Whats the Nestle "hate" all about?

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Your're right....

they also changed their slogan from "not tested on animals" to "animal friendly" some time in the 90s i believe.

The Body shop, and MOST other companies are out to make money, it all comes down to sales. Yep, the body shop does do some community stuff but i can tell you the focus on that is minute compared to the focus on sales. Daily sales targets, constant training in pushing add ons, up-selling.... etc.

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No they didn't change to "animal friendly". Yes they are a business and upselling is expected in any retail store. Of course you have sales targets - who doesn't?

"Some" community stuff? Every person that works at the Head Office is expected to do Community Service as part of their contract. Do you know how much they raise for Domestic Violence in Australia on a yearly basis? No "administration" costs involved.

You wouldn't believe some of the thing I have seen TBS employees do on a community level - in their own time.

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No they didn't change to "animal friendly". Yes they are a business and upselling is expected in any retail store. Of course you have sales targets - who doesn't?

"Some" community stuff? Every person that works at the Head Office is expected to do Community Service as part of their contract. Do you know how much they raise for Domestic Violence in Australia on a yearly basis? No "administration" costs involved.

You wouldn't believe some of the thing I have seen TBS employees do on a community level - in their own time.

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Okay just double checked, i stand corrected.

They changed their slogan from "not tested on animals" to "against animal testing".... not sure of the exact year, but something to think about.... GOOGLE it if you want more info. Why the change, if not testing on animals?? hrm??

Also i know full well about the community service, I WORKED THERE, remember? I don't know how much head office does, but each employee at each store does ONE DAY per year of community service. They receive their usual pay rate for that day. One year it was planting trees, another year i worked with a woman from a woman's shelter.... its always different, and yes it is nice of them. BUT its still overly exaggerated in my opinion. I can also give plenty of examples of wastage and unethical things that occurred within the company but obviously won't do so on a public forum as i don't want to be liable for slander. I think i've said enough.

Out of curiosity - when did you work there Matryoshka? I also worked for TBS, but it was close to 18 years ago, so perhaps their way of operating has changed? I know that when I worked there the business overall was incredibly conscious about sustainability and fair trade issues on such an overall level (I gave a few examples in the other thread about it, won't repeat myself here).

Also, TBS never actually marketed themselves as using wholly organic or even natural ingredients, or at least they didn't when I worked there. We were encouraged to inform people of what went into the products - a particular example of it was the White Musk perfume - which was intentionally marketed as a synthetic alternative to natural musk. But as this was at a time when there was little demand for organic, synthetic free cosmetics, they were groundbreaking simply for their stance on using animal cruelty free ingredients (and demanding transparency from their suppliers too).

To be honest, I think that a company like TBS is a poor comparison to Nestle. Nestle, like certain petroleum distributors whom we won't mention, are concerned only with their bottom line and making a profit. Generally, if they implement a sustainable or ethical policy it is an inherently marketable one - something that looks good in the public eye but doesn't make any impact on their overall behaviour (or profit margin). TBS spent a lot of money on sustainable infrastructure and developing fair trade relationships etc, long before anyone even knew what that meant, and some of the strategies they implemented meant a reduction in profit margin. They also funnelled profits back into education and campaigning.

I think it's utterly unrealistic (and counter-productive) to expect that any company operate in a way that is not mindful of profits. A business that is as sustainable or ethically conscious as they can possibly be whilst still maintaining a profit (ie: is still in operation), is of far greater value than a business that cannot make a profit because it costs more than they can make to be ethical. What's the point of a company being wholly ethical if it can't influence the marketplace by staying in business?

Curly, Maz - I reckon if you have to use what you have to use, but avoid as much as possible - that's still better than nothing IYKWIM?
If we all do what we can...for some that is a lot, for others not as much in this area... but to be aware & make a difference where we can is a start. (and I guess that applies to a lot of ethical choices....)

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I feel so hypocrytical and didnt change my fb profile as i knew deep down we use the products :(

Can you still have strong dislike for a company but still occasionally buy their products?

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Hun, I changed my FB status even though I am using up the last of the Nescafe :redface: because to me it is all about awareness... I didn't know this before & am horrified now... so I want to share with others.

I got Panda onto it, teenagers are great with this kind of stuff ;)

Jas I agree with your stance. Boomba don't feel bad (or Maz) hells bells & panther tracks we all do our bit.

Yes I particular take issue to Nestle and make big efforts not to use their products. That's my thing. I also choose organic where possible. I use very little chemicals in my home. (sometimes bleach because I am a clean freak and when the mould takes over my white tiles.... well I bleach)

But if we try. If our heart is wanting change & our money goes when it can to good companies... Well I reckon we are making a difference. Take a step at a time. Don't expect to get it all sorted in a day or a week or even a year.

