Nestlé's Darkest Secret: The Disturbing Truth

Summary

This video delves into the controversial history of Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage corporation. From its inception by pharmacist Henry Nestlé to create a life-saving baby formula, the company has been mired in scandals. Accused of aggressive marketing leading to infant malnutrition, exploiting water resources, and being complicit in child labor for cocoa production, Nestlé's practices have raised ethical concerns. Despite facing international boycotts and legal actions, the corporation continues to expand its global reach, making it challenging for consumers to avoid its extensive range of products.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Nestle is the world's largest food and beverage corporation, owning over 2,000 brands and being involved in numerous controversies.
• 👶 The company was founded by Henri Nestle, who created one of the first baby formulas to save the lives of infants who couldn't be breastfed.
• 📈 Nestle's aggressive marketing of baby formula in the 1970s led to health risks for babies, especially in developing countries with poor access to clean water.
• 💧 Nestle has been criticized for its water extraction practices, including bottling and selling water back to communities from which it was sourced at a profit.
• 🍫 The company has faced allegations of using child labor and forced labor in the production of its chocolate, a problem it acknowledged but struggled to fully address.
• 💸 In 2002, Nestle demanded compensation from the Ethiopian government for assets nationalized decades earlier, an action that drew criticism during a famine.
• 🛒 Nestle's vast brand portfolio makes it difficult for consumers to avoid, even with boycotts, due to the ubiquity of its products across various categories.
• 🌳 The company has been involved in environmental issues, including deforestation and pollution, related to its operations and supply chain.
• 📉 Despite numerous scandals, Nestle continues to grow, highlighting the complexity of holding large corporations accountable for ethical practices.
• 🏛️ The script suggests that while Nestle may have started with noble intentions, its business practices have evolved in ways that have created new problems and controversies.

Q & A

What is the main issue discussed in the script regarding Nestle's operations in poor countries?

The script discusses Nestle's involvement in child labor and the unethical acquisition of water resources in poor countries, particularly in Asia and Africa.

How does the script describe Nestle's water collection practices in Southern California?

The script accuses Nestle of collecting millions of gallons of water from springs in Southern California, implying that this practice is exploitative and potentially harmful to local resources.

What are some of the accusations against Nestle regarding their baby formula marketing?

Nestle is accused of aggressively marketing baby formula in a way that undermines breastfeeding, using tactics such as paying doctors and hospitals to recommend their formula, and employing saleswomen to pose as nurses in order to sell their product.

How did Nestle's aggressive marketing of baby formula impact infants in developing countries?

The aggressive marketing led to many infants being fed formula mixed with contaminated water, resulting in illness, malnutrition, and an estimated millions of deaths.

What was the outcome of the 1974 publication that accused Nestle of creating a need for baby formula where it didn't previously exist?

The publication led to an international scandal, boycotts against Nestle, and eventually new regulations by the World Health Organization to prevent companies from comparing breast milk with formula milk alternatives in their advertising.

How does the script characterize Nestle's approach to water resources in various countries?

The script characterizes Nestle's approach as exploitative, accusing the company of depleting water resources, bottling the water, and selling it back to the same communities at a higher price.

What controversy is Nestle involved in regarding their chocolate production?

Nestle has been accused of using forced labor and child slavery on the farms where cocoa beans are harvested for their chocolate products.

How did Nestle respond to allegations of child labor in their supply chain?

Nestle has generally denied direct knowledge of child labor and has vowed to improve the situation, but the script suggests that their actions have been insufficient and primarily reactive to negative press.

What was the controversy surrounding Nestle's demand for compensation from the Ethiopian government?

Nestle demanded compensation for assets seized by a previous government in Ethiopia, even though the country was facing extreme famine and poverty, which led to public outcry and potential boycotts.

How does the script suggest Nestle's business model has changed over time?

