True Activism

As most of you know, I'm usually the first to step up and start declaring a boycott on some company. I genuinely want to make the world a better place and the injustices that companies often perpetrate get in my way of making the world better. Thus, if they start showing signs of being stupid, I'm first to vote them off the earth.

I recently came across the Nestle boycott. The boycott is placed on Nestle because of its practices in distribution of baby foods in developing countries. According to one website, Baby Milk Action, Nestle knowingly went against a code of practice for selling baby food/milk to poorer countries. I read the report shown on their website and was shocked. Not by the horrors that Nestle committed but by the fact, I felt that Nestle was perfectly within their rights to do things the way they did them. This is not to say I endorse their marketing style, but what company wouldn't market to its fullest potential?

If Nestle had been advertising that their milk was better than breast milk OR that mothers should give up breast feeding and ONLY feed by the bottle, I would have thought, "these guys are some sick bastards". Instead I find that they send aprons to nurses (with their own label on it) in pediatric wards. They market products at a cost that is as low as possible in many countries. And they are always saying things like, "It is almost as good as breastfeeding". This says to me that they are telling their customers that breastfeeding is the better option.

Okay, so they manipulate the system. What company doesn't do this? A better solution than boycott is information. You don't like what a company is telling people, you think it is wrong or misleading? Then go and give them the RIGHT information. Don't refuse to buy...That will not do nearly as much as an organized effort to properly inform the consumer.