Boycott International Food Companies

29.09.2021	On September 14th Greenpeace USA released a new report exposing that single-use plastic is linked to the world's largest Big Oil companies, like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron. Every multinational food company, like Nestlé, Mondelēz, and Unilever buys packaging from manufacturers supplied with plastic resin or petrochemicals by one of the Big Oil companies. Nestlé and other consumer goods companies claim to tackle plastic pollution but they are working alongside the fossil fuel industry to perpetuate the big lie: that we can recycle our way out of the plastic crisis. Only two percent of the plastic waste ever created is recycled in any circular sense of the word. According to industry, plastic production could triple by 2050 if there is no ban on single-use plastics. This would increase global emissions from the plastic life cycle by over 50 percent on 2019 levels by 2030, equivalent to nearly 300 coal-fired power plants - locking the world into catastrophic emissions levels and a planet warmed beyond saving. Millions of people across the globe are taking action against big corporations to demand they end their reliance on single-use plastics - signing petitions, engaging local businesses, and working in their communities to build a future based on reuse. Tell big consumer brands, like Coca-Cola, Pepsi Co., and Nestlé, to stop fueling the climate crisis by breaking free from fossil fuels and investing in reuse and refill solutions.
25.08.2021	About 100 billion plastic bags are used in the U.S. each year. Walmart recently announced to get rid of plastic bags. Until now it is not clear what will replace the plastic bags. Walmart has announced its partnership with "Beyond the Bag", an initiative working to explore reusable options. Consumers should not hesitate to use reusable items. Reusable items do not pose a higher risk of transmission of the coronavirus and are perfectly safe for use during the crisis. The Shopping for Plastic 2021 ranking by Greenpeace shows that Walmart is not doing enough to reduce its plastic footprint. Instead of getting serious about reducing its truly massive contribution to the plastic pollution and climate crises, the world's largest retailer is misleading customers with labels stating that plastic items are recyclable when they are destined to be dumped or burned. In December 2020, Greenpeace sued Walmart for incorrectly labeling and advertising its throwaway plastic products and packaging as recyclable. Greenpeace is demanding that Walmart remove false and misleading labels stating that its disposable plastic products and packaging are recyclable, when they are not. Walmart should join its competitor Giant Eagle in committing to eliminate single-use plastics altogether.
22.07.2021	Mondelēz , the parent company of Cadbury, Milka, Toblerone, and other popular chocolate brands received one of the lowest scores from an international labor organization, nearly failing ethical standards because of its use of child labor in its supply chain. Mondelēz has promised to eradicate child labor, but its internal certification program "Cocoa Life" is not living up to its commitment to end child labor. Mondelēz says "Cocoa Life" is improving the lives of their cocoa farmers through education, providing clean water and ensuring gender equality. However, only 43% of its cocoa is certified as free from child labor. One way to cut down child labor in the chocolate industry is to boost the prices given to farmers. The government of Ghana and Ivory Coast implemented this idea. Since October 2020, the cocoa buyers have had to pay 400 USD per ton extra as a premium, a move that is expected to help farmers. In June this year, cocoa regulators of Ivory Coast reported that Mondelēz International, among other buyers, fails to pay the premium, after a recent upturn in economic activity. The regulators even warn that they will stop all certification programs of Mondelēz. It again shows that Mondelēz puts profits over people and doesn't really care about the cocoa farmers. Use the Buycott app to boycott Mondelēz products!
22.06.2021	Every year, more than 1.5 billion plastic bottles bearing the Vittel, Contrex or Hepar labels leave the Nestlé Waters factories around the town Vittel in France. With 245 million euros in sales and 900 jobs, Nestlé feels almighty. Since 2014 and the discovery of the first illegal plastic dump, Nestlé hasn't done anything. Only recently, after media attention was drawn on two newly discovered dumps the Swiss polluting giant, in a desperate communication move, has admitted the existence of 9 illegal dumps in total on the grounds of its Vittel water factories. The soil around the dump is contaminated, but even worse is the potential pollution of the region's water supply. The same water that's bottled and sold as Vittel, Contrex and Hepar mineral water. The powerful multinational Nestlé doesn't care about laws, the environment, or the people. In 2020, as a result of massive mobilization and media attention, Nestlé's environmentally destructive water pipeline project in Vittel was stopped. Use the Buycott app to boycott Nestlé products!
06.05.2021	There are companies like Nestlé that attract scandals like light the flies. And then there are multinational corporations like Unilever who do basically the same as their competitors, but on which critical allegations do not stick. Unilever is even praised by major international environmental organizations like WWF for its environmental commitment. How can that happen, despite Unilever being one of the largest palm oil consumers in the world? Unilever's greenwash communication primarily relies on the RSPO (Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil) certification scheme. Unilever admits that the global palm oil production causes serious problems, but also points out that these can be solved with the help of the RSPO. Unilever responded to environmental concerns in 2010 with its Sustainable Living Plan. The company promised to purchase all palm oil from sustainable sources by 2015. Unfortunately, by 2015 it had only achieved sustainable sourcing for 19% of its palm oil. Unilever opted to offset the majority of its palm oil through purchases with "GreenPalm Certificates", sold by the RSPO. In a survey of WWF in 2020, Unilever came out on rank 34 only, showing little progress on phasing out unsustainable palm oil from supply chains. Unilever - like other multinational food brands - failed to achieve the goal to phase out deforestation through the use of sustainable palm oil by 2020. After ten years of inaction and greenwashing, Unilever just postponed this goal further to 2023. It's time to take real action. Use the Buycott app to boycott Unilever products!
29.03.2021	Cattle ranching in Brazil is the leading driver of deforestation-related carbon emissions across Latin America, according to research published in Global Environmental Change. Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS presents the highest deforestation risk of the nation's leading beef companies. Being under pressure from investors, the world's largest meat producer JBS on March 23, 2021, announced a commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040 and zero deforestation across its global supply chain by 2035. The deadlines are woefully inadequate. We cannot afford to wait another 14 years to put an end to Amazon destruction. It is clear that, unless Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stops his support for farmers clearing forests for pastureland, the crisis is likely to continue. Meanwhile, International Criminal Court has approved the petition of the Arns Commission (a human rights body), demanding an investigation into Bolsonaro's assaults on indigenous human rights connected with deforestation.
18.02.2021	Tony's Chocolonely - the makers of slave-free chocolate bars - launched their limited edition "Sweet Solution" at UK supermarkets in January. The controversial edition identifies KitKat (Nestlé), Twix (Mars), Toblerone (Mondelēz) and Ferrero Rocher (Ferrero) in similar pack designs. The offer was dropped after one day in stores due to pressure from the affected chocolate companies. The four look-alike chocolate bars are designed to raise awareness that 20 years after the chocolate industry promised to eradicate illegal child labour, it is still widely prevalent. The eye-catching stunt follows the release of the US Government sponsored NORC Report from 2020 that points to the cocoa industry's failure to address numerous human rights violations in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. Over 1.56 million children and at least 30,000 victims of modern slavery are forced to work on cocoa plantations. Big chocolate companies, including Nestlé, Mondelēz, Cargill and Barry Callebaut, are now confronted with a lawsuit alleging child slavery claimes in Cote d'Ivoire. It is the first time that a class action of this kind has been filed against the cocoa industry in a US court. In 2001, these companies signed the 'Harkin-Engle Protocol' in which they promised to stop using child labour by 2005. Instead, they have asked for extensions of time and now claim that by 2025 they will reduce by 70% their reliance on child labour. Rather than make progress, their use of child labour is actually getting worse.
13.01.2021	Corporate America is now frantically trying to distance itself from Trump after a mob whipped up by Trump invaded the Capitol. These gestures come after four years of enabling Trump's anti-democratic practices. While Trump moved steadily along the path to authoritarianism, large companies allowed themselves to be bought off with tax giveaways and regulatory rollbacks. German chemical and pharmaceutical giant BAYER invested around 500,000 USD in the US election campaign with a clear preference for the Republican candidates. BAYER benefited from Trump's retrograde environmental policies, especially the efforts to roll back limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The MONSANTO takeover also met the goodwill of the US President. Moreover, Trump provided BAYER with support in matters of "glyphosate". Government agencies intervened in a compensation process in favor of BAYER and, through massive political pressure, dissuaded Thailand from enforcing a planned glyphosate ban. On their way out the door, officials such as Andrew Wheeler of the EPA are trying to limit the options the Biden Administration will have to restore pollution controls. In August 2019, Andrew Wheeler refused to approve product labels warning glyphosate - the active ingredient in Roundup, a weedkiller owned by its MONSANTO subsidiary - is a carcinogen. This happened at a time when BAYER was inundated with lawsuits claiming Roundup caused several thousand cancer incidents.
26.11.2020	Mondelēz International, the parent company of Cadbury, Nabisco, Oreo, Ritz and other major food brands, still uses palm oil in the majority of their products despite it being one of the most unsustainable vegetable oils in existence, linked to deforestation in Indonesia. Mondelēz and the other big multinational food companies, have destroyed an area of rainforest almost twice the size of Singapore between 2015 and 2018. Mondelēz and other companies in the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a corporate alliance of food and household goods producers, had promised that by 2020, they would stop sourcing palm oil from producers that destroy rainforests. Deforestation is one of the biggest overall threats to the climate and is responsible for the decline of hundreds of species. Orangutans are heavily endangered, with the possibility of going extinct in just a few short years, and a large part of this is due to the growth and expansion of the palm oil industry. Mondelēz have largely outsourced the implementation of their non-deforestation policies to the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). However, the RSPO's weak standards and its failure to stop producer members abusing those standards, are significant factors in the palm oil industry's continued destruction of rainforest. Unsurprisingly, Mondelēz is supplied by palm oil traders like Wilmar International and Indofood who continue to sell palm oil contaminated by forest destruction. Consumers are becoming more aware of this and started to boycott Mondelēz International until the company phases out the use of palm oil and switches to more environmentally sound vegetable oils.
28.10.2020	McDonald's announced it will be closing around 200 US stores before the end of the year amid a slump in profits due to the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks McDonald's! This is good news for the planet. McDonald's is one of the last large chain fast food restaurants that does not offer vegan or plant-based options in the US, which is surprising considering the growing meat-less trend that is gaining momentum across the country - with one-quarter of Americans saying they are trying to eat more plant-based foods. Even McDonald's fries in the US are not vegan because they contain beef fat. McDonald's continuously promote meat products, encouraging people to eat meat more often, which wastes more and more food resources. Seven million tons of grain fed to livestock produces only one million tons of meat. McDonald's has been losing profits and closed hundreds of stores in the last years. More people are aware that the chain exploits million of animals: nearly 300 million chickens are slaughtered for the chain each year. Considering having McDonald's for breakfast? Think again. Not only does one large egg contain more than 200 milligrams of cholesterol, hens used for eggs are stuck inside filthy, cramped cages and can't stretch even a single wing.
13.09.2020	JBS is the world's biggest meat packing company and single biggest supplier of beef. JBS has been repeatedly linked to suppliers found to be engaging in illegal deforestation in the region and operating illegally on protected Indigenous lands. Growing international demand for beef has become a key driver in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation is directly linked to a handful of major food corporations. The EU imports more than 600 million USD worth of beef from Brazil each year. And that will increase if the EU and member states approve the new Mercosur trade deal with Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay to gradually let 99,000 tonnes of low-tariff South American beef into Europe every year. In July 2020, Amnesty International, with Réporter Brasil, revealed that cattle illegally grazed in protected areas of the Amazon state of Rondonia had entered the JBS supply chain. JBS' inability to control its Brazilian beef supply chains is responsible for deforestation in the Amazon and the loss of lands belonging to indigenous people. We will hold JBS accountable. Netzdemo Portal announced an online protest in support of the campaign #AmazonCeaseFire against JBS meat industries on September 25th, 2020. Join the online protest!
25.08.2020	Europe faces a potential water shortage for the third year in a row as 2020 continues to be one of the warmest years on record around the globe. Groundwater sources are an important reserve for the future and should remain untouched. But the greed of bottling companies like Nestlé are acquiring more water sources. The picture is the same all over the planet - the remaining unpolluted waters are increasingly in the hands of a few companies. Nestlé, owner of the Vittel and Contrex brands, is now facing a mounting series of problems in north-east France where it obtains its supplies for those mineral waters. Nestlé has drawn 800 million litres of water annually for the past 30 years. The aquifer has been unable to replace the 3.5 centimetres of water removed annually. The French government considered building a pipeline from a neighbouring community to bring water to the citizens of Vittel. That plan would have allowed Nestlé to continue draining the aquifer. However, in October 2019, the French government announced it would limit Nestlé's water extraction in Vittel and cancel the water pipeline. In July 2020, consumer and environmental groups started legal action against Nestlé for extracting water from certain boreholes without authorisation, and have accused the authorities of favouring the giant corporation over the needs of local people. For instance, between 2007 and 2017 Nestlé removed more than 900,000 cubic meters of water from one of the boreholes without having a permit and then sold it under the name Contrex. Use the Buycott app to boycott Nestle products!