The script suggests that while Nestle began with the intention of solving a genuine problem, their business model has evolved to create problems in order to sell solutions, leading to various scandals and controversies.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Nestle's Global Controversies and Origins

The video script begins by highlighting the issue of child labor in poor countries and accuses Nestle, the world's largest food company, of unethical practices. It points out Nestle's extensive water extraction in Southern California and criticizes its operations in regions with impure water and child labor. The script then delves into Nestle's history, starting with its founder, Henry Nestle, and his creation of one of the first baby formulas in 1867. It outlines Nestle's growth into a global conglomerate with over 2,000 brands, and hints at the dark controversies that have surrounded the company, including accusations of child slavery, exploitation, and the denial of water as a human right.

05:01

📈 Nestle's Expansion and Aggressive Marketing Tactics

Paragraph 2 discusses Nestle's rapid expansion after its founding, including its merger with Anglo Suess to form the Nestle Group. It details the company's diversification into various food and beverage products, with a particular focus on baby formula. The script accuses Nestle of aggressive marketing strategies in the 1970s, promoting its baby formula as superior to breast milk, which led to health risks for infants, especially in developing countries with poor access to clean water. It describes how Nestle's sales tactics involved paying off medical professionals and using deceptive methods to convince mothers to use formula over breastfeeding, resulting in a significant scandal and international boycotts.

10:03

💧 Nestle's Water Controversies and Exploitative Practices

Paragraph 3 focuses on Nestle's water operations, accusing the company of exploiting water resources for profit. It provides examples of Nestle's activities in Pakistan, California, and Michigan, where the company has been criticized for extracting water and selling it back to communities at high prices, sometimes during periods of drought or water scarcity. The script also mentions Nestle's CEO's controversial statement about water not being a human right and the company's practice of bottling and selling water at a significant markup, even when it originates from common municipal supplies.

15:04

🍫 Nestle's Involvement in Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry

Paragraph 4 delves into allegations of child labor and slavery in Nestle's cocoa supply chain. It discusses how Nestle, along with other chocolate companies, has been accused of buying cocoa beans produced by enslaved children. Despite promises to eradicate slave labor from their supply chain, the script suggests that little has changed, with reports of children as young as eight working in harsh conditions on plantations. The paragraph also touches on Nestle's legal disputes and their demand for compensation from the Ethiopian government during a period of famine, highlighting the company's prioritization of financial gain over ethical considerations.

20:05

🛒 Nestle's Ongoing Controversies and the Challenge of Boycotting

The final paragraph addresses Nestle's continued controversies, including price-fixing allegations and the impact of their business practices on the health of pets due to issues with their pet food products. It also reflects on the difficulty of boycotting Nestle due to the company's vast range of products and global reach. The script concludes by acknowledging the complexity of the issues and the inevitability of scandals for a company of Nestle's size and age, while also suggesting that the company's growth has led to a shift from solving problems to creating them for profit.

Keywords

💡Child labor

Child labor refers to the employment of children in work that is inappropriate for their age. In the context of the video, it is mentioned that Nestle has been accused of using child slave labor in parts of Africa for their cocoa bean farms, which is a significant ethical concern. The video highlights this as part of a broader discussion on the company's practices and their impact on vulnerable populations.

💡Nestle

Nestle is the world's largest food and beverage company, known for its diverse range of products from chocolate to baby food. The video script focuses on Nestle as a case study for corporate practices that have been criticized for their social and environmental impacts, such as child labor, water rights issues, and aggressive marketing tactics.

💡Infant mortality

Infant mortality is the death of infants before they reach one year of age. The video discusses how high infant mortality rates due to lack of breastfeeding or allergies to milk led to the creation of Nestle's first product, an artificial baby formula. This innovation, while initially intended to save lives, later became the center of controversy due to Nestle's marketing practices.

💡Aggressive marketing

Aggressive marketing is the practice of promoting products or services in an assertive and sometimes misleading manner. The video script describes how Nestle allegedly used aggressive marketing tactics to promote their baby formula, undermining breastfeeding and leading to health issues and even deaths among infants in developing countries due to improper use and lack of clean water.

💡Water rights

Water rights refer to the legal rights or claims to use water from a particular source. The video discusses Nestle's practices related to water rights, particularly their抽取 and bottling of water in areas where clean water is scarce, leading to accusations of depriving local communities of a basic necessity and contributing to environmental degradation.