Bit at a time. Chip away... :hug:

Definitely chip away. I still try where I can. I buy things with the free trade logo, and I steer clear of most Nestle products. I have other little causes that follow and I support everyone I know who supports a good cause, because even they need support. And do educate the kiddies, don't scare the pants off them but be honest. DD has always been educated about dodgy companies, false advertising etc. One of her first stories that she wrote was about the environment. I have a little worrier, she stresses about the big bad world a lot. She cried her poor little heart out because we forgot about earth hour. Her school is very environment focused as well as community and preventing poverty focused so she gets a lot from school and home. I think if we start with them we are doing our future generations a big favour because they will be the ones fighting for their rights in 15-20 years.

I agree completely Rouge... It's about education. When we teach by example & explaination we are sowing a seed. Those seeds when we water them continually sprout and grow into a forest... Thaht's what we need.

A new generation that truly thinks outside the circle, outside the dollar & embraces the march for compassion in business, religion, politics & humanity... It actually starts at home... Where else!? :hug:

We've switched to Aktavite (Australian made and owned!) and I avoid the 'bad' stuff when I know about it.

Unfortunately I have to buy the tea/coffee supplies for my work and I have to get Nescafe :( I would love to get fairtrade, but the cost would get noticed! :wall:

I worry about most things I buy... clothes too. I was looking in the sports shop today at t-shirts and thought 'are these sweatshop products?'. I didn't buy any :o Gonna buy some from some organic cotton online shop (after making sure they don't grow their cotton using our precious Murray River water!) *sigh* it's very hard being ethical!! :shakehead:

One question for everyone - what about 'home brand' products? It's almost impossible to know if they're ethical - isn't it? Any idea? :dunno:

Home brand worries me because some of them are actually made by the big companies. I remember watching a segment on it 10 years ago and a lot of the cheaper brands were actually made by the top dogs.

**Busts out the zippo and begins singing...**

I believe the children are our future....teach them well and let them lead the way...

With Home Brands, I tend to only buy HB if their content is Australian.

I cannot know who makes it, but at least I know they are using Australian wheat for their flours and Australian Garlic in their Crucshed Garlic...

Hi all. I am coming to the discussion late but here I go anyway :)


I wanted to add a few notes about palm oil and its impacts. I have been to Kalimantan twice about 5 years apart and have seen the forest devastation from the air first hand. The first time I didn't actually notice any. The second time the plantations were just so obvious and encroaching on everything.
Palm oil is in so many items that you wouldn't even think of and in itself is not a bad ingredient. But it is not produced sustainably. The roundtable for sustainable palm oil production basically provides companies with a way of saying they are doing something while not doing anything. And this issue does not just affect orangutans. In truth orangutans are one of the cutest animals affected by palm oil but are far from the only ones. They are an ambassador species for all of the other plant, animal and other species that need these forests to survive. This includes humans. Traditional Indonesian communities being 'encouraged' to sell their home lands, leaving them with no way of providing for their families. Palm oil plantations are also well known for human rights abuses.
And additionally, these forests are felled and then burnt. This releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. If we just protected the forests of the world a bit better we would have a lot less environmental worries. This issue affects the entire human population. And we simply can't expect countries like Indonesia to halt a product that is in such huge demand from countries such as ours. The people there are too poor, and need too much like decent health care for them to be as worried about environmental issues.

OK off my soap box now he he.

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I got Panda onto it, teenagers are great with this kind of stuff ;)

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And they keep at it - my Dad told me about the boycott over 20 years ago .

My kids are great, they don't ask to eat smarties and when they are at a friend's house my 5 year old will accept food "as long as it's not nestle, we don't eat nestle":lol: Luckily most of my friends know about the boycott so they just promise it's not nestle and carry on.

I have actually contacted the supermarket chains and asked if I can be told which brands are Nestle. Until then I will not buy homebrand from them. Hopefully I get a response soon, will post in here.

Also I remember someone mentioning after a trip to a third world country, there was a big billboard selling formula in the street, saying something like, 'Be like your Western cousins...'

Its disgusting what they will do to the uninformed.

Hey guys just FYI...following on from one of the links in here, I downloaded an App for my iPod called "shop ethical!" just type it in to the app store. It's great, it's got a list of pretty much every product in the supermarket and who it's owned by. It's then got symbols stating whether it has praises, less praises, no info, lesser criticisms, criticism or Boycotts. It also says if there is an industry alert and if Aus owned. When you go into details it lists all the reasons for those ratings and they are colour coded (green = praise etc).

I used it this morning in the supermarket and it's great! Swapped a few products to what i'd usually by as well so i'm feeling pretty hapy :)

Oh CQ!! You're ace! I just downloaded it onto my iPhone and it's awesome!! I wont shop without it again! ;)

Oh! CQ does it have who the HomeBrand products are owned by? That's a bit concerning, I can afford to do the occasional switch, but I'm not sure I can afford to add 20cents to every product...

It's great isn't it!

Nelle - no it doesn't have "homebrand" in there but does each supermarket have their own name for their homebrand products?