23.07.2020	The private meat company Tönnies is under pressure after a massive coronavirus outbreak at their slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrück (Germany). The business was closed and another lockdown was imposed on the two local disctricts where meat factories of the company are located. The meat factory remained closed until July 17. Theoretically, contamination of meat or meat products with corona viruses during slaughter or during meat cutting and processing is possible, even though there is no evidence yet. On July 4, Several members of the alliance Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie ("Together Against the Animal Industry") have occupied the slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The activists unrolled a banner with the words "Shut down animal industry" from the roof of the plant. New data shows that the coronavirus pandemic is sparking the biggest fall in meat consumption in decades all around the world. According to FAO, the per capita consumption of meat is set to drop to the lowest levels in nine years. Earlier in April, meat processing plants in the U.S. and around the world began shutting down due to outbreaks of coronavirus, forcing farmers to inhumanely cull millions of animals while consumers are left with shortages on shelves and food banks run dry. With the economic downturn expected to wipe out as many as 2.2 million restaurants globally, it is likely that families everywhere will be consuming far less meat simply because they are cooking more of their own meals.
05.06.2020	The Danish meat giant Danish Crown produces huge amounts of pork from pigs fed with soy that has come from deforested areas in South America. Soybean cultivation and cattle ranching are primary drivers of deforestation in tropical forests and savannahs of South America. The Amazon Soy Moratorium, which was first agreed in 2006, helped to greatly reduce soy-driven deforestation in the Amazon. A new report - "How the Sausage Gets Made" - from Rainforest Foundation Norway, Mighty Earth in the United States, and Forests of the World in Denmark investigates the connection between Danish Crown's soy imports and environmental destruction in South America. Danish Crown is one of the largest exporters of pigs in the world and one of Europe's largest pork producers, slaughtering millions of pigs every year. Through a number of subsidiaries, including Tulip Ltd., Danish Crown markets its products in over 130 countries. The company must take immediate action to exclude deforestation-linked soy from its supply chain and demand all upstream suppliers become deforestation-free. This means that Danish Crown must suspend its contracts with companies like Cargill, ADM and Bunge unless they commit to becoming deforestation-free in all their operations.
07.05.2020	Coca-Cola creates the biggest plastic pollution footprint in six developing countries: China, India, the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria. The drinks giant creates 200,000 tonnes of plastic waste - or about 8 billion bottles - which is burned or dumped each year in the six countries: enough to cover 33 football pitches every day, a new report of the charity NGO Tearfund reveals. The four global drinks giants Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever together are responsible for more than half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in those countries. The burning of the plastics that the beverage companies have put on the market amount to 4.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year, contributing to climate change and harming the health of the world's poorest people. It is very convenient for the world's worst plastic polluter Coca-Cola to insist that people want their single-use plastic around. The solution is not to simply swap one throwaway material for another or continue to fall back on recycling. The solution is for Coca-Cola and other consumer goods giants to rethink how they're bringing products to people, centering systems of reuse and package-free options. We cannot afford the levels of inaction that Coke has shown thus far. Soon, the company will realize just how sick and tired people are of its plastic addiction.
06.04.2020	Global companies have made commitments to stop deforestation by 2020, but instead, forest loss has accelerated, and commodity-driven deforestation is the highest driver. According to a recent Greenpeace report, multinational consumer goods companies such as Mondelēz, have been affiliated with palm oil suppliers that have been linked to forest burning in Indonesia in 2019. Greenpeace recently stepped back from a process with Mondelēz, Unilever, and Wilmar to create a monitoring platform for Indonesian palm oil due to their repeated failures to take the necessary action to achieve zero deforestation. Companies have created a facade of sustainability. Despite the sustainability pledges that these multinational giants have given, these findings suggest a huge gap between corporate commitments and the reality of operations in their supply chain. Mondelēz - maker of Oreo, Milka and Cadbury - purchases 0.5% of global palm oil production. In 2014 Mondelēz adopted a "no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation" (NDPE) policy, restricting the company to sourcing palm oil that does not involve deforestation, loss of peatland, child labor or violation of human rights. The palm oil traders Wilmar International, Cargill, Musim Mas, and Golden-Agri Resources (GAR) have extensive links to the fires in Indonesia and together supply more than three-quarters of global palm oil. Mondelēz's supply chain still relies on Wilmar International, the world's largest refiner and trader of palm oil. Wilmar International totally failed to break its links to rainforest destruction. Palm oil suppliers to Mondelēz have also been accused of child labor, exploitation of workers, illegal deforestation, forest fires and land grabbing. As consumers, we need to stop purchasing from these very brands to make our voices heard that we will not tolerate irresponsible corporate behaviour.
10.02.2020	Palm oil is a highly controversial ingredient of many food products and detergents, often connected to rainforest destruction, release of greenhouse gases, and exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and workers. 2020 stands as a critical year for international food companies to deliver on their promises to eliminate human rights abuses and forest destruction from their palm oil supply chains. Unilever, the world's largest single buyer of palm oil, has made some progress through its investments in establishing collaborative deforestation monitoring systems and innovative ways to track the source of the palm oil it uses. Kellogg's, General Mills and Mondelēz are performing the worst, with only minimal actions being reported to consumers concerned about the use of unsustainable palm oil to manufacture their cereals, chocolates, and candies. General Mills committed to a responsible palm oil policy - one decade ago. It is now lagging behind the other multinational food companies, promising to do more in 2020 to monitor deforestation in its supply chain. Kellogg's stands out as the worst performer for its failure to undertake significant implementation. Kellogg's has relied on increasing its use of Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified palm oil. Kellog's claims all its palm oil is 100% certified "as RSPO mass balance". But the RSPO still certifies as "sustainable" the illegal palm oil from companies like Indofood. Cereal makers Kellogg's and General Mills source illegal palm oil from the Leuser Ecosystem in Indonesia, responsible for destroying rainforests and killing orangutans. Demand more action from Kellogg's and General Mills now! In the UK, two sisters have started a petition to ban the use of palm oil in Kellogg's - You can still sign it here!
19.12.2019	As we count down to the 2020 Summer Olympics, the limelight is on Nissin Foods. Nissin, inventor of instant noodles - including Cup Noodles and Top Ramen - is a major sponsor of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Nissin uses nearly 20,000 tons of palm oil each year in the US alone! Nissin still fails to adopt a truly responsible palm oil policy or cut ties with bad actors that clear rainforests, peatlands and abuse the rights of communities and workers in the palm oil sector. According to Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the failure of Nissin to take action may be contributing to the destruction of the Leuser Ecosystem - the last place on Earth where elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans roam together in the wild. Join the RAN countdown plan to give Nissin the world's attention that it wants as an Olympic partner. Here's the plan: STEP 1: Head over to Nissin's Facebook page and paste this response into a comment: Hey @Nissin, the world is watching! Your @OriginalCupNoodles may be causing oodles of destruction to rainforests. The countdown is on for you to get Conflict Palm Oil out of your ingredients. https://www.ran.org/Tokyo2020Olympics STEP 2: Then click this link and you'll automatically create a Tweet calling out Nissin: Hey Nissin, #CutConflictPalmOil from your @OrigCupNoodles for the @Tokyo2020 Olympics! https://www.ran.org/Tokyo2020Olympics #DeforestationFree #PalmOil @WeAreTopRamen #CupNoodles #1YearToGo STEP 3: Ask your friends to join in and repeat!
08.11.2019	Nearly two decades ago, the biggest chocolate companies, Mars, Nestlé and Hersey pledged to stop using cocoa harvested by children. In 2001, following a public outrage, the big chocolate companies and Ivory Coast signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol. This was an agreement to end "the worst forms of child labor" and "forced labor," according to specific definitions from the International Labour Organization, in the chocolate industry. But the agreement was toothless from the start. Chocolate companies have set and missed deadlines to remove child labor from their cocoa supply chains - and now, they have indicated that they will once again miss the 2020 deadline. Close to two-thirds of the world's cocoa supply comes from West Africa, where 2 million children are engaged in hazardous work in the cocoa industry - either working on their parents' farms or with other trafficked children. Children, some as young as 10, who are sometimes purchased, bussed across borders to chocolate farms, and worked, without school, for under a dollar per day. There are plenty of possible solutions, but they all cost money, which the chocolate industry has been unwilling to pay. Farmers in Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ecuador and a few other countries in Latin America produce almost all of the world's cocoa, but corporations like Nestlé and Pladis in the 100-billion-dollar-a-year chocolate industry want to get away with paying them pennies for their efforts. The governments of Ghana and Ivory Coast took the historic initiative to work together to raise the minimum cocoa price. This new West African cocoa price, about 2600 USD per tonne - more fair for farmers than even Rainforest Alliance - is a huge step towards ensuring farmers won't have to put their kids to work. Tell Nestlé and Pladis to follow the example of SucDen to support a fair price for cocoa farmers in West Africa and around the world! Then also tell Mars, Nestlé and Hersey: No more excuses.
07.10.2019	We've seen the reports about the devastating wildfires sweeping the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, in Brazil. The overall number of fires in the Amazon from January through September was 43 percent higher than the same period last year. A new study released by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) blames deforestation, not drought, as the main driver for the summer fires, which now top more than 90,000 across the Amazon. Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, who took office in January after a year of campaigning on promises of opening the rainforest for development, has continously downplayed the severity of the fires and declined assistance from foreign countries in controlling them. The Amazon is still on fire and that's no accident. Bolsonaro wants to burn it down to turn the land into industrial farms - threatening wildlife, the lives of Indigenous Peoples, and our chance to win the climate crisis. Indigenous lands had largely been effective barriers against deforestation - their status is protected by the constitution. Bolsonaro has taken other measures, including defunding or reducing personnel from the agencies responsible for enforcing the protections. Now it is time to hold fast food giants McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC responsible. Everyone in the world can join the movement by telling Burger King, McDonald's, and KFC to ensure their goods are not linked to Amazon destruction. KFC buys chicken from Brazil which ends up in its UK outlets. Not only does Burger King buy beef directly from Brazil, it is owned by a Brazilian billionaire through the company 3G Capital. And in August 2016, McDonald's in Brazil began buying meat raised in the Amazon region for the first time since 1986 - after a gap of 30 years. Cargill is one of the two largest customers of industrial scale deforestation for soy production in Brazil and Bolivia, according to Mighty Earth 2017-report. Although Cargill and its customer McDonald's agreed to a moratorium on clearing the Brazilian Amazon for soy in 2006, Cargill continues to finance land-clearing operations deep in virgin forest, building silos and roads, then buying and shipping grain to the US, China, and Europe to feed chickens, pigs, and cows.
27.08.2019	In June 2019, Cargill, the largest privately-owned company in the United States, announced that they would "fall short" of their 2020 commitment to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. Cargill has continued to incentivise deforestation, and now stands poised to embrace the dawning of a Jair Bolsonaro-era free-for-all in Brazil's forests. In a report published by the American NGO "Mighty Earth" in July 2019, the environmental group lays out their arguments for why precisely Cargill has earned the new title of "Worst Company in the World". Indigenous peoples who depend on forests have had their land encroached upon by Cargill-linked soy plantations in Brazil. They have been forced off of their traditional lands and have experienced sharp increases in cancer, birth defects, miscarriages and other illnesses linked to pesticides and herbicides used to grow soy - often sprayed by planes directly overhead. McDonald's is probably Cargill's largest and most important customer. McDonald's restaurants are essentially storefronts for Cargill. Cargill not only provides chicken and beef to McDonald's, they prepare and freeze the burgers and McNuggets, which McDonald's simply reheats and serves. Burger King's practice of selling meat linked to Cargill and other forest destroyers has earned the fast food giant a 'zero' on the Union of Concerned Scientists deforestation scorecard. The Dutch company Ahold Delhaize operates 6,500 stores under 21 local brands in 11 countries. They have recently entered into a partnership with Cargill to provide Ahold Delhaize with store-branded beef, ground pork and prepared meats. The report underscores the importance of informed everyday customer decision making. The majority of Cargill products are implemented right at the beginning of the production chain. There's simply no telling whether the wheat found in bread or sweetener used in drinks trace back to the agriculture corporation. Here's what you can do: Buy organic - at best from your local organic farmers market association. Drink tap water and make your own lemonade or juice yourself. Boycott companies like Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelēz, McDonald's and Burger King until they stop buying from Cargill.
25.04.2019	Likely due to the Walmart influence on apparel manufacturing, Americans are throwing away 83 pounds of textiles, mostly old clothing, each year - four times as much as they did in the 1980. Today Walmart says it wants to reduce the amount of pollution involved in making some of the stuff it sells. In October 2005, the former Walmart CEO, Lee Scott, in a speech on "21st century leadership" has set three bold goals: 1) To be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy. 2) To create zero waste. 3) To sell products that sustain our resources and environment. So how's the biggest US retailer doing? Top 1 renewable energy: currently, 26 percent of Walmart's electricity globally is supplied by renewable energy. However US EPA reports, only 4% of the company's power comes from renewable sources. In the absence of green energy Walmart relies upon coal-fired electricity. Walmart's greenhouse gas emissions are growing, not shrinking. Between 2005 and 2014, its global climate change emissions grew from 18.9 to 21.9 million metric tons. Top 2 zero waste: in the United States Walmart diverted 82.4 percent of its waste in 2014 across stores and distribution centers. The company says it's on target to eliminate all landfill waste from U.S. Walmart by 2025. Although Walmart has pledged to create zero waste, Walmart and other retailers are selling lower quality goods than they used to. This is in large part thanks to Walmart, whose relentless drive to cut costs has pushed suppliers to make cheap goods that must be replaced more frequently. Top 3 greener products: Walmart's approach to product sustainability, the "Sustainability Index" wants to encourage suppliers to continuously improve the sourcing and manufacturing of their products and packaging. Walmart's sustainability campaign has helped improving its public image, enabling the company to grow bigger and faster. Ironically, even if Walmart does succeed in reducing the resources used to make a T-shirt or a television set, those gains will be more than outstripped by growth in the number of T-shirts and TVs we are consuming.