💡Blood chocolate

Blood chocolate, also known as slave chocolate, is chocolate that has been produced using child or forced labor. The video mentions that Nestle was accused of buying cocoa beans, which are used to make chocolate, from plantations that employed enslaved children, highlighting the dark side of the chocolate industry and the ethical dilemmas faced by consumers.

💡Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is the process of feeding an infant with milk produced by the mother's body. The video emphasizes the importance of breastfeeding and how Nestle's marketing of baby formula in the 1970s was accused of undermining this natural and healthiest method of infant feeding, leading to health risks for babies in regions with poor access to clean water.

💡Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation refers to the deterioration of the natural environment through processes such as pollution and depletion of resources. The video script implicates Nestle in environmental degradation by discussing their water extraction practices, which have allegedly led to reduced water levels and ecological harm in various locations around the world.

💡Price fixing

Price fixing is an illegal practice where companies collude to set prices for goods or services, often to the detriment of consumers. The video mentions an investigation and subsequent settlement by Nestle related to allegations of price fixing in the chocolate industry, indicating potential unethical business practices.

💡Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Corporate social responsibility is a self-regulatory mechanism by which a company can contribute to social, environmental, and economic development while also addressing legal, ethical, and societal expectations. The video script critiques Nestle's approach to CSR, suggesting that despite the company's size and influence, their actions have often fallen short of ethical standards, leading to controversies and negative public perception.

Highlights

One in four children in the world's poorest countries are engaged in child labor.

Nestle, the world's largest food company, has been accused of unethical practices including child labor and water exploitation.

Nestle collects millions of gallons of water annually from springs in Southern California.

The company has been criticized for its operations in areas with impure water and using indentured servants.

Nestle's controversial history includes accusations of child slavery and exploitation in Asia and Africa.

The company has been involved in water theft controversies from Brazil to Flint, Michigan.

Nestle owns over 2,000 brands, making it difficult for consumers to avoid their products.

Nestle's aggressive marketing of baby formula in the 1970s led to health issues and deaths among infants.

Nestle has a history of undermining breast milk and promoting its formula as superior.

The company has been accused of using 'fake nurses' to promote its formula in maternity wards and homes.

Nestle's marketing tactics have led to malnutrition and health issues among babies in developing countries.

The company has faced legal actions and boycotts due to its unethical business practices.

Nestle has been involved in water rights controversies, including diverting water from communities and bottling it for profit.

Nestle has been criticized for its role in child labor within its cocoa bean supply chain.

The company has faced allegations of price-fixing with other chocolate manufacturers.

Despite controversies, Nestle continues to grow and acquire more brands, making it challenging for consumers to boycott.

