It is all about the money! I want suffering-free chocolate please!

By: Mike Brady

Mike Brady — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:43:57 +0000

Nestlé has been taken to court over failing to live up to its undertakings. It boycotted a meeting called by Senator Heskins examining lack of progress, then a few days later sponsored a meeting on ending slavery. It uses initiatives like this as PR cover while continuing business as usual. It needs to be forced by regulations and consumer campaigns to make changes – with more support, we’d achieve even more than we do.

Find out more and listen to an interview with the Director of the International Labor Rights Fund here:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press28sept06.html

By: @japraker

@japraker — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:36:23 +0000

Again, really good comments.

Did Nestlé answer you by mail ? I don’t see comments written directly by them for these questions (so much more negative for their brand image and company culture), as opposed to their first reply on sodium content.

I checked out their corporate site and was interested to read :

“Nestlé’s Corporate Business Principles and the Code of Business Conduct are our non-negotiable worldwide minimum standards which are observed in addition to complying with locally applicable legislation. While the Corporate Business Principles, which include our commitment to the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, will continue to evolve and adopt to a changing world, they contain our basic foundation unchanged from the origins of our Company. Together with our Management and Leadership Principles, they reflect the basic idea of fairness, honesty and a general concern for people…”
(http://www.nestle.com/CSV/Compliance/Compliance.htm)

I don’t think it’s a good idea to give more time to Nestlé to “plan HOW” they could act; it’s important to ask them to actually DO something, especially when it doesn’t manage to keep its own deadlines such as in the cocoa initiative
(changes to be brought to coffee production by July 2005, then 2008… see ILRF report
http://www.laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/Cocoa%20Protocol%20Success%20or%20Failure%20June%202008.pdf )

I’d like very much like Nestlé to meet its aims of “Business Integrity” (added as a Business Principle in 2008 ! see last paragraph of same url above :

“At the operational level, CARE is Nestlé’s audit program to verify, through independent auditors, that our operations comply with the Corporate Business Principles in the areas of human resources, safety, health and environment. In 2008, a new module on business integrity was added to the program.”

But, then, it is only a module… it has taken 140 years to get that included, will it take another 140 to make it a company-wide principle, even maybe implementing it??

I would very much like to see Nestlé publishing its answers to these questions under a clearly “Nestlé-signed” source such as on their corporate website. Nestlé’s probably needed some time to get back to these questions because they’ve had a lot to deal with on the Zimbabwe milk issues on Facebook, too – on the “Nestle” page (of 79,863 fans, there are a number who have voiced criticism and apparently reversed Nestle’s decisions on purchasing milk from the Mugabes, as previously mentioned on #nestlefamily).

Sorry, getting side-tracked.

What I would like to see is Nestlé first acting concretely to ensure application of ethical and responsible engagements throughout its operating chain.

I’ve learnt a lot in the last couple of weeks about the brand. I’ll make a last quote for today from their corporate website :

“Nestlé recognizes that its consumers have a sincere and legitimate interest in the behavior, beliefs and actions of the Company behind brands in which they place their trust, and that without its consumers the Company would not exist.” (see http://www.nestle.com/AllAbout/AllAboutNestle.htm)