05.03.2019	In February, the US Department of Justice announced its formal go-ahead for the Bayer-Monsanto merger. Monsanto is now property of the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, and its name has ceased to exist. The name Monsanto has been synonymous with GMOs, glyphosate and seed patents, along with all the consequences these have on farmers. By choosing to acquire Monsanto, Bayer also gained a rather infamous reputation - and potential future liability - now cascading throughout its entire product line. With the purchase of Monsanto last year, weed killer Roundup becomes a brand owned by Bayer. As the active ingredient in Roundup and hundreds of other herbicides, glyphosate represents billions of dollars in annual revenues, and is prominently used by farmers as an aid in food production, by cities for keeping public parks and playgrounds weed free, and by homeowners who want a tidy lawn. But the chemical was deemed a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization's cancer experts in 2015 in a finding that has since triggered waves of liability lawsuits against Bayer-Monsanto. As their first action before court, Bayer filed to appeal in the case of Dewayne Johnson, who claimed repeated use of Roundup gave him the non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But Judge Suzanne Bolanos upheld the verdict while significantly slashing the punitive damages to reduce Johnson's total compensation from 289 to 78 million US. The next plaintiff Bayer faces is Edwin Hardeman, in a trial with U.S. District Judge Vince Chaabria in San Francisco, which began February 25. Hardeman's is the leading case in a multi-district litigation of hundreds of similar cases which are legally linked, but will be heard separately. Bayer is confronted with a total of more than 9,300 lawsuits in the United States. Glyphosate is under particular scrutiny in Europe. In France, authorities in January banned a form of the herbicide, Roundup Pro 360. In Germany, from 2020, farmers will be required to set aside 10 percent of their farmland to protect biological diversity if they want to use glyphosate and similar herbicides, the government announced last autumn.
18.01.2019	Starbucks has a very big problem with disposable cups. The coffee chain serves more than 4 billion to-go cups annually but most of them end up in the landfill. Why? The cups themselves are made from high-quality paper that could be recycled several times, but the 100% oil-based polyethylene plastic linings clog the recycling machines and are not compostable. Many discarded cups and waste from the cup-manufacturing process end up in China, but they're not recycled there, either they just get landfilled. Back in 2008, Starbucks pledged to make a 100% recyclable paper cup and sell 25% of drinks in reusable cups by 2015. To date, Starbucks has failed to produce a 100% recyclable paper cup, and currently serves only 1.4% of drinks in reusable cups. Starting in 2018 - the world's largest coffee chain is testing recyclable coffee cups in UK stores. The new cups are made of 100% recycled, chemical-free paper and lined with a plastic film that can easily be removed by standard recycling facilities. It seems counterintuitive that Starbucks is clumsy in its adoption of more sustainable practices, given its vast access to capital for research and development. But creating a sustainable disposable cup is much harder than most people think. With operations in 75 countries, Starbucks faces a patchwork of recycling infrastructure and market conditions. Despite knowing its environmental impact, Starbucks has pledged to dramatically expand its presence in Asia in 2018 - with no plan to address its plastic waste. Starbucks cups, lids, and iconic green straws make up a visible portion of the catastrophic plastic pollution in our oceans. Tell Starbucks to avoid single-use plastic. Bring Your Own Tumbler - Starbucks rewards the use of your own mug with a discount on coffee!
21.10.2018	Mondelēz International, the company behind Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, continues to source palm oil linked to deforestation in Indonesia, according to a Greenpeace report. This happens despite the U.S. food giant's series of commitments and policies to sourcing sustainable palm oil, a commodity found in items ranging from ice cream and laundry detergent to cosmetics and biofuels. The investigation by Greenpeace International found that between 2015 and 2017, 22 of Mondelēz's palm oil suppliers cleared more than 700 square kilometers of rainforest, a large part of it constituted the habitat of critically endangered orangutans. Half of the Bornean orangutan population has been wiped out in just 16 years, with habitat destruction by the palm oil industry a leading driver. In 2014 Mondelēz adopted a "no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation" (NDPE) policy, restricting the company to sourcing palm oil that does not involve deforestation, loss of peatland, child labor or violation of human rights. Mondelēz's supply chain still relies on Wilmar International, the world's largest refiner and trader of palm oil. Wilmar International totally failed to break its links to rainforest destruction. Following an intensive global campaign by Greenpeace to end to deforestation for palm oil, Wilmar International, has published a detailed action plan on 10 December 2018 to map and monitor all of its suppliers. If implemented, this would put the palm oil giant, which supplies 40 % of the world's palm oil, one step closer to finally eliminating deforestation from its supply chain and would have a major impact on the rest of the industry. Over a 1.3 million people have signed our petition asking Oreo to stop buying palm oil from forest destroyers. Join them!
21.10.2018	The world's biggest packaged food company, Nestlé, said it would focus on eliminating non-recyclable plastics, encourage the use of plastics that allow better recycling rates and eliminate or change complex combinations of packaging materials. According to Greenpeace, the announcement of Nestlé is greenwashing because the multinational company is missing out on giving clear quantitative targets on the reduction of plastic waste. Greenpeace teaming up with various local organizations assessed how large corporations and brands contribute to plastic pollution in the oceans: a global initiative comprising 239 plastic cleanups in 42 countries found that five corporations - Nestlé, Tim Hortons, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company and McDonald's - accounted for 46 per cent of branded plastic trash collected in the cleanups. Coca-Cola was assessed to be the worst plastic polluter worldwide as well as within North America, where it was followed by PepsiCo and Nestlé, in that order. Developing countries, such as the Philippines, run on a 'sachet economy', which encourages people of buying short-lived consumer goods in small quantities. This drives market and profit share for most companies by making it more accessible to people with limited incomes. But the low-value single-use plastic sachets are not collected by waste pickers and usually are scattered around as litter in the streets and end up as marine debris. The Philippines is the third biggest source of plastic ocean pollution because global corporations are selling cheap, disposable plastics, rather than finding solutions to the plastic problem. Recycling does not solve the problem of plastic pollution, because the recyclability of a product does not necessarily reduce the likelihood of it being thrown away. The only way to curb plastic pollution is by stopping corporations from producing single-use plastics in the first place.
25.08.2018	Multinational food and drinks giant Nestlé was suspended from the world's largest association for ethical palm oil production, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for being in breach of the RSPO's statutes and code of conduct. Nestlé can no longer use the RSPO's stamp of approval to claim its products are sustainable. Nestlé has not submitted an annual progress report for 2016, and, for 2017, it submitted the annual progress report without a time-bound plan. Its membership payment is also overdue. While the behaviour of Nestlé is annoying, it is also true that RSPO lacks ambition on protecting the most important rainforests. Greenpeace has raised at least five cases of RSPO members destroying rainforest with the RSPO in the past year. The RSPO has not taken any action against them. So, RSPO seems to care more about profit with certified palm oil than protecting forests. Greenpeace International investigation revealed that RSPO board member Wilmar International is still linked to forest destruction for palm oil almost five years after making a no-deforestation commitment. A one-off action to suspend to Nestlé for failing to report cannot be taken too seriously when the RSPO, at the same time, allows Indofood to continue selling certified so-called "sustainable" palm oil produced by children, unpaid women, and exploited workers. Indofood also ignores the RSPO's guidelines on protecting precious orangutan habitat and is guilty of logging on carbon-rich peat land, intensifying climate chaos. Ultimately, Nestlé is part of this game, too. The snack food giant profits from lucrative joint venture partnerships with Indofood by co-branding products in the South Asian market. And cheating on their own palm oil commitments. Tell the RSPO to suspend Nestlé reckless palm oil business partner Indofood, too! And you can do more to build up pressure against Nestlé and co: join our Nestlé Boycott. Please also sign the petition from Greenpeace US calling on big companies to stop using palm oil from rainforest destroyers!
18.05.2018	McDonald's Happy Meal is about to get a makeover. The fast-food chain announced new nutrition standards for its kids' meals and upcoming menu swaps designed to make options for children healthier. By June 2018, all its U.S. Happy Meals will contain less than 600 calories - and most will contain less than 650 milligrams of salt. The chain is shrinking the size of the fries that come with kids' Chicken McNuggets and reformulating its chocolate milk to make it less sugary. Aside from the fact, that a 600-calorie meal is still excessive for some young and less active children, pimping the Happy Meal with some healthy options does not change the cruelty happening to the chickens that are raised and killed for this meal. Chickens raised for McDonald's grow so large so fast that many endure injuries including broken legs, which buckle under the enormous weight of their own bodies. Major fast-food companies like Subway and Burger King have signed on to major reforms in their supply chain. These comprehensive changes include breeds of chicken who will suffer less as they grow, more space for each animal, and better housing conditions. Despite nearly 100 major companies signing on to this pledge, there has been one standout who has resisted change: McDonald's. McDonald's has misled their customers by putting out a policy that mimics the tone and style of the real pledge, but omits the most meaningful reforms. The Humane League and other animal rights groups like Animal Equality, Compassion in World Farming, Compassion Over Killing, Mercy For Animals, and World Animal Protection are asking for McDonald's to commit to welfare reforms for the chickens in its supply chain. For more background and live updates about the campaign, follow on social media with the hashtag #imnotlovinit, visit ImNotLovinIt.com and let McDonald's know that you won't be fooled by their weak chicken welfare policy.
18.04.2018	Coca-Cola Company funds the Global Energy Balance Network, a front group aimed at diverting attention away from evidence showing sugary drinks is a major contributor to obesity and diabetes. Last year, Coca-Cola made a 1.5 million USD donation to two universities where the leaders of the new front group are employed. Since 2008, the company has also funded projects led by two of the group's founding members, with 4 million USD. Taking a cue from tobacco companies, Coca-Cola is supporting scientists who help them deny the role sugary drinks play in causing obesity. A study based on documents of the consumer and public health group U.S. Right to Know reveals that Coca-Cola funded and supported the GEBN to go to war with the public health community over obesity and who is responsible for it. Even though Coca-Cola has tried to buy scientific weight for its claims that exercise is more important for combating obesity than diet. The scientific consensus actually runs the other way. Because sugary drinks increase the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, tooth decay and liver disease, independent of the calories they contribute to the diet. They alter the body's metabolism, affecting insulin, cholesterol and metabolites that cause high blood pressure. Research definitely shows exercise is largely ineffective for producing any significant amount of weight loss on its own. If you want any chance of weight reduction, you have to cut calories as well.
15.02.2018	Following news from beginning of February, that Guatemalan palm oil company REPSA had been charged in a high profile case of corruption, and pressure from Friends of the Earth and allies, Nestlé has quietly announced that it will phase out its purchasing of palm oil from REPSA. Since 2015, REPSA has been linked to a massive spill of palm oil effluent into Guatemala's Pasion River and to the killing of indigenous community leader Rigoberto Lima Choc. Earlier this year, news broke that several REPSA executives were subject to arrest orders in a high-profile tax fraud investigation in Guatemala. Nestlé's decision follows other companies', including Cargill and Wilmar International, who severed ties with REPSA late in 2017 after a two-year campaign by Friends of the Earth in the U.S. and Guatemala. This is not the first time Nestlé deals with companies that have poor human rights records. In August 2015, the multinational faced a class-action lawsuit by U.S. customers who claimed Nestlé's Fancy Feast cat food was the product of slave labor. Later, the company launched its own investigation and admitted to the charge.
15.01.2018	McDonald's uses millions of plastic straws every single day. Used for just a few seconds, then thrown away, many end up polluting our oceans. If we can get McDonald's to ditch its dirty habit we can stop millions of plastic straws clogging up our oceans and killing the animals that live in them. A total of 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our seas every year -- that's the equivalent to five shopping bags of waste on every foot of coastline in the world! As a result it's estimated that every year a million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals -- such as sea turtles -- die. Plastic doesn't degrade, but is broken up into ever smaller pieces. So if that straw isn't swallowed whole by a large bird or turtle, the bits it breaks into can be eaten by fish or fed to chicks starving to death with stomachs full of plastic. If nothing changes, there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. Take action now, tell McDonald's to stop using plastic straws that pollute our oceans!
21.12.2017	Starbucks is one of the largest purchasers of milk in the US, purchasing over 140 million gallons of milk each year. This volume of milk is expected to grow as the company plans to add 1 store every 6 hours over the next five years. Multiple environmental and food organizations have appealed to Starbuck CEO Howard Schultz to switch to organic milk. Singer/songwriter Neil Young announced that he's boycotting Starbucks over the coffee monolith's alleged involvement in a lawsuit in Vermont regarding the labeling of genetically modified (GMO) ingredients. "There's much more at stake here than just whether GMO foods will be labeled in a single U.S. state. Vermont is the very first state in the U.S. to require labeling," he said. "Dozens of other states have said that they will follow this path - in order to encourage this, we need to ensure that Vermont's law stands strong." Starbucks wants you to think the company is on your side when it comes to GMO labeling laws. But as long as Starbucks is a dues-paying member of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which is party to a lawsuit against the state of Vermont intended to overturn Vermont's GMO labeling law, the coffee peddler's profits are being used to defeat your right to know. Tell Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: Stop Supporting Efforts to Kill GMO Labeling Laws. Quit the GMA!