Transcripts

in the world's poorest countries around

one in four children are engaged in

child labor the world's biggest food

company Nestle the Nestle company Nestle

Nestle collects millions of gallons a

year from Springs in Southern California

would you agree with me that your

product should not be used where there

is impure water

they are taking the water that should

not be owned by anybody using indentured

servants and parts of Asia because of

using child slave labor in parts of

Africa they've been trying to steal

water everywhere from Brazil to Flint

Michigan when it comes to corporations

operating without any regard to human

health and safety the Nestle Corporation

really seems to be in a league all of

its own what's going on with this

company

Nestle is the largest food and beverage

Corporation in the entire world they own

over 2 000 different brands and sell

chocolate cereal coffee baby food water

ice cream and so much more in fact it

would be difficult to go shopping and

not buy something that's owned by Nestle

and yet the company is accused of some

truly horrific things including child

slavery killing babies exploiting Nepal

claiming water shouldn't be a human

right and countless other scandals so

what's the truth and if Nestle really is

this evil how are they getting away with

it this video is a journey into the Dark

World of nestle a look behind the

curtain at one of the most controversial

companies ever but to understand the

story of nestle we first need to go back

to the man who started it all

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

begins with the birth of a boy in

Frankfurt in 1814 Henry Nestle was the

11th of 14 children and was born into a

family of glaciers where the trade of

cutting and fitting glass had been

passed down from father to son for many

generations however as Henry got older

he became fascinated with chemistry and

decided he wanted to become a pharmacist

instead of going into the Family Trade

which caused a bit of a rift between him

and his dads but Henry was determined to

follow his own path and at 15 he began

working as a pharmacist Apprentice

before later leaving his hometown in

Germany to go and live in Switzerland

where he worked on concocting medicines

and chemical experiments it was here in

Switzerland that Henry would start one

of the biggest corporations in the world

in fact to this day Vive in Switzerland

Remains the headquarters of nestle but

it wasn't until much later in his life

that Henry started Nestle before his big

break Henry tried all kinds of different

entrepreneurial ideas like he started

producing and selling liqueur vinegars

rum lemonade and even fertilizers but

none of his business ideas ever seem to

take off it wasn't until Henry was in

his 50s that he finally had his big

breakthrough it all began when Henry

read a report that infant mortality had

become extremely high because many women

couldn't breastfeed their children or

their children were allergic to the milk

Henry realized this massive problem was

also a big opportunity there was clearly

a major need for an artificial

alternative to breastfeeding but could

save countless babies lives and thus

Henry began to study all the existing

information about breast milk and

conduct a series of experiments in his

lab with various different ingredients

but saving children's lives wasn't the

only thing that pushed Henry day and

night to find a breast milk substitutes

his own tragedy also played a part as

Henry's wife had had many health issues

of her own unless it was unable to give

birth so as a way to channel her

maternal instincts she became extremely

concerned about other people's babies

and pushed Henry to create a breast milk

substitute that could save lives and by

1867 he'd succeeded Henry had created

one of the first ever baby formulas

essentially a formulated mixture of

cow's milk flour and sugar which could

be a substitute to natural breast milk

Henry then created a company called

Nestle to begin selling it and so you

see Nestle began with such great

intentions a humble guy creating a

life-saving product for babies who

couldn't breastfeed naturally

unfortunately this isn't a heartwarming

success story if anything this is a

horror movie you see ola's baby food was

the product that started Nestle's

dominance it was also the product that

would later destroy lives and create an

international Scandal and as Nestle grew

into a giant conglomerate they became

shrouded in all kinds of dark

controversies but we'll get to that

at first Henry's new baby formula was a

big success orders were coming in so

quickly that Henry had to open up a

factory to keep up with the demand he

couldn't believe it everything was

happening so fast and money was pouring

in with the huge success of this first

product Henry then partnered with a

Swiss chocolatier to create another new

product and in 1875 Baker did the first

chocolate milk in the space of just a

couple of years Henry went from being a

small unknown pharmacist in Switzerland

to one of the richest men in the country

and Nestle was growing more and more

every month but in a way it was all a

bit too much for Henry who was entering

the final stages of his life and wanted

to relax and spend more time with his

wife and so a few years later Henry

decided to retire and sell his company

and this is where things get really

interesting you see the new owners who

took over Nestle had big plans to expand

the company and in 1905 they merged with

a rival business who sold similar

products called Anglo Suess and together

they became known as the Nestle Group by

pooling all their resources together

instead of competing it allowed them to

more easily dominate the market and

expand their product Lines by the 1920s

Nestle was creating new chocolates and

different Beverages and by 1938 they

created the first mass-market coffee

their timing was great as instant coffee

helped keep soldiers awake during the

second world war and thus it became

included in all emergency rations of

every U.S soldier as well as creating

new products the Nestle group quite

often just acquired other companies they

saw potential in or that they thought

could be serious competition and so as

the years went by Nestle's list of

products grew and grew and so did their

wealth and power unfortunately that

wasn't enough for them and a behind the

scenes a plan was being hatched a plan

that would make millions of dollars at

risk of millions of lives

thank you

[Music]

