Choppy Waters

A look into Nestle

Growing up in a fairly typical American household of the 1980s, I can honestly say that there is no one I know who didn't smile when their mom would pull a bag of Nestle Chocolate Chips out of the groceries.  Everybody knew that the house would soon smell of baking Tollhouse cookies and break out the milk in anticipation. Thirty years later, looking into the expansion of the Nestle family of corporations into bottled water production and sales, my image of Nestle has changed considerably.

After completing his apprenticeship with a pharmacist, Henri Nestle started off his career as a food chemist in the production of nut oils, vinegar, lemonade, and bottled mineral water. During a time of famine in Europe, he helped develop the first safe powdered infant formula for babies who could not breastfeed. Later, he helped develop condensed milk which aided in the creation of milk chocolate by chocolatier Daniel Peter. They partnered in 1879 to establish the Nestle Company.

Since then, Nestle has grown into the largest food and beverage company in the world comprising twenty percent (20%) of the global food and beverage market.  With an net income of $538 billion and revenue of almost $90 billion in 2017, company shares averaged $86.40 over the past year. The company's stated purpose is "Enhancing the quality of life and contributing to a healthier future." Their value proposition is "Producing and delivering food products with superior nutritious and health value."

The Nestle family of food and beverage products is so wide and diverse, it's fairly safe to say that, during one's lifetime, every American has purchased, used and/or tasted one of their products.

In 2000, Nestle founded Nestle Waters of North America.  With fourteen subsidiaries including Arrowhead Water, S. Pellegrino, and Sweet Leaf Tea, Nestle Waters NA reported sales of $4.5 billion in 2017. During this same time period, Nestle and other water bottlers persuaded the World Water Council to step back and change its position that access to safe drinking water is a "right" to a "need."(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9) This diminishment of the overall importance to protect access to safe drinking water was reiterated by former Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe in the 2005 documentary We Feed The World in which he called the idea that access to water is a human right excessive.

Not unlike tobacco companies who also targeted children as future/underage consumers, Nestle Waters NA marketed bottled water through programs like Project WET:Water Education for Teachers and a joint program with the WWE called "Choose Water" offering those using the self-same hashtag a chance to win a trip to the WWE's Summer Slam event.
(https://www.nestle-watersna.com/en/nestle-water-news/pressreleases/nestle-waters-wwe-choose-water) None of Nestle's marketing for bottled water mentions that while tap water in the U.S. averages just 5 cents a gallon and milk averages $2.84 a gallon, single use bottled water averages $9.47 per gallon. 
( https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/nestle-and-others-profit-us-water-infrastructure-crisis)

Compare this to the news reports that Nestle is allowed to draw a maximum of 4.7 million liters (1.24 million gallons) of water per day at a cost of $3.71 for every million liters/quarter million gallons.  Nestle pays just under $20 a day for water it can sell for hundreds of millions, if not into the billions, of dollars.  In San Bernardino County, a county in Southern California that includes Death Valley and is recognized as mostly comprised of deserts, Nestle pays the U.S. Forest service just $534 dollars per year in order to pump out an average of 30 million gallons of water, even during times of drought, averaging a cost to Nestle of $0.0000017 per gallon.

Nestle stepped far afield from founder Henri Nestle's efforts to benefit people by making safe products during time of need by exploiting one of humanity's most basic right to safe and affordable drinking water all in the name of profits. I lived in Lake Arrowhead for years.  I can't bring myself to drink a piece of home anymore knowing I'm simply contributing to its exploitation and the loss of readily available and affordable drinking water by friends and former neighbors.