13.07.2017	Nestlé holds about 50% of the world's breast milk substitute market and is being boycotted for continued breaches of the 1981 WHO Code regulating the marketing of breast milk substitutes. The first commercial infant formula came about in the mid-19th century. Formula ingredients started simple, containing only cow's milk, wheat, malt flour, and potassium bicarbonate. Two hundred years later, companies are now adding engineered nanoparticles to baby formula. Environment group Friends of the Earth (FoE) wants three brands of formula taken off shop shelves after tests showed they contained microscopic nano-hydroxyapatite particles. Nano-hydroxyapatite particles which have been found to damage cells in rat's livers and kidneys. The affected baby formula brands are: Nestlé NAN H.A. Gold 1, Nature's Way Kids Smart 1 and Heinz Nurture Original 1. FoE said the Nestlé NAN H.A. Gold 1 and Nature's Way Kids Smart 1 samples contained a needle-like form of hydroxyapatite, which the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety has said is potentially toxic and should not be used in oral products such as toothpaste and mouthwash. Children's immune, central nervous, reproductive and digestive systems are still developing, and at certain early stages of development, exposure to toxicants can lead to irreversible damage which can increase risk of disease later in life. The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration states that nano-scale titanium dioxide, which were found in baby formula samples, is a potential occupational carcinogen. Baby formula should be the last place for companies to experiment with new food technologies that haven't been proven safe. Potential health effects of nanoparticles found in baby formula. Nestlé Boycott continues!
22.06.2017	McDonald's and the International Olympics Committee (IOC) are ending their long-running sponsorship deal three years early. The partnership has been met with broad and sustained public resistance at each successive Olympics game since 2012. Food campaigners have attacked the role of McDonald's as sponsors of the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 because the fast food sponsor is abusing the sporting event to promote unhealthy high-fat and sugar products. McDonald's has been subject to mounting opposition for its aggressive and exploitative marketing to children, whether it's in schools, hospitals, or indeed sports organizations. McDonald's marketing practices are not only harmful, but have also become a reputational and business liability for the world's leading junk food brand. For far too long, the fast food giant has profited richly from its sponsorship of the Olympics, in spite of the blatant contradiction between the junk food that McDonald's peddles and the healthy lifestyle -- including diet -- that Olympic athletes must adhere to. Other sports associations, such as FIFA and the NFL, would do well to follow suit and protect the health of millions of children by cutting ties with McDonald's.
28.05.2017	The European Union is expected to decide soon whether to license glyphosate weedkiller for 15 more years, despite cancer-warnings from the UN's International Agency for Research on Cancer. However on 24 May the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) dismissed a study linking Monsanto glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup to cancer after counsel from former US Environmental Protection Agency officer Jess Rowlands. Jess Rowlands, the former head of the EPA's cancer assessment review committee (CARC), who figures in more than 20 lawsuits, had previously told Monsanto he would try to block a US government inquiry into the issue, according to court documents. Efsa adopted an argument Rowlands had used to reject a key 2001 study which found a causal link between exposure to glyphosate and increased tumour incidence in mice. More than 600,000 Europeans have already signed the Stop Glyphosate ECI launched in February 2017. But the ECI has to be backed by at least one million EU citizens, coming from at least 7 out of the 28 member states. To support a European Citizens' Initiative, you must be an EU citizen (national of an EU member state) and be old enough to vote in European Parliament elections (18 except Austria where the voting age is 16). Please sign the European Citizens Initiative calling for a ban on glyphosate, a trustworthy pesticide approval procedure, and EU-wide targets to cut pesticide use.
29.03.2017	Monsanto started to sell its Xtend cotton and soybeans seeds, which are genetically engineered to resist dicamba and Roundup (aka glyphosate) several growing seasons before getting federal approval for the corresponding herbicide. Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton was introduced in 2015 and Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans was introduced in 2016. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only approved the corresponding herbicide, XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology, in late 2016. The inevitable result was farmers throughout the country used illegal and dangerous herbicides to try to protect the Xtend seeds. Now, farmers across 10 states are suing Monsanto, alleging that the agrochemical company sold Xtend cotton and soybean crops knowing that growers had no other choice than illegally spraying older versions of dicamba onto their crops and by this inadvertently damaging nearby non-target crops due to drift. Since June 22 last year, Missouri state's Department of Agriculture has received 124 complaints over pesticide drift that damaged more than 41,000 acres of non-target crops such as soybeans as well as peaches, tomatoes, watermelons, etc. Monsanto has a long criminal record of poisoning farmers, consumers, communities and the environment for profit, and then using the government, regulatory agencies or the military to defend themselves, claiming that what they did was authorized or legal.
17.01.2017	Almost everything you eat could be controlled by a single mega-corporation, if Bayer gets its way and buys Monsanto. The new mega-corporation would control 29 percent of the world's seed market and 28 percent of the global pesticide market. Bayer has been subject to criticism over its widely used insecticide, imidacloprid, which belongs to a controversial class of chemicals called neonicotinoids that's linked to widespread deaths of pollinators. That's why Bayer is often named bee-killer. Bayer is also active in the business of genetically modified (GMO) crops. In 2006, the Washington Post reported that Bayer's GMO rice, LLRICE 601 rice, endowed with bacterial DNA that makes rice plants resistant to a weed killer, was spreading out of control. U.S. commercial supplies of long-grain rice had become inadvertently contaminated with the rice not approved for human consumption. The following year, Bayer admitted it was unable to control the spread of its GMO rice despite "the best practices to stop contamination". But a Bayer-Monsanto merger is not inevitable. The merger faces antitrust reviews by agencies in the U.S., Europe and China, including by the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission and stockholders of the publicly traded companies. Sign the petition to stop the Monsanto-Bayer mega merger.
15.12.2016	In recent years, Walmart has done much to mitigate its image as a big box bad guy. Part of Walmart's public image makeover has been to cast itself as a politically moderate company that donates as much to Democrats as to Republicans. But even in the 2010 elections, the company and the founding Walton family still disproportionately supported right-wing candidates and Democrats with more right-wing positions. A majority of Walmart customers and employees are middle-income or low-income, but through its donations and lobbying efforts the company consistently works against the interest of these groups. For example, Walmart lobbied aggressively to defeat measures for expanded early childhood education and healthcare for the uninsured in California. Although Walmart has long supported past Republican nominees and conventions, this year is different. Donald Trump is different. His values and offensive statements are beyond the pale. Until now, Walmart did not withdraw their financial support for Trump's electional campaign and the Republican Convention. Join us in asking Walmart to denounce Mr. Trump's intolerance and narrow-minded statements by refusing to give money to the 2016 Republican Convention. Tell Walmart to Denounce Trump.
22.11.2016	Despite years of public outcry, Burger King has failed to commit to a deforestation policy that protects tropical forests. These forests are destroyed to plant more soy and palm that ends up in Burger King's supply chain. Burger King promised to review its rainforest policy back in 2010, but has instead spent the last six years contributing to the destruction of tropical forests, adding to global warming emissions and decimating the habitats of already-threatened species. In 2015, Burger King scored a woeful 10/100 on the palm oil scorecard issued by the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS). "Consumer pressure is needed to protect tropical forests from deforestation due to irresponsible beef production," said Asha Sharma, a UCS researcher and lead author of the report. Sustainable beef production should become the industry norm, which is why UCS is urging the public to demand these companies take deforestation-risk beef off their ingredient lists. This means global brands should work with their supplying meatpackers to create a new industry standard of deforestation-free beef. Urge Burger King's parent company RBI to implement a No Deforestation policy to protect tropical forests from further destruction.
26.10.2016	Of the 200 countries where Coca-Cola is sold, India reportedly has the fastest-growing market, but the adverse environmental impacts of its operations there have subjected the parent company and its local bottlers to a firestorm of criticism and protest. There has been a growing outcry against Coca-Cola's production practices in India, which are draining out vast amounts of public groundwater and turning farming communities into virtual deserts. Now Coca-Cola's second largest bottling plant Hapur in India, 60 km distant from New Delhi had to shut production due to pollution violations, as reported by The Economic Times on August 11, 2016. A number of inspections by government regulators, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), have found the plant to be flouting environmental laws in India, and also operating without valid licenses, or No Objection Certificate (NOC). Coca-Cola's plant in Hapur was categorized as a highly polluting unit that generates hazardous waste. The report notes that all the drums meant to store hazardous waste were in "rusted condition" and "even the bottoms of some of these drums have been detached due to corrosion." Already in 2003, CPCB found high levels of toxic heavy metals (lead, cadmium, chromium) in most of the waste tested from Coca-Cola bottling plants.
10.09.2016	The maker of Pokemon Go, Niantic, Inc., is offering paid sponsorships to corporations that want to lure players to their stores. Through buying "lures," an in-app feature that attracts Pokemon to a specific location, restaurants and other small business take advantage of the smartphone game to get new customers. Already now, every McDonald's in Japan is a Pokemon Go hot spot. The burger chain has roughly 3,000 locations in Japan, which have turned into "gyms," geotagged real-life locations where players can battle each other's Pokemon. When children arrive at the store, they are enticed to buy Happy Meals with Pokemon Go toys inside. It's ironic that Pokemon Go's ability to get gamers off the couch and under the sun will now lead them straight to a McDonald's, where they get junk food with high levels of fat, salt and sugar. Children are especially vulnerable to marketing tactics that blur the line between reality and fantasy. It is unacceptable to use a virtual game to physically get children in the door to sell them junk food. And it's wrong to use a child's gameplay to serve targeted ads. All Pokemon Go players are required to provide their birthdate at sign-up. That means Niantic could easily identify and protect its young players. Call on Niantic to protect kids' health right now.
03.09.2016	LiDL is one out of nine supermarket giants in the UK, and also a leading supermarket in other countries. But when it comes to responsibility on banana and pineapple plantations, LiDL has to play fair. Earlier this year, LiDL announced it was taking steps to buy all its bananas from 100% sustainable sources. But the reality for farmers and workers looks very different: Plantation workers and their families are exposed to toxic pesticides. They suffer from respiratory symptoms, sickness and dizziness. The low income of small-scale farmers and low wages of plantation workers mean their families often can't cover basic household costs. Plantation workers are often discriminated against or even fired for joining a trade union. Although many bananas and pineapples sold by LiDL are certified by the Rainforest Alliance, the europe-wide campaign Make Fruit Fair does not believe that this voluntary certification scheme guaranteed fair prices, living wages, safe workplaces or union rights. The price LiDL pays for tropical fruit does not cover the real costs of production. Call on LIDL below to Play Fair!
22.07.2016	Nearly all food labels in Vermont are now required to disclose when products include genetically engineered ingredients. The requirement became July effective 1st. The rule is the first of its kind in the United States, and although it applies only within the tiny state, its impact is nationwide. Campbell Soup was the first big company to say it would label all of its products, and General Mills, ConAgra, Mars and Kellogg's followed. The labeling issue has generated heavy and frantic lobbying by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the trade groups representing major commodity producers of crops like soy and corn, who have wanted a federal law that would prevent mandatory labels. One of them is Unilever, who spent 467,100 USD against ballot measure Proposition 37, the referendum to mandate GMO labeling in California that failed in 2012. Unilever says state labeling laws are costly and complex, echoing food-industry lobbyists who call GMO labeling a fad that violates free speech. The ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry's supported the GMO labeling law of Vermont against the world's biggest food companies, including its own corporate parent - Unilever. Ben & Jerry's has never shied away from speaking out on social issues, and Unilever, since acquiring the company in 2000, has not interfered. Since 1985, Ben & Jerry's has donated a portion of its profits to community projects across the U.S. That's why Ben & Jerry's is not included in our Unilever boycott product list.
30.06.2016	The proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) threatens to undermine stricter tar sands regulation in Canada and stronger climate policies in Europe. The deal could pave the way for increased tar sands oil imports into Europe and give dramatic new powers to Europe's multinational oil companies. It could trample over Indigenous rights and undermine a range of social and environmental legislation on both sides of the Atlantic. CETA contains a 'stealth clause' that would allow large parts of it to enter into force without having ever been agreed upon in any parliament - including the much-loathed 'investor state dispute settlement'(ISDS) which allows corporations to sue governments in secret courts run by corporate lawyers. Canadian corporations, mining and fossil fuel corporations in particular, are aggressive users of ISDS mechanisms, with numerous legal actions under way under various free trade agreements with Colombia, El Salvador, Romania and even the USA - which is being sued for 15 billion USD for turning down the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Canada's tar sands constitute the second largest oil reserves in the world. At present, the EU Fuel Quality Directive is keeping tar sand oil out of Europe. Canada's oil industry plans a drastic increase of tar sand export to Europe by 2020. The impact on the climate would be significant, as tar sand oil releases 23 percent more greenhouse gases than conventionally extracted oil. Please call on the German government not to ratify the agreement. Ask Members of the European Parliament:Do the CETA Check.
12.05.2016	The World Health Organization's declaration that the herbicide glyphosate is a "probable human carcinogen" in spring 2015 set off a wave of panic among not just Monsanto but also government agencies. The controversial chemical is widely used, especially in the United States and in Monsanto's Roundup product, and there's an awful lot of money tied up in it by our agricultural system. For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world's food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup. Monsanto's GMO seeds are harmful to the environment; for example, scientists have indicated they have caused colony collapse among the world's bee population. March Against Monsanto has announced that on May 21, 2016, tens of thousands of activists around the world will "March Against Monsanto." Currently, marches are being planned on six continents, in 36 countries, totaling events in over 250 cities. In the US, events are slated to occur simultaneously at 11 a.m. Pacific Time in 47 states. Find here a city close to you. More information on Eaction Facebook.