when Henry Nestle first created his baby

formula back in 1867 the whole idea was

a supplement to help mothers who

couldn't breastfeed their children

certainly not to try and replace breast

milk altogether and the reason for that

is Studies have shown that natural

breast milk is healthier than any

formula natural breast milk is widely

recommended by the World Health

Organization American Medical

Association UNICEF and countless others

so for a while baby formula was sold

simply as an alternative for those who

needed it but in the 1970s roughly a

hundred years after the company first

began sales seemed to be slowing down

and Nestle started to get greedy they

wondered why if we could sell this baby

formula to all mothers not just those

who actually need air you see despite

all the other products Nestle had

launched baby formula was still one of

Nestle's biggest money makers and that's

because it has very high profit margins

so imagine how much more money they

could make if they could expand their

Market to all mothers so neste began a

campaign to undermine breast milk and

aggressively advertise their baby

formula as being Superior manipulating

mothers into believing Nestle's formula

was a necessity for the health of their

babies and that it would be better for

their child than breastfeeding when in

reality the evidence was the opposite

Nestle's formula was vastly inferior to

Natural milk as it lacked many of the

nutrients that helped babies fight off

disease and keep them healthy by

encouraging mothers to switch when they

didn't need to it was putting their

babies at a higher risk of infection and

malnutrition in order to make sure

mothers believe this information though

Nestle began paying off doctors and

hospitals to Peddle their formula by

asking them to tell mothers it was

better than breastfeeding Nestle then

ramped this up further in Africa and

Asia where they would hire sales women

to dress up like nurses and convince

mothers to give up breastfeeding and use

their formula instead these sales women

were paid on commission meaning the more

formula they sold the more money they

made thus encouraging them to sell the

formula very aggressively which they did

these sales women posing as genuine

nurses Would Walk The Halls of maternity

Wards or even visit mothers at their

homes unannounced and sell them on

Nestle's baby formula and it gets much

worse Nestle got these fake nurses to

hand out free samples of their formula

to mothers except they gave them just

enough samples that by the time the

samples ran out the mothers would have

stopped producing milk naturally and

this had no choice but to pay for

neste's expensive product to keep their

child alive this proved to be very

successful and profitable for Nestle and

so they expanded this plan to many other

locations but especially developing

nations where many of the women weren't

educated enough to know the information

they were being fed wasn't true after

all if a woman who appears to be a

qualified nurse is telling you that your

baby needs this product you're just

gonna believe them of course the

consequences were fatal it's estimated

millions of babies died or were made

severely deficient in essential

nutrients because of this the worst

impact was in third world countries

where there was no access to clean water

the big problem was that the baby

formula had to be mixed with water and

yet Nestle was convincing people they

needed to use this baby formula in

places where clean water was in very

short supply so the formula was getting

mixed with water that was polluted and

contaminated that's making the babies

ill to make matters even worse because

many of these women couldn't afford to

keep buying the baby formula that their

babies now depended on they instead

diluted it with even more water which

meant that the babies didn't get enough

of the nutrients they needed from the

formula leading to malnutrition it

didn't help that the instructions on the

packaging were in English which most of

the mothers in these countries couldn't

read so they didn't even realize that by

diluting it so much they were starving

their children this also meant many of

them didn't know they needed to boil the

water first to prevent bacteria making

their baby sick for a while Nestle did

nothing about any of this and seemed to

be getting away with it all but then in

1974 a publication entitled the baby

killer specifically called out the

serious consequences of aggressively

pushing baby formula in these countries

Nestle was listed for its involvement in

creating a need that didn't exist before

4 then convincing consumers the product

was necessary and then getting them

hooked on it all was completely ignoring

the tragic consequences when this was

translated into German by Swiss

campaigners it was given the very blunt

title Nestle kills babies which led to

Nestle taking legal action against them

but it was all too late all this

coverage created an international