It does however talk about Woolies in a not so favourable light! The strikes against them are to do with gaming, indirect tobacco, greenwash, gaming and misleading advertising. But then again so does Coles so what can you do...

CQ- I just used it!! I was at IGA and was going to buy Ovaltine (as an alternative to Milo ;) ) but then after using that app, i went for the **** Smith brand OzeChoc!

My first "ethically aware" purchase! :clap:

From Woolworths:

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Thank you for your enquiry via the Woolworths website.

In regards to your query on the Homebrand product made by Nestle, this
information is considered to be company sensitive.

Kind Regards

Supermarket Support
Woolworths Limited

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Oh well, I wont buy any of their homebrand then!

Woolworths 'own brand' stuff isn't made here at all. They import all their canned stuff and dont use australian grown vegetables in their frozens.

IGA's own brand is australian however. I have a list of some IGA products that I know are australian made I will post them later.

Aww dang Kelly!

Kelly maybe inform them that their lack of information only adds to the current boycott situation, because if people don't know for sure they won't be taking the risk.

I managed to 'enlighten' two people at work today! They're like-minded people but neither knew about Nestle. Hopefully I've got them thinking about what they buy next shopping trip! :dance:

Yes - most home-brand products are produced by the big companies. When I worked for Allowries (now National Foods) - we did the home brand cheeses. Pretty much the same stuff as their goods, just less packaging! But it's not disclosed, so I shall boycott them too!

Kelly - typical gutless corporations! :shakehead: :rolleyes:

CQ Do you think they would have an app like that for a nokia?????? I would really love it!

So I am on the way to try to change the shop...it has been playing on my mind for a while but just couldnt work out a way to do it without shooting ourselves in the foot? So any suggestions would be great...maybe a list of companies that use wildlife friendly palm oil?

thanks x

WOW! Thanks the the shop ethical app... I have learnt that King Island in unethical. They are owned by Kirin who genetically modify cattle for human antibody production :(

I really love this app. And I'll definitely be making sure what goes into my shopping trolley is ethical! Thank you so much for sharing :D

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WOW! Thanks the the shop ethical app... I have learnt that King Island in unethical. They are owned by Kirin who genetically modify cattle for human antibody production :(

I really love this app. And I'll definitely be making sure what goes into my shopping trolley is ethical! Thank you so much for sharing :D

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Yep, i found that out today too Rouge :(

I "enlightened" 2 staff members at work and my mum and 2 clients ;)

And...I made the switch from soy to rice milk! DS was so funny to watch. He swallowed two mouthfuls, took the cup out, looked at it, took two more mouthfuls then said "Whats this one called?" :dance: It was much easier to switch than i thought it was going to be! :)

This just in from Woolworths:

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Woolworths have agreed to label palm-oil on all their privately owned products whether the bill goes ahead or not. They have also committed to switching to sustainable palm oil by 2015 and have agreed to join the RSPO

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Good stuff!

Yeah I'm not surprised they consider giving out who their homebrand supplier's names are to be confidential. Can you imagine if it was generally known how many people would stop paying for the coloured label and buy the exact same product in the generic supermarket brand. My bro works for Kellogs Factory here and they produce generic brand muesli bars etc - exactly the same product, just costs less, different pack - which means less profit margin for the company - so I would guess that the companies that do generic branding for supermarkets would insist on confidentiality clauses as to where it's coming from.

I just read through the list of products :o

The website link on Palm Oil, while graphic clearly gave warning before looking down and my heart broke when I saw the utter devastation, those poor poor Orangutangs :cry:

Thankyou for making me more aware, I had no idea they were such a huge company :redface:

I just wanted to pop in here and say how awesome the shop ethical app is! I did a small shop yesterday and was pleased most of the things I regularly buy are good or average at least but I was able to avoid some nasty companies.
I have been sharing the info with my friends too, some of them think I'm nuts but I feel good about making a choice where I can. We do what we can do and every little bit counts.

Got another conversion today! ;)

Our young trainee had no idea... she now does! Funnily enough, one of my conversions from last week helped me tell her all about it! :rofl:

The word is spreading... :dance:

Nestle are unethical on just so many levels, from their baby milk scandal to using palm oil &
the worst forms of child labour in their chocolate bar production. I have been blogging on these issues for some time, if you want to have a look my blog is blogscrambled.com.
I also boycott Coca-cola for their unethical conduct as well, and any other company that uses the very dangerous, chemical sweetener aspartame, which is being put into so many products these days, including Robinsons fruit shoots e.t.c. It should be banned but, sadly is now being re branded as a natural sweetener ( that has meth alcohol as one of it's components ) and is put into so many products that are branded especially for very young children. It is a travesty, that these companies are doing all they can to get kid's ( hooked ) onto their products from such a very early age & make themselves out to be child friendly.
Aspartame: Sweet Misery A Poisoned World