11.04.2016	Montreal, Canada -- This city is gearing up for a fight against one of the most tasteless beverages money can buy. Montreal's mayor wants to fully ban plastic-bottled water -- potentially making this the first metropolis to do so. Very few cities in the world have banned plastic water bottles. Concord, Massachusetts, legislated a ban in 2013 -- now water there is sold in paper cartons. More recently, San Francisco and Hamburg, Germany, barred the sale of plastic water bottles -- but only in city buildings. If Montreal passes the bill, the city with a population of 1.5 million will be the biggest urban district to ban plastic bottles entirely. The Canadian Beverage Association, representing 60 brands including Nestlé, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, signed on to Quebec's registry of lobbyists. In a document submitted to the lobby registry on March 8, the association wrote that bottles are safe and convenient for consumers, and that banning them would restrict their right to choose. The association argues that bottles are 100 percent recyclable through Quebec. But even so, each year, over 700 million plastic bottles end up in Quebec landfills. Advocates agree the ban is a good idea, in light of the fact that by 2050, plastic garbage in the ocean will outweigh the fish. It will probably be a few years before the ban goes fully into effect.
03.04.2016	Monsanto wants you to think their products are helping farmers, but what they're doing is creating a system where their expensive, engineered seeds are increasingly the only option. Monsanto's greatest recent offense is the bill that would block states from labeling genetically modified food (GMO), the DARK (Denying Americans the Right to Know) Act. "The DARK Act is profoundly undemocratic as it robs citizens of their right to vote for labeling of genetically engineered food," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director at Center for Food Safety. The bill would have been effective on July 1st and would have undermined individual State efforts to label genetically engineered products by establishing a voluntary labeling standard that would override state-level mandatory labeling regulations. Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut have passed laws in support of GMO labeling, and Vermont's law is set to go into effect this July. A mandatory federal labelling standard bill was recently introduced by Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley and is still pending in the Senate. Major food companies like Campbells, General Mills, Mars and Kelloggs have announced that they will label GMOs to comply with Vermont's labeling law. We beat the DARK Act in a key Senate vote last month, but it's not over yet. Make sure your Senators know where you stand: Sign the petition to stop Monsanto's DARK Act!
24.03.2016	Since 1990, Indonesia has lost 31 million hectares of forest, a figure almost equal to the size of Germany. Greenpeace surveyed 14 multinational companies, and found that none could confidently claim that no Indonesian rainforest was destroyed in the making of their products. The 14 companies reviewed by Greenpeace in this report are: Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Ikea, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Mars, Mondelez, Nestle, Orkla, PepsiCo, P&G and Unilever. According to the report, titled "Cutting deforestation out of the palm oil supply chain", most companies could not say how much came from suppliers that comply with their own environmental standards. Ferrero, the Italian manufacturer of Ferrero Rocher and Nutella, is the only brand surveyed that can trace nearly 100% of its palm oil back to the plantation it is grown on, while the world's largest food company Nestlé is the only other firm to be rated as "Strong" on its palm oil policies. PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive were among the worst performing companies in the report, placed in the lowest "failed promises" category. Greenpeace is calling on these consumer goods companies to take immediate action to protect forests and help to prevent another outbreak of fires like those that devastated Indonesia in 2015. Sign the Petition. Donwload the Palm Oil Scorecard here.
24.02.2016	Monsanto has been on the defensive since last year's announcement from the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that its best-selling weed killer glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans." Monsanto took legal action in California to halt the state from adding glyphosate to a list of cancer-causing chemicals, under a law known as Proposition 65. Monsanto argues that listing glyphosate essentially outsources regulation to an "unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable, and foreign body", the World Health Organization. However, Prop. 65, which was passed as a ballot initiative in 1986, looks to scientific research, not federal regulators, when deciding what to include on the list. Generally speaking, the lead agency in California takes the position that if IARC has listed a chemical as a human carcinogen, it has to be added to the Prop. 65 list. We demand a complete ban of Monsanto's glyphosate!
20.02.2016	The supermarkets you and I shop at are some of the most wasteful businesses around. Every day they throw away tons of good food, and cause plastics by the truckload to end up in our oceans where turtles and whales pay the ultimate price. Lidl is one of the largest supermarkets in the world, and it has the power to get producers of food, clothing, and even electronics to take responsibility for the impact they're having on our planet. We know that once Lidl moves, its competitors will have to follow -- but we need you to take action first so Lidl knows you find this important. Sign the petition to Lidl - Cut the crap and drop wasteful products!
13.01.2016	Kids in the U.S. and globally are bombarded by junk food marketing in every possible venue -- online, on TV, even in schools -- and often from infancy. Majority of kids go to McDonald's for the toys that come with happy meals. If you look at a toy from McDonald's, you will find on the bag warning labels on it which states MADE IN CHINA. Indeed, the people that made the toys are child laborers. Without these poor children, kids would not be able to enjoy many of the toys that come with the burger and fries. In one McDonald's plant, illegally employed children work from 7am until up to midnight for 24 Yuan a day. Worldwide children are enjoying and playing with toys at the expense of those who made them. Tell McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook to stop marketing McDonald's junk food to children.
02.01.2016	2015 is set to be the warmest year on record. People around the world are suffering deadly floods, bitter droughts, and raging forest fires like never before. One thing is clear: We desperately need to take action against climate change. But in the struggle for our planet's future we are facing powerful opponents: Big polluters like ExxonMobil and Shell are lobbying hard behind closed doors to ensure that politicians will allow them to carry on business as usual, no matter what the consequences are. Years of public pressure has pushed corporations like Nestlé and Unilever to publicly support climate action. But even these companies are still part of the problem, funding lobby groups to work in the shadows for them on dodgy deals like TTIP. The more people know about their agenda, the more we can force corporations like Unilever to stop supporting TTIP. Watch the video and then please sign the petition to stop TTIP if you haven't already.
17.06.2015	149 467 642 people (about half the population of the EU) could be fed with the food wasted for one year in Europe. When each one of us chooses to take a personal step like buying ecological, local and seasonal food, or shopping at farmers markets, or eating less meat, in fact we are bringing together our individual actions in a way that can change markets and change politics. The growing people-powered food movement creates demand to scale up ecological farming with adequate funds and investments. We are in the best position to begin reclaiming our food and we can all do our share. Take the challenge today and grow the global food movement. Visit I know who grew it!
07.12.2014	Unilever filed a lawsuit against tiny startup Hampton Creek, whose vegan Just Mayo product is getting stocked by many of America’s top grocery chains, including Walmart and Costco. Unilever’s brands Hellmann and Best Foods brands have dominated America’s mayonnaise market for generations. At issue is a 1957 FDA decision specifying that products designated as "mayonnaise" must contain eggs. But nowhere on Just Mayo’s label or in its advertising does it call itself mayonnaise. On the contrary, it says right on the front of the label that the product is "Egg Free". Vegan mayo doubtless involves fewer liabilities in terms of food safety issues. Nor does a vegan mayo company risk having its egg suppliers exposed for horrific animal cruelties, as has happened to countless companies that base their products on battery eggs or milk products.
27.11.2014	Starbucks doesn't think you have the right to know what's in your coffee. So it's teamed up with Monsanto to sue the small U.S. state of Vermont to stop you from finding out. Hiding behind the shadowy "Grocery Manufacturers Association", Starbucks is supporting a lawsuit that's aiming to block a landmark law that requires genetically-modified ingredients be labeled. Amazingly, it claims that the law is an assault on corporations' right to free speech. Even a local Vermont company, Green Mountain Coffee, has joined in. Sign the petition to tell Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee to withdraw their support for the lawsuit against Vermont, and stop fighting accurate food labeling.
22.11.2013	In Great Britain Kraft Mac & Cheese was sold at Tesco with a GMO declaration label: "Made from genetically modified wheat. (May contains G.M.O.)." While the United States does not require the labeling of food products containing genetically engineered ingredients, food manufacturers in the European Union must do so, and many big companies reformulate their products using conventional crops to avoid the requirement. According to a spokeswoman, Kraft does not use genetically engineered wheat, since it is not commercially available. Even if Kraft is not using GMO wheat, the company works hand-in-hand with Monsanto to lace common foods with genetically modified ingredients, with absolutely no labeling nor safety-testing required. Let Kraft Foods know you're joining a boycott of their brands because you want to avoid GMOs!
09.10.2013	The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 to promote the use of sustainable palm oil through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. It is a voluntary association, consisting of palm oil producers, processors and traders, consumer goods manufacturers, but also environmental and social non-governmental organisations. A new Greenpeace report shows that RSPO certification is not protecting international household brands like Nestlé from the risk that the palm oil they use is tainted with rainforest deforestation. A large part of the fires that covered Southeast Asia in haze this June were in RSPO member concessions. Greenpeace report: Certifying Destruction (Pdf).
29.09.2013	A Monsanto Executive and the Founder of Syngenta are winning this year’s prestigious World Food Prize - for creating GMOs. Receiving it legitimizes the sort of rampant genetic modification Monsanto pioneered. Despite the criticism, Monsanto and Syngenta executives are set to receive their prize on World Food Day, October 16 - a slap in the face to everyone harmed by their products. We cannot allow this prize to legitimize frankenfoods and bee killers. If enough of us get word of this out, and let people know the World Food Prize is threatening its reputation, we can shame it into choosing a more suitable candidate. Sign the petition to The World Food Prize Organization.
12.09.2013	The new genetically engineered Arctic Apple® could be approved to enter the food supply in US as early as the end of 2013, and like other GMOs, it won’t be labeled and won’t have undergone independent safety testing. Baby food companies are one of the most significant purchasers of apples and Gerber is one of the world’s largest baby food companies. Send a clear message to Gerber: Keep GMO apples out of baby food.
02.07.2013	Monsanto has spent the past three decades wrecking our environment, poisoning our bodies, and pushing species of crops to the verge of extinction with a wide array of toxic products. And Monsanto's signature herbicide, Roundup, does all these things at once - but Monsanto has lied over and over and said that the product is perfectly safe. Demand Monsanto stop lying that Roundup is safe and start putting strict limits on the amount of Roundup it sells. Join the Virtual March Against Monsanto
26.06.2013	New aggressive baby milk marketing practices in the UK are a consequence of increased competition with Nestlé entering the UK market, where Danone is currently the largest company. Nestlé and Danone are respectively the world's biggest and second-biggest manufacturers of breastmilk substitutes. They have been engaged in an increasingly aggressive marketing war, particularly in Asia, since Danone purchased the NUMICO brand in 2007 (Nutricia, Milupa, Aptamil, Cow & Gate etc). This marketing war has now reached the UK following Nestlé's takeover of Pfizer Nutrition/Wyeth in 2012, manufacture of the SMA brand.
20.05.2013	Occupy Sydney calls for a Worldwide Boycott of Unilever. Unilever in Pakistan is continuously taking anti-worker measures and ignoring the law in order to increase exploitation of the workers and increase its rate of profit as much as possible. In the Unilever factory at Rahim Yar Khan (RYK), 300 workers were sacked after a peaceful protest of just one single day. More than 700 contract workers are currently working in Unilever RYK. They are not given legal leave. Exploitative practices like this are the attraction for transnationals who choose to locate their businesses in countries where laws or enforcement or both permit exploitation. Find here our guide to Boycott Unilever products.
12.08.2012	During the 2012 London Olympics criticism of the longstanding partnership between the Games and sponsor McDonald's has stolen a small portion of the limelight. McDonald's has been an official sponsor of the Olympics since 1976. The company recently had its contract extended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to 2020. The Academy of Royal Medical Colleges recently declared that sponsorship by the fast food giant sends the wrong message to people in the UK, which has the most overweight population in Europe with 22 percent of Britons now considered obese. McDonald's did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the quality of its food in relation to the dietary needs of adults and children, and criticism of its Olympics sponsorship.
03.08.2012	Sports drinks represents a lucrative and growing market, with US sales of about 1.6 billion USD a year. In fact, Powerade is the official sports drink of the London Olympics, and Coca-Cola is hyping its brand with a campaign featuring top-tier athletes. A recent series of reports from BMJ, a top ranked science journal, addresses two questions: Should people who exercise seek to proactively replace fluids lost, or can they rely on thirst to guide them during and after physical activity? And when they rehydrate, do they need all the salts, sugars, and other ingredients dumped into sports drinks, or is water fine? The correct answers are: best to rely on thirst, and water is fine. All that stuff about replacing electrolytes and so on you've been hearing all these years? Never mind! The evidence doesn't support it.
17.04.2012	This is where the war to protect our food supply begins. In just a few weeks, farmers will begin planting Monsanto’s largest genetically engineered (GE) corn crop in history marketed directly to consumers. This is not just any corn — it is genetically engineered to include Bt toxin, a pesticide that ruptures the stomach of the insects that eat it. Monsanto is relying on supermarkets to sell its product to American consumers — and the biggest of those is global megacorporation Wal-Mart selling 129 billion USD worth of food a year, giving it unmatched power in shaping the food supply chain. If Wal-Mart refuses to stock Monsanto’s GE sweet corn, other retailers will likely follow suit and farmers won’t feel the economic pressure to plant the biotech seeds. Sign the petition!