Scandal for Nestle and boycotts were

launched against them in numerous

countries despite this the company

remained quiet on the issue however they

couldn't run from this in 1978 Nestle

Executives were brought before the U.S

Senate for questioning about the impact

of neste's formula milk on all of these

sick or dying infants and soon after new

regulations were introduced by the World

Health Organization that said companies

couldn't compare breast milk with

formula milk Alternatives in their ads

whilst this helped him well-regulated

countries in much of Southeast Asia and

the Pacific the regulations and laws

were not so well enforced meaning Nestle

doubled down on their marketing and many

of these underdeveloped countries with

less restrictions unless their cells

continue to increase meanwhile back in

places like the US where sales had

stalled unless they tried to change

their tarnished image and promote breast

milk by using some very bizarre ads

featuring something called the super

babies

the idea was to try and distance

themselves from the negative media

attention they'd received by making out

like they'd totally changed despite the

fact they were still using the same

exploitative tactics to push their

formula in countries where they could

still get away with it if even as

recently as 2018 a report by save the

children found the health of millions of

vulnerable children were being put at

risk because of the aggressive marketing

tactics used by Nestle and several other

giant corporations and yet despite all

of the extremely serious problems that

tactics have caused I'm sorry to say

that when it comes to Nestle's dark

pasts we're only just getting started

[Music]

foreign

five the neste CEO implied that having

access to water wasn't a basic human

rights this was uh

the zest has many certainty and foreign

after the media criticized him for this

he later backtracked but to see how he

really feels we can simply look at

Nestle's actions when it comes to water

for example in Pakistan in 2013 Nestle

began diverting clean drinking water

away from Villages and towns and then

began bottling air in their factories

and selling it back to the same people

they took the water from but at a much

much higher price the big issue is that

Nestle had taken so much water that

thousands were forced to drink dirty

sludge water instead because these

people couldn't afford to buy the

expensive bottled water which remember

was theirs to begin with Nestle's

strategy was essentially to deprive

people of a necessity like clean water

and then Supply them an expensive

alternative since Nestle arrived in the

country there are claims they have

sucked the land dry and caused water

levels to sink hundreds of feeds and

it's not just in developing countries

where neste does this for example in

America when California was suffering

from droughts many companies moved their

operations out of the state but but not

Nestle in the midst of this very serious

water shortage Nestle Waters continued

to pump 705 million gallons of fresh

water from California's national parks

draining some of the state's remaining

Water Resources to sell back to

Californians and when asked about this

the Nestle Water CEO said that if he

could bottle more of California's water

for profit during the drought he would

likewise in Michigan it was reported

Nest a pumped 747 liters of fresh water

every minute out of the state reserves

and that neste pays only 200 to take 130

million gallons of Michigan's water

after Nestle caused a drastic reduction

in the state's water levels a judge

eventually ordered neste to stop its

operations due to the ecological harm

they were causing whilst it's perhaps

not widely known the reality is Nestle

has the largest bottle water operation

in the world and owned over 50 brands of

bottled water so Nestle are actually

incentivized to Target places with

limited clean water available from their

own natural resources because if they

buy up lots of the natural water

supplies and create a shortage a great

is massive demands if you've seen Mad

Max Fury Road you may remember the guy

who was holding all the water and that's

not truly similar from neste's approach

but perhaps when Nestle got a lot of

their inspiration was the classic

British show Only Fools and Horses in

one episode the characters decide to

sell bottled water by claiming it came

from a natural spring when really it

just came straight out of the tap now

this show was a comedy but Nestle

decided to basically do that in real

life Nestle has simply bottled up water

that comes from the exact same Municipal

supplies as tap water and advertised

there as coming from Clear Mountain

Springs thus allowing them to add a huge

markup to the price when in fact they

can buy a tank of this water for ten

dollars use it to fill thousands of

plastic bottles and resell this

glorified tap water for an estimated

fifty thousand dollars

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[Music]

