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Nestlé adds sugar to infant milk sold in poorer countries, report finds
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Corporation ignores guidelines in pursuit of profit. News at 11.
Corporations will not ever self-regulate. If the "global south" can't even govern their food suppliers at the inadequate and shitty level the US does, then what else can be said? This is a problem that is directly within those governments ability to solve, but they still won't even do that.
Unsolvable problems with the Nestle Corporation - They Exist and their executives weren't guillotined in the 50's.
Solvable problem with the Nestle Corporation - They are legally allowed to sell products within the sovereign countries of the global south while complying with all local laws and regulations.
If only something could be done....
No, don't try to pass the buck. Wealthy nations are the ones responsible for what their own citizens get up to. Corporations are made up of people and should be regulated by their host nations.
Low Income Countries usually lack the resources to test imported products properly. This for eg is why all the poison cough syrup deaths globally.
They also lack the resources to finance enforcement of their laws.
They are also bullied by the World Trade Organization or threatened with lack of trade in necessities if they try to go against large international corporations with lobbying power.
Don't noble savage this shit. Most of those countries have functional governments that manage to regulate a lot of stuff, the article isn't about lack of enforcement. It's about lack of regulation period. While the WTO does help enforce the neo-liberal order, they aren't the ones that are doing this. Nestle-LLC incorporated in South Africa is using "too much" sugar in their formula. This is a problem that is wholly within South Africa's ability to solve.
The article isn't the be all and end all of the problem though. I'm talking about the wider picture.
I find it bizarre that you think pointing out resource disparity is the racist "noble savage" stereotype.
The behaviour of Western corporations are also wholly within the power of Western countries to solve.
Edit: I don't get why you want to focus so hard on what the end-users and LICs are doing and not on what the sources and wealthy nations are doing. Its like owning very vicious killer dogs, letting them loose and blaming your neighbour for not having a fence.
Do you want America to enforce regulations upon sovereign nations because they can't do it themselves? What are you asking for here?
Yikes, of course not.
I want Switzerland to regulate Nestle's behaviour and I want the US, the EU, and everywhere in the West where it operates to regulate it similarly.
Foe example, if you see my link elsewhere in here, according to UNICEF Nestle is in clear violation of the Breast Milk Substitute Code, and that should be better enforced for a start.
Sure. I do too, but whatever Nestle subsidiary that operates in South Africa, can only be regulated by the South African government. There is no other option today. Not as long as Capitalism is the assumed world economic system.
Parent companies should be legally held accountable for their subsidiaries though.
The thing is we do this with citizens all the time. For example if a citizen of my nation goes and commits pedophilia overseas they are still prosecuted for it. Similarly of they commission a third party to commit a crime for them.
This is something we are beginning to see in an international context with companies that commission crimes such as the landmark Lundin Petroleum (a Swiss company) trial last year, over corporate complicity (incitement really) of human rights abuses in Sudan.
If a corporation willingly abuses every loophole in laws or lack of laws even though it is able to know what would be more beneficial for their customers or humanity or at least to know what the law originally intended, then it's just plain evil shit. It's still people who work at companies and make immoral decisions. They have the power to decide.
Yes, and since modern capitalist companies are transnational, what should be done? If you are blaming nestle you are correct, but Nestle's actions within South Africa are outside the scope of America's laws.