04.04.2012	Chiquita, Dole and Fresh Del Monte Produce are among the big players in the banana market who are beginning to make serious and concerted efforts to make their production systems more sustainable through the World Banana Forum. Chiquita now allows products to be certified for environmental and social standards. Chiquita has signed and largely upheld a global agreement with local and international food unions. Chiquita still struggles with their failures in the past: in 2003 Chiquita admitted to the Department of Justice that it had paid protection money to Colombian paramilitary forces surrounding its plantations. Now it is facing a raft of American and Colombian lawsuits. However today's problem are the big retailers who buy bananas directly from plantations bypassing the agreements of Chiquita.
19.01.2012	Starting in Fairtrade Fortnight (27 February – 11 March 2012), the Fairtrade Foundation is challenging the public to take a step in the right direction by thinking about what they can do in 2012 to make a difference to the lives of farmers in the developing world who produce the products we buy. Six out of ten consumers in the UK (59%) believe their own shopping choices can make a real difference to the lives of farmers and workers in poorer countries and four out of five (83%) say that they look to companies they deal with to help in reducing poverty through the way they do business. Learn more about the Fairtrade Fortnight!
20.11.2011	The Norwegian milk company TINE, owner of ice-cream manufacturer Diplom-Is in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, sold its Danish Ice Cream operations to Unilever in September 2010, incorporating 30 employees and five local distribution centres in Denmark. Unilever now plans to take over the rest of Diplom-Is from TINE. Unilever is the world's biggest buyer of palm oil with a yearly consumption of 1,3 billion tons and has been associated with rain forest destruction in the last years in Indonesia through their palm oil suppliers. One of them, Wilmar International, operating 600.000 hectars of palm oil plantations on Sumatra and Borneo, is well-known for illegal rain forest destruction and violation of human rights. Boycott Unilever!
24.06.2011	The growing rate of diet-related illness like diabetes and heart disease, especially among children is staggering. In an open letter by "Corporate Accountability International" more than 1700 health professionals and institutions in all 50 US states urging McDonald's to stop marketing junk food to children. Advertising is at the heart of McDonald's business model, with annual expenditures reaching 2 billion USD. Even when parents resist the "nag effect" cultivated by McDonald's to access the 40–50 billion USD in annual purchases that children under 12 control, advertising creates brand loyalties that persist into adulthood. Sign the letter if you are a health professional or not.
13.06.2011	Roundup, the world's best-selling herbicide produced by US company Monsanto causes birth defects, according to a new report released this week. Although the European Commission has known that glyphosate causes malformations in animal tests since at least 2002, the information was not made public. Glyphosate was originally due to be reviewed in 2012 but the Commission decided late last year not to bring the review forward, instead delaying it until 2015. The report " Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?" published by Earth Open Source, comes months after researchers found that genetically-modified crops used in conjunction with Roundup contain a pathogen that may cause animal miscarriages.
08.04.2011	"America’s Chocolate Company" Hershey chocolate needs to go Fair Trade. Hershey lags behind its competitors when it comes to issues of child and forced labor, as well as offering Fair Trade chocolate. Child and forced labor are significant problems in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana where Hershey’s sources much of its cocoa, including the trafficking of children from other countries onto cocoa farms where they labor under abusive conditions. Several major UK cocoa companies, including Cadbury and Green & Black’s, are going Fair Trade with some or all of their chocolate. No candy bar under the Hershey’s label is Fair Trade. Send a letter to Hershey and tell them to go Fair Trade. You can also take part in the "Raise the Bar, Hershey!" Brand Jamming contest which closes on April 10, 2011. This contest has three separate categories: mock tagline, mock ad (print),and mock commercial (video). Classic Hershey advertisements are ripe for mocking.
15.03.2011	Since 2009 international coffee-chain Starbucks sells Fairtrade coffee in the UK and Ireland, making it the world's biggest buyer of Fairtrade-certified coffee. But in the US it's another story. It took a boycott campaign of many years by the Organic Consumers' Association (OCA) to shame Starbucks into promising to brew a Fairtrade coffee in any of its stores. And the OCA continues to criticise the world's biggest coffee shop for dragging its feet on Fairtrade on that side of the Atlantic. Selling Fairtrade coffee in itself does not an ethical company make – Starbucks comes bottom of any Ethical Consumer's rating table and is known for its union busting practices, being supplier of Guantanamo Bay, and a trademark colonialist in Ethiopia. But there are alternatives: for example AMT Coffee - the first UK coffee shop to go 100% Fairtrade with its coffee, and offer 100% organic milk.
23.02.2011	India is at the centre of attention of consumer products multinationals such as Unilever, Nestlé, Procter&Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg's and Yum! Foods, who have all recently named the country a critical market at various investor meets as sales have stagnated in traditional markets like the US and Europe. India's annual per capita income crosses the inflection point of 1000 USD. India is now the second-fastest growing economy and has a huge middle-class population. Nestlé India, which makes Maggi instant noodles and KitKat chocolates, said it reached over 2.2 million Indian customers last year. Yum! Brands Inc, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurant chains, expects profits from India to reach 100 million USD by 2015. Procter&Gamble, the maker of Pantene shampoo, Tide detergent and Pampers diapers, is targeting one billion new customers by 2015, mostly from India and China. A P&G spokeswoman said: "The bigger picture here is that there are almost seven billion people in the world today and we reach only half of those. As we strive to serve the remainder of the world’s consumers, India becomes an important destination,".
06.01.2011	Sweetened soft drinks are the single largest contributor of calories to the American diet and consumers will benefit from health warnings on soda bottles and cans, according to an advocacy group, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), that is petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require new labeling messages. "A warning label would not solve the obesity problem, but it would be a simple, inexpensive way to remind consumers of key facts when they are considering buying a major cause of the problem," CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson said in a statement. In its petition, the CSPI laid out the key reasons for soft drinks' continued popularity: aside from ubiquitous advertising and availability, the industry has steadily increased container sizes, while keeping prices low. For instance, in the 1950s, Coca-Cola's 6.5-ounce glass bottle was the standard serving, which later grew into a 12-ounce can, then a 20-ounce plastic bottle, and finally, a gargantuan 64-ounce Double Gulp bucket sold at 7-Eleven stores.
22.12.2010	Monsanto's alfafa and sugar beets are spliced with manipulated foreign genes that allow them to withstand massive doses of Monsanto's RoundUp herbicide. Not only are these so-called "RoundUp Ready" crops dangerous for human consumption, but scientists are warning that the RoundUp itself "may have dire consequences for agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-productive, and plants less nutritious." The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has acted illegally when they approved genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets without first looking at their potential environmental impacts, like whether Monsanto's crops could permanently contaminate the supply of normal alfalfa and sugar beet seeds with their "Frankengenes". It's now time to urge USDA to not approve Monsanto's "RoundUp Ready" crops!
06.12.2010	Bananas are the most popular tropical fruit consumed in Europe. They are an essential source of income and employment for millions of households in the developing world. The majority of fresh pineapples sold on the world market are produced in Latin America, with 75% grown in Costa Rica. Yet just a handful of multinational fruit companies control 80% of the international banana and pineapples trade - Dole, Del Monte, Chiquita, Fyffes and Noboa. Workers producing bananas and pineapples for the shelves of European supermarkets often fail to earn a living wage, are sacked for joining unions and are exposed to hazardous working conditions. In response Banana Link, in partnership with Peuples Solidaires (France), BanaFair (Germany) and Spolecnost pro Fairtrade (Czech Republic), are campaigning to 'MAKE FRUIT FAIR'! Visit www.makefruitfair.org and promote this link through your social networks. Order campaign leaflets now available for distribution. Comprehensive activist guides and A2 posters will also be available in January 2011.
20.09.2010	European companies, including the UK retail giant Tesco, are facing criticism from a leading human rights organisation for allegedly exploiting weak labour laws in the United States and bullying employees to prevent them from joining unions. Human Rights Watch informed that Tesco's new mini-market chain in the US, Fresh & Easy, have created an anti-union atmosphere, and that employees who want to organise union activities live in fear for their jobs. When Tesco recruited an employee relations director for Fresh & Easy before launching the chain in 2007, the job advert listed "maintaining non-union status and union avoidance activities" among the responsibilities. T-Mobile and DHL of Germany and the French industrial giant Saint-Gobain are among the other multi-nationals criticised by Human Rights Watch.
10.09.2010	While profits were boosted by international sales, Wal-Mart reported lower than expected sales growth in U.S. stores. The company continues to have trouble expanding its customer base. Meanwhile Wal-Mart managers are increasingly using cost-cutting measures in an attempt to maintain profits, and Wal-Mart employes are paying the price. The effect of this slowing of sales has been poor returns for shareholders. Wal-Mart’s goal is to be a perpetual growth stock, but this downward spiral will only lead to more sluggish sales and poorer share price performance. Over the last 12 months Wal-Mart’s stock has underperformed the stocks of unionized grocers including Safeway and Kroger, demonstrating that unionization isn’t a problem for companies that have a healthy business model. Wal-Mart, as United States' largest employer, puts downward pressure on wages throughout the entire economy.
10.05.2010	Consumer and worker rights organisations are celebrating a historic victory after the giant German retailer LiDL agreed to withdraw public claims that its goods were being produced under fair and decent working conditions. The agreement was reached following a legal challenge, launched by the Consumer Agency Hamburg, which accused LiDL of engaging in false advertising. Garment workers at various LiDL supply factories in Bangladesh reported appalling working conditions, including excessive, underpaid or unclear pay of overtime, punitive payroll deductions, obstruction of trade union work and discrimination against female workers – all of which not only violates International Labour Standards set out by the International Labour Organisation, but also the so-called BSCI code of conduct, and Lidl’s own commitments.
20.04.2010	Great Britain's biggest retailer, Supermarket giant Tesco has rung up record annual profits yet again despite the economic downturn, and declared there is little danger of a double-dip recession in Britain. Tesco plans to create another 16,000 jobs this year, including 9,000 in the UK, as it continues to open new stores. Tesco, one of the most successful British companies of recent years, first smashed through the £1bn profit mark in 2001. The UK's biggest supermarkets are grappling for ever greater market share. Small independent stores and suppliers, and ultimately consumers, are paying a direct price in the face of unfair competition. In the five years to 2002, 50 specialist stores including butchers, bakers, fishmongers and newsagents closed every week.
29.03.2010	The new Greenpeace report, "Caught Red-Handed: How Nestlé Use of Palm Oil is Destroying Rainforests and the Climate" exposes how Nestlé is sourcing palm oil from suppliers, which continue to expand into virgin rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands, including habitat critical for endangered orangutans. Nestlé suppliers include the controversial Sinar Mas group, Indonesia’s largest producer of palm oil. Nestlé is using palm oil from destroyed Indonesian rainforests and peatlands in popular products like Nestlé Crunch, CoffeeMate, and PowerBar. Nestlé, the world’s leading food and drink company, is a major consumer of palm oil. In the last three years, its annual use has almost doubled, with 320,000 tons of palm oil going into a range of products, including some of its most popular brands. Send email: Give the orang-utan a break Watch The Video: Have a break? from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.
22.03.2010	Indian Resource Center reports that a High Power Committee established by the state government of Kerala in India has recommended today that Coca-Cola be held liable for USD 48 million for damages caused as a result of the company’s bottling operations in Plachimada. The Committee confirmed that the Coca-Cola company had violated a number of laws in its reckless operations, including: Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; The Environment (Protection) Act ,1986; The Factories Act, 1948; Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989; The SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989; Indian Penal Code; Land Utilization Order, 1967; The Kerala Ground Water (Control & Regulation) Act, 2002; Indian Easement Act, 1882.
23.01.2010	The empire of world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, spans 8,100 stores in 15 countries generating 401 billion USD (248 billion br. pounds) of revenue annually. With a market capitalisation of 210 billion USD, Wal-Mart is worth as much as the gross domestic product of Nigeria. The company's portfolio ranges from superstores in the US to neighbourhood markets in Brazil, bodegas in Mexico, the Asda supermarket chain in Britain and Japan's nationwide network of Seiyu shops. Its stores are emblazoned with an array of different names around the world – Maxibodega in Costa Rica, Todo Dia in Brazil, Despensa Familiar in Honduras and the awkward-sounding Best Price Modern Wholesale in India. Wal-Mart gets many of its products from low-cost Chinese suppliers. The pressure group China Labour Watch estimates that if it were a country, Wal-Mart would rank as China's seventh largest trading partner, just ahead of the UK, spending more than 18 billion USD annually on Chinese goods. More info from Wal-Mart's own Fact Sheets.
18.12.2009	In another major victory for the international campaign against Coca-Cola, colleges and universities in Norway have decided not to renew the exclusive contract with Coca-Cola. Students across Norway have been campaigning to significantly restrict Coca-Cola's contract on campuses because of the company's mismanagement of water resources in India. Students had argued that Coca-Cola's existing 90% market share on campuses made it difficult for students to exercise their right to buy ethical products on campus. Samskipnaden i Oslo (Foundation for Student Life in Oslo) made the decision not to renew Coca-Cola's exclusive contract and also restrict campus market share for new contracts to 80%, meeting both the student campaign demands. More info from India Resource Center.