when you pick up a chocolate bar

probably the last thing on your mind is

how that chocolate bar was made but the

brutal truth is that Nestle has been

found to use forced labor and even child

slavery on the farms where the cocoa

beans are harvested and for a while this

cheap exploitative labor went mostly

unnoticed leading to low costs and high

profits but then in the year 2000 a

report came out that said Nestle was

guilty of buying blood chocolates and

unless they was fully aware that

enslaved children were working on their

plantations now this was also true for

many of the big chocolate companies so

in the year 2000 Nestle Cadbury and Mars

all promised to make their chocolate

slavery by 2005 except they didn't the

years flew by and they kept missing all

the deadlines they set in fact in 2005

the international labor rights fund

filed a lawsuit against Nestle and other

chocolate manufacturing companies on

behalf of three Malian children alleging

the children were trafficked to the

Ivory Coast forced into slavery and

frequently beat eaten on the chocolate

Plantation neste's response to incidents

like this was always the same they said

it was impossible to keep track of

everything going on on these plantations

but they vowed to try and improve their

situation but then a few more years

passed and it seemed like nothing had

really changed in 2010 a documentary

called The Dark Side of chocolate

brought attention to the media about how

children were being stolen away from

their homes and families are being

forced to work on plantations for very

little or no money at all then an

investigation in 2020 discovered that

children as young as eight were picking

coffee on the farms of one of Nestle's

suppliers it was reported children work

seven days a week carrying sacks that

weighed twice their weight and got paid

around one dollar an hour for their work

however once again at nestled denied

knowledge of this and said they tried to

fix it and to be fair here this is a

complex issue that's certainly not

limited just to Nestle but what does

seem clear is Nestle have known about

these labor problems for decades and

with their billions of dollars they

could surely have done a lot more if

they really wanted to the only time they

seem to show signs of action against

these brutal working conditions was when

they were getting negative press and

there's another example of this with

what happened in Ethiopia in 2002 neste

was demanding six million dollars from

the government of Ethiopia one of the

poorest countries on the planet the

conflict dated back to the 1970s when a

military regime in Ethiopia seized all

the assets of foreign companies and

nationalized them and then many years

after this one of those companies that

had its asset seized was acquired by

Nestle who were now demanding

compensation now remember this was a

business that was nationalized under a

different government 27 years ago and a

business which Nestle didn't even own at

the time but still to be fair to Nestle

here technically they were entitled to

claim compensation but here's the issue

at the time they were making this demand

for six million dollars Ethiopia was

facing an extreme famine that threatened

the lives of 15 million people the

country was in extreme poverty with many

citizens making less than a hundred

dollars a year that six million dollars

could help provide clean water to

millions of Ethiopians it could quite

literally say save lives but despite

being aware of this and despite the fact

Nest they made around 65 billion dollars

in sales that same year Nestle initially

refused to let Ethiopia off the hook and

persistently demanded the money even

though six million dollars was nothing

to Nestle they said it was the principle

of the matter that was important however

once the media picked the story up and

people started threatening to boycott

their sleigh they immediately did a

u-turn and settled the debt for 1.5

million dollars instead and vowed to

reinvest it into the country's economy

but it seems pretty clear if it wasn't

for the potential PR nightmare they had

no intention of backing down and if you

thought Nestle's controversies ended

there think again in 2012 the

competition Bureau raided the offices of

nestle to investigate price fixing

claiming Nestle was making deals with

other chocolate companies to ensure they

all kept their prices equally high so

they didn't undercut each other and give

customers a better deal neste denied any

collusion but eventually settled for a 9

million settlement the following year

ordinarily this might be quite a big

controversy but in the context of

everything else they've been accused

stuff it doesn't even seem that bad

comparatively and to be honest we could

go on for a while listing allegations

against the company like the legal

dispute that claimed dog food produced

by Nestle Purina pet care resulted in

serious illness and death of thousands

of dogs or we could talk about Nestle's

terrible pollution stats but here's the

thing because of all these scandals

Nestle have been involved in many people

have tried to boycott Nestle products

but the company is so vast that it's

incredibly difficult because there's

just so many different products they

sell they have reached in almost every

country with products in so many

different categories when you buy food

water or even cosmetics without

realizing it you may be buying from a

Nestle brand which is probably why

despite all of these controversies their

Slayers continued to grow and make more

Acquisitions to become even more

powerful and to be fair I'm sure there

are many people working at Nestle who

just want to make good products in a

perfectly ethical way the issue is that

when Henry Nestle founded the company he

was solving a very genuine problem but

unfortunate as an essay grew their

business model later started creating

problems instead so they could sell you

the solution of course when you've been

around for hundreds of years and owned

so many Brands I guess some scandals are

kind of inevitable just ask Coca-Cola to

see the disturbing history of coke just

click right here I'll hopefully see you

there cheers

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