29.09.2009	This year Nestlé-Free Week will take place from 26 October - 1 November. This special week is an opportunity to give the ongoing boycott a boost. The week encompasses Halloween, which Nestlé is increasingly trying to exploit in the UK. The ongoing boycott focuses on Nestlé's flagship product, Nescafé coffee. We list all products from which Nestlé profits, so if you don't normally avoid the whole lot, why not do so during this week? You may surprise yourself with how many alternative products are out there. If you find that your friends and colleagues say they would boycott, but.... then challenge them to do so at least for this week. You can find resources for promoting the boycott of Nestlé over its baby milk pushing in the Nestlé-Free Zone. You can sign up on facebook.
10.09.2009	Chocolade producer Cadbury has announced its commitment to achieving Fairtrade Certification for all "Cadbury Dairy Milk" chocolade sold in Australia and New Zealand by Easter 2010. This is truly groundbreaking news for the Fairtrade movement – it’s Cadbury's top selling chocolate bar and good news for cocoa growers in Ghana. Cadbury has committed to paying the producer organisations the internationally agreed Fairtrade minimum price (currently USD 1600 per tonne, or the market price, if higher than this), as well as additional the Fairtrade premium (currently an additional USD 150 per tonne of cocoa beans) to be used collectively for investment in business and community projects to improve life for the future. This move will initially increase Fairtrade cocoa sales for Kuapa Kokoo (a Fairtrade cooperative in Ghana representing almost 50,000 small-scale cocoa growers). Around 650,000 mainly small-scale cocoa growers in Ghana sell their crop individually to licensed buying companies. In the longer term, Fairtrade will be working with Cadbury and local organisations to help organise more groups of cocoa farmers into co-operatives and work with them to achieve Fairtrade certification.
08.07.2009	U.S. Supermarkets feed the growing appetite for seafood and ring up approximately 16 billion USD each year in seafood sales. Consumers buy half their seafood at supermarkets, but only few supermarkets take care about seafood sustainability. A negative example being Trader Joe's, a supermarket chain that operates in at least 23 U.S. states. While Trader Joe’s buys direct from producers and prepares meal with organic ingredients they have no place for responsible seafood policy. Greenpeace found that Trader Joe’s sells 15 of the 22 red list seafoods, among these Alaskan pollock, Atlantic cod, Chilean sea bass, and Orange Roughy, which are known to be overfished or close to extinction. Send a consumer protest e-card to Traitor Joe.
29.06.2009	Wal-Mart is trying to use the recession as an excuse to build stores in cities that have already rejected it. At the same time, it is spending millions to fight the Employee Free Choice Act—the one thing on the table that will prevent the company from taking advantage of its workers. Tell your state legislators to stand up to Wal-Mart and support the Employee Free Choice Act. Enter your address, click Participate, and speak out now. here.
07.06.2009	Put two dates in your diary and be there if you are against McDonalds for any reason! Protest against everything that's wrong with McDonald's - animal cruelty, exploitation of workers, damaging the planet, promoting unhealthy food, marketing to young children and much more. 1. McLibel Anniversary Protest on Sunday 21 June 2009. Meet 12 noon, McDonalds Rose Crescent Cambridge (Cambridge, UK). 2. 24th International Day of Action Against McDonalds on Friday 16 October 2009. Same date every year. Organized by the McLibel Support Campaign. In 1997 activists won the now famous McLibel victory after the company sued 2 campaigners for handing out leaflets about the company's controversial corporate practices. For a summary of the issues surrounding the McLibel Case see the European Court of Human Rights ruling here.
01.05.2009	On 21 June 2008 - as part of the anniversary of the now famous 1997 McLibel court case in which two campaigners were sued by the McDonalds Corporation for distributing a leaflet critical of the company - campaigners from Animal Rights Cambridge entered the McDonalds in Rose Crescent, Cambridge (UK). After being removed from the restaurant by police, one of the campaigners was then arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. The arrest got public attention with people making use of their cameras and coming up to take leaflets. The campaigners were calling on the people of Cambridge to boycott the restaurant chain. The court case has dragged on but it finally came to an end now: The activist was found 'not guilty' on 30 April 2009! This is a small victory for the animal rights movement that has been under increasing state repression lately.
25.03.2009	Supermarkets feed the growing appetite for seafood and ring up approximately $16 billion each year in seafood sales. Consumers buy half their seafood at supermarkets, yet few supermarkets meet this consumer demand with any regard for the marine environment. Collectively, supermarkets sell a massive amount of seafood and consequently can influence if the products they sell contribute to over-fishing, pirate fishing and destructive fish farming. Greenpeace needs your help monitoring supermarket seafood policies and practices. The sustainable seafood toolkit will provide you with what you need to survey your local supermarket and report to Greenpeace on whether they support healthy oceans. The information you gather will be used to update our supermarket scorecard and will let supermarkets know Greenpeace has its eye on them. Get the activist toolkit!
11.03.2009	Crucial decisions are pending at the European Union’s level regarding the cultivation of genetically modified crops, which will have significant consequences for the future of our food, our health and the environment. The European Commission had proposed to force Austria, Hungary, France and Greece to lift safeguard measures they put in effect against Monsanto maize MON 810, the only GM crop currently allowed for cultivation in the EU. The European Commission also proposes to approve the cultivation of two GM maize crops (Syngenta Bt11 and Pioneer 1507). This would be the first approvals of the cultivation of a genetically modified crop in Europe since 1998. Tell the Dutch Environment Minister Cramer, Agriculture Minister Verburg, and Health Minister Klink to vote against these proposals of the European Commission. Join in the cyber action!.
04.11.2008	Starbucks, TransFair USA and the Fairtrade Labelling Organiations International (FLO) today announced a groundbreaking initiative that builds upon the organizations' shared history of support for small-scale coffee farmers. Starbucks, one of the largest buyers of Fair Trade Certified coffee, will double its purchases to 40 million pounds in 2009, making the company the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified coffee in the world. "Starbucks announcement to double their Fair Trade commitment in 2009 shows tremendous leadership. This dramatic volume increase will have a far-reaching positive impact in coffee growing communities throughout the developing world - it will send kids to school, bring clean water to farming communities and enable struggling farmers to put food on the table," said Paul Rice, president and CEO of TransFair USA. read more.
19.10.2008	What's it really like to work at Wal-Mart? Read, watch or listen to the stories of the people who know Wal-Mart best - the company's own workers. A new web site launched by Wal Mart Watch While Wal-Mart employees struggle to "live better" on what Wal-Mart pays them, the Walton family's net worth has risen to more than $100 billion. Sam Walton's heirs, who own the controlling share of Wal-Mart, are four of the top 10 richest Americans. Wal-Mart spends millions of dollars on fancy TV ads and slick PR consultants to promote positive stories about the company. Average Americans are struggling amidst the current economic crisis - and that includes Wal-Mart workers. Check out for yourself!
30.07.2008	BOYCOTT INTERNATIONAL FOOD COMPANIES is now member of the WAL-MART WATCH WEB of Wal-Mart Watch. According to CCNMoney journal FORTUNE, Wal-Mart is the world's biggest company in 2007. The retail giant reclaimed the top spot on Fortune's Global 500 list, making it the largest company in the world for the fifth time in six years. Wal-Mart now employs 1.9 million people worldwide. The company’s treatment of its workers and "save money at all costs" mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions.
30.09.2008	British candy maker Cadbury recalled chocolate made in its Beijing (China) factory after it was found to contain melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened tens of thousands of Chinese children. Cadbury's chocolates sold in the United States were not affected, said a spokesman for Hershey's, Cadbury's sole U.S. distributor. Indonesia's Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said tests last week found melamine in a dozen products distributed nationwide, including M&Ms, Snickers bars and Oreo wafers. Meanwhile, Kraft Foods, the maker of Oreo cookies, and Mars, the maker of M&Ms and Snickers candy, questioned the findings of Indonesian tests that identified melamine in samples of their products made in China.
21.09.2008	Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and allies sent a letter to Kellogg's on June 12, requesting that Kellogg's not use sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets in its products or face a consumer boycott. The GE sugar beet is designed to withstand strong doses of Monsanto's controversial broad spectrum Roundup herbicide. Kellogg's has responded, claiming that US consumers do not care if their food contains Genetically Engineered (GE) food or not. However, poll after poll have demonstrated that Americans want GE foods labeled and restricted. Sign the OCA petition today!
12.08.2008	Earlier in August 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported about mandatory meetings at Wal-Mart where its employees were urged not to vote for pro-worker candidates like Senator Barack Obama in November. Not only is this behavior morally reprehensible, it's potentially illegal -- and now you can help hold Wal-Mart accountable. American Rights at Work has created a petition asking the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to investigate Wal-Mart's potential voter intimidation of its workers. Help us make sure there is a full investigation into Wal-Mart's actions. Together we can send a message that its workers' precious right to vote is none of Wal-Mart's business. sign the petition today!
27.06.2008	Through analysis of maps, satellite data, and on-the-ground investigations between February and April 2008, Greenpeace links the majority of the largest palm oil producers in Indonesia to Unilever, one of the world's biggest food and cosmetic companies. The environmental group takes Unilever to task for its apparent failure to live up to sustianability commitments set forth under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an industry push to improve the environmental performance of palm oil producers. Rampant expansion of palm oil plantations is the leading cause of rainforest destruction in Indonesia. Unilever, as the world’s biggest consumer of palm oil, is driving this expansion and as a result is fuelling rainforest destruction. For every 20 litres of palm oil produced in Indonesia, one litre ends up in Unilever’s hands. Keep on boycott Unilever!
15.02.2008	Trade unionists from UNISON and Hammersmith Trades Council joined samba musicians, Iranian refugees and students from Sussex university on Colombia Solidarity Campaign’s emergency protest at Coca-Cola’s London Headquarters on 20 December. Three Coca-Cola workers in Bucaramanga, Colombia have been told that before the end of December 2007 they will be killed and buried in a mass grave. The threat demands that the union cease all protest against Coca-Cola. The three men belong to SINALTRAINAL, the trade union representing Coca-Cola workers in Colombia. Since 1994, nine Coca-Cola workers have been murdered by paramilitary death squads in response to the union’s resistance. Read more
30.12.2007	Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket, currently operates in 12 countries. After a gradual expansion into Ireland and an unsuccessful expansion into France in the 1990s, Tesco began a rapid expansion in the late 1990s into emerging markets focusing on Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. These areas have relatively undeveloped grocery retail markets but ones that are changing rapidly giving Tesco major opportunities. Tesco is also about to enter the US, and is trying to break into India. Tesco now controls 30% of the grocery market in the UK. In 2007, the supermarket chain announced over 2.5 billion British Pounds in profits. Growing evidence indicates that Tesco's success is partly based on trading practices that are having serious consequences for suppliers, farmers and workers worldwide, local shops and the environment. Take action
07.09.2007	Starbucks agrees to ban artificial growth hormones from all its cafes by end of year. Starbucks first considered offering hormone-free milk to customers in 2001. The Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, or rBGH, is an artificial hormone that is often injected into dairy cows to increase their milk production. With a potential link between the hormone and higher risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancer in humans, rBGH is banned in all 27 countries of the European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. For more information on rBGH and the Hold the Hormones Campaign, visit their homepage. Visit also the homepage of Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer rights group based in Washington, D.C. that challenges the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources.
10.08.2007	In another landmark victory for student campaigns against Coca-Cola, the company has been kicked out of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. For the past two years, Coalition Against Coke Contracts (CACC), a student & community group in Champaign Urbana has forcefully demanded that the University end its business relationship with Coca-Cola in light of the company's egregious records. In Colombia, for instance, Coca-Cola's union busting efforts in collaboration with the paramilitaries have resulted in the death of eight union leaders since 1989. Similarly, workers in Coke bottling plants in Turkey and Indonesia have been routinely subjected to violence and intimidation upon attempting to unionize. In India, the company is involved in massive extraction and pollution of ground water. The pollution control board of Kerala, India, has found out that Coca-Cola is responsible for dumping toxic waste into the fields and water around its plants. Further, independent investigations of Coca-Cola products in India have been found to include high levels of pesticides. U of I is the third university this summer -- following Smith College in the U.S. and the Banaras Hindu University in India -- to have terminated its beverage contract with Coca-Cola.
01.08.2007	International Nestlé-Free Week (2-8 July) has served to raise awareness of Nestlé’s aggressive marketing of baby foods in breach of standards adopted by the World Health Assembly. As it does so, Baby Milk Action can reveal that the company's Public Affairs Manager has admitted that an independent survey has found Nestlé is widely boycotted, stating in a letter: "The GMI Poll showed that along with Nestlé, several brands were widely boycotted. The most boycotted were generally the largest companies with the greatest visibility of which Nestlé is one." The three other companies named alongside Nestlé in the 2005 GMIPoll survey are Nike, Coca Cola and McDonald’s. Nestlé emerged as the most boycotted company in the UK. Though Nestlé is clearly aware the poll found Nestlé is 'widely boycotted', Nestlé's Chief Executive, Mr. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, continues to claim support for the boycott is small.
11.05.2007	The German government has imposed stricter regulations on the food company Monsanto regarding the sale of genetically modified corn seeds. The new rules are tantamount to an outright ban. Genetically modified (GM) crops have long been controversial in Germany, where organic agriculture is booming. Now the cultivation of GM corn has been effectively banned by the government, according to media reports. The Federal Ministry writes that GM corn from the MON 810 product line can only be delivered to third parties if the firm also provides an accompanying monitoring plan which researches the effects on the environment.
09.05.2007	The Netherlands will return, or burn, a United States shipment of genetically modified corn that lacks clearance from European authorities, the Dutch food security authority said Wednesday. The genetically modified corn was not authorised by the European Union, the Dutch authority said in a statement. The name of the product in the shipment was Herculex RW from US company Pioneer, the authority said. It is used in the production of animal feed. The portion of the shipment not yet used will be recalled and either returned to the United States or burnt in the Netherlands, according to the authority.
07.05.2007	WAL MART is the largest company in the world, based on the Fortune Global 500 list.2 In the fiscal year that ended January 31, 2007, WAL MART had more than $351 billion in revenue, up over 11 percent from the year before, and roughly $11.3 billion in profits.3 Wal-Mart is also the largest private employer in the United States, with roughly 1.3 million US workers and close to 4,000 stores nationwide. None of those 1.3 million workers is represented by a union. This is no accident. Read new Human Rights Report. Check also WAL MART WATCH
27.04.2007	The infamous Nestlé has just added a raft of products to its line-up by the purchase of baby products manufacturer Gerber from Novartis. Ironically enough, Gerber sells a range of breastfeeding products. On its website its states that "Gerber knows that breastfeeding is the best start in life," A completely uncontroversial declaration, of course, but totally at odds with Nestlé's promotion of its powered baby feed to mothers of very young children. Baby Milk Action have called the annual UK anti-Nestle demo for the 19th May, at the Nestlé UK headquarters in Croydon, from 11:00 to 12:00. For those who cannot make it to Croyden, Baby Milk Action suggests that you can download or order some leaflets to distribute at your local Nestle-serving café, shop or supermarket. They add "Now that Nestlé owns 28.8% of the Body Shop, through its part- ownership of L'Oreal, you could use our special leaflet outside a local outlet to let people know that some of their money will find its way to the world's least responsible company".
17.12.2006	Americans still wary of gene-altered food, study says Washington Post, 7 December 2006. Ten years after genetically engineered crops were first planted commercially in the United States, Americans remain ill-informed about and uncomfortable with biotech food, according to the fifth annual survey on the topic. People vastly underestimate how much gene-altered food they are already consuming; lean toward wanting greater regulation of such crops; and have less faith than ever that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will provide accurate information, the survey found. Since most processed foods contain at least small amounts of soy lecithin, corn syrup or related ingredients, almost everyone in the United States has consumed some amount of gene-altered food.
22.11.2006	Buy Nothing Day, November 24 & 25, 2006. Every November, for 24 hours, we remember that no one was born to shop. If you’ve never taken part in Buy Nothing Day, or if you’ve taken part in the past but haven’t really committed to doing it again, consider this: 2006 will go down as the year in which mainstream dialogue about global warming finally reached its critical mass. What better way to bring the Year of Global Warming to a close than to point in the direction of real alternatives to the unbridled consumption that has created this quagmire? On November 24th and 25th – the busiest days in the American retail calendar and the unofficial start of the international Christmas-shopping season – thousands of activists and concerned citizens in 65 countries will take a 24-hour consumer detox as part of the 14th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending. Take part in the Buy Nothing Day.
16.10.2006	A Pennsylvania court ordered WAL MART to pay workers at least $78.5 million for unpaid hours and denial of breaks. The decision settled a class-action lawsuit brought by 187,000 current and former WAL MART employees from as far back as 1997. According to lead plaintiff, Dolores Hummel, WAL MART management regularly demanded that she work during rest breaks and after store hours. Hummel stated, "One of WAL MART's undisclosed secrets for its profitability is its creation and implementation of a system that encourages off-the-clock work for its hourly employees." WAL MART intends to appeal the case.
10.10.2006	Question: what do Prince Albert of Monaco, Ted Turner, Lufthansa, Congressman Marion Berry (D-AK), the Danish State Prison Service, Nestlé, the Duke of Westminster and Dutch Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman all have in common? Answer: they all receive large payments under the European Union and United States farm subsidy programs. Until recently, governments kept records of such payments in files marked 'top secret'. But thanks to the achievements of investigative journalists, academic researchers and campaigning non-governmental organizations, light is now being shed on the question of who gets what from the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy — and why. Here are the results for the three big food companies (only in Denmark, since 2000): 12,8 Million Euro for Nestle Danmark, 180.000 Euro for Unilever Bestfoods Danmark and 80.000 Euro for Kraft Foods Danmark. Inform yourself at farmsubsidy.org!
16.09.2006	The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has initiated fast-track market approval of an illegal, genetically engineered (GE) rice variety that has contaminated long-grain rice throughout the South, throwing rice markets into turmoil and causing potential harm to consumers and the environment. The variety, known as LL601, was developed by Bayer CropScience. Bayer field-tested LL601 from 1998-2001, but for unknown reasons never applied to USDA for market approval. Bayer is now asking USDA to grant retroactive market approval of the illegal rice, even though it remains inadequately tested, and the company gave up plans to market LL601 in 2001. Consumers should not be asked to pay for Bayer's mistake. USDA should hold Bayer accountable: test and recall contaminated food products, make all test protocols and positive samples available to the public, destroy the contaminated rice and compensate farmers and food companies for their losses. Take action and tell USDA not to approve illegal, GE Rice!
13.08.2006	Starbucks is the biggest coffee specialty retailer in the world and advertises itself as a socially responsible corporation. Despite over five years of grassroots pressure, Starbucks continues to serve milk from cows that are injected with genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone, also known as rBGH or rBST. Virtually every industrial country, except for the United States, has banned the sale of rBGH milk. Milk produced from cows injected with rBGH poses serious dangers to human health and the general welfare to dairy cows. This practice, which is known to cause harm to cows and may pose harm to humans, is banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, and all 25 countries of the European Union. Watch the movie: THE MEATRIX II. Take action and tell Starbucks to keep bovine growth hormone out of your cup of joe!
09.05.2006	In the new Greenpeace report "Eating up the Amazon" from April 6th, McDonald's is blamed for massive rainforest destruction. Greenpeace discovered a chain of global trade in soya beginning with rainforest destruction in the Amazon and ending with McDonald's fast food outlets. Most of the global trade in soya is controlled by a small number of huge soya traders: Cargill, Bunge and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). In Brazil, this cartel plays the role of bank to the farmers. The soya traders encourage farmers to cut down the rainforest and plant massive soya monocultures. The traders take the soya and ship it to Europe where it is fed to animals like chickens and pigs. The animals are then turned into fast food products like McDonald's McNuggets and many other products found in fast food outlets and supermarkets. Read more at McAmazon.
04.05.2006	According to Fraser Consultancy, British consumers believe that McDonald's is the least ethical of high-profile corporations. McDonald's beats Nike (child labour in Asia) in the new survey that reveals UK consumers' concerns about the things they buy. McDonald's has suffered dreadful PR in recent years, thanks in part to the hit documentary Super Size Me, which chronicled its presenter's decline into ill-health after a sustained diet of burgers and fries. The fast food chain has been accused by health campaigners in America and Europe of helping to cause an obesity epidemic. It strongly denies the charge and has made strenuous efforts to revamp its menu along healthier lines, with only limited success; in Britain, McDonald's recently announced it was closing 25 restaurants. Perceived least ethical firms: 1. McDonald's, 2. Nike, 3. Shell, 4. Adidas, 5. Barclays Bank, 6. Coca-Cola, 7. BP, 8. Camelot, 9. American Express, 10. Nestlé.
16.02.2006	The Colombian trade union Sinaltrainal, initiator of the world-wide campaign against Coca Cola sees itself again confronted with murder threats against their members. Plutarco Vargas Roldan, Sinaltrainals member in Bogota and worker with Coca Cola received a letter threatening his life and that of his family. The murder threat can be seen in the context of the Sinaltrainal campaign against Coca Cola and their current trial against Coca Cola in front of US courts on violation of human rights and labour rights abuses. Within the last years 7 members of Sinaltrainal working at Coca Cola were murdered in Colombia. The boycott Coca Cola campaign was joined by several US-American universities in the last months. Also the municipality of Turin decided to the support of the campaign against Coca Cola (Coca Cola is one of the main sponsors of the olympic winter plays) and the olympic torch/flare run is accompanied by protests against the company throughout Italy.
22.01.2006	GE Maize has risks and side effects. On 13.01.2006 the EU Comission allowed three genetically engineered (GE) maize seeds (MON 863, GA 21, MON 863 x MON 810) of the US biotechnology firm Monsanto as food or feedstuff in EU countries. In a June 2005 opinion, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) gave its approval to the genetically modified maize MON 863 x MON 810 solely based on Monsanto documents, saying it was unlikely to have an adverse effect on human and animal health or the environment. Professor Arpad Pusztai, who had already made a risk assessment of MON 863 for the German government, also warns against allowing the maize to be licensed. "It cannot be presumed that the damage to the rats' inner organs and the animals' blood picture are based on chance. The Monsanto documents also show that the set-up for the experiments was inadequate and evaluation of the data incorrect." For the review comments commissioned by the German authorities from Dr Arpad Pusztai on both the Monsanto full MON 863 90 day rat study and a Monsanto summary see: Comments on Monsanto study.
04.01.2006	Ten universities in the USA and Europe ban Coca-Cola due to alleged links with paramilitaries. The company rejects the accusations and claims that the students are victims of commercial manipulation. Ten universities, ten university colleges and two secondary schools in the USA, Canada, Italy, Ireland and the UK have broken commercial links with Coca-Cola, following a two year international campaign "Because I love life, I don’t drink Coca-Cola." One of the principle accusations is that Coca-Cola contracted paramilitary groups to assassinate trade unionists in various Colombian cities. Investigations into the accusations are taking place in both Colombia and the United States, and in April 2006, an international conference will seek to investigate these accusations more deeply. Columbia Solidarity Campaign
30.11.2005	Gorton's of Gloucester is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese whaling company Nissue. Nissui is a global seafood conglomerate and a major shareholder in the company that owns the Japanese whaling fleet. Each year, Gorton's parent company kills hundreds of whales in the name of "scientific research", thanks to a loophole in the international ban on commercial whaling. This year it has announced plans to double the number of whales it kills, including the endangered fin whale, and next year it plans to slaughter endangered humpback whales too. Grew up watching the Gorton's fisherman commercials, and listening to the jingle, "Trust the Gorton's fisherman." You don't even want to know how many fish sticks I ate during my childhood. But today, I know I CAN'T trust the Gorton's fisherman, because he's been supporting whale slaughter since 2001. Take action!
06.05.2005	The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group representing farm workers in southern Florida, announced that it was ending a four-year boycott of Taco Bell. A group of immigrant tomato pickers had persuaded an enormous fast food company (Yum Brands) to increase wages for immigrant workers. Read more!
09.07.2004	A public interest group is suing McDonald's, charging the fast food chain with false advertising due to its promise in 2002 that it would cut the "bad" fat used in its cooking process. McDonald's announced in September 2002 that it would use an "improved cooking oil" to significantly cut trans fats in the deep fried products on its menu, such as french fries. It said at that time it would cut trans fatting acid levels in its french fries by 48 percent, reduce saturated fat by 16 percent and dramatically increase polyunsaturated fat by 167 percent. The group says trans fats cause serious medical health problems other than obesity. It cited a Harvard School of Public Health which estimated 30,000 or more premature heart disease deaths are caused each year by trans fats.
14.04.2004	WAL MART is major shareholder of Seiyu - a leading Japanese supermarket chain. Seiyu regularly sells whale and dolphin meat. Sign the petition to get WAL MART out of the whale-hunting business.
24.11.2003	The Irish response to the call for a boycott of Coco Cola because of the ongoing campaign of murder of workers in Coca Cola bottling plants in Colombia is spreading. On Saturday 11th October 2003 the John Hewitt Bar and Restaurant one of Belfasts’ best known and most prestigious bars became the first public house in Ireland to remove Coca Cola from its shelves. The International Boycott of Coca Cola started on the 22 July 2003. It was called by SINALTRAINAL (Colombian Food and Drinks Workers’ Union). Coca Cola stand accused of complicity in the assassination of 8 Sinaltrainal trade union leaders in Colombia since 1990. Many other leaders have been imprisoned, tortured, forcibly displaced and exiled. Now is the time to spread the boycott as far and as fast as possible. Individually each of us can stop drinking Coca Cola and urge others to do likewise. Make your view known to your local drinks outlet and ask them to withdraw Coca Cola from their shelves and stock an alternative.
04.07.2003	The twelve worst corporations were chosen by Adbuster.org: We the People find these brands guilty of pollution, animal abuse, lethal tobacco promotion, sweatshop labor, advertising clutter, arms sales and genetic hi-jinx.
20.12.2002	Canadian Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto for Genetic Pollution. History was being made on January 10th, 2002, when two Saskatchewan organic farmers Larry Hoffman and Dale Beaudoin filed a class action against Monsanto and Aventis on behalf of all certified organic farmers. The class suit seeks compensation for damages caused by Monsanto and Aventis genetically engineered canola, and an injunction to prevent Monsanto from introducing GE Wheat in Saskatchewan. GE Canola has spread across the Prairies and contaminated conventional crops so extensively that most certified organic grain farmers no longer attempt to grow canola. The claim alleges that loss of canola as an organic crop has robbed organic farmers of a high-paying and growing market. Organic customers have a zero tolerance for genetically engineered crops. Support this class action suit through the SOD Organic Agriculture Protection Fund: The SOD website.