Cancer charity turns down £1m Nestlé donation

[Guest guest]

Cancer charity turns down £1m Nestlé donation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1210418,00.html

 

Kevin Maguire

Thursday May 6, 2004

The Guardian

 

A leading British cancer charity has rejected a £1m approach from Nestlé

over accusations that the Swiss food conglomerate promotes unsafe baby milk

powder in developing countries.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer, a high-profile organisation supported by

supermodels including Elle Macpherson and Kate Moss, turned down the

proposed link amid concern about the company's motives.

 

The charity, renowned for its fashion fund-raising, feared that Nestlé,

target of a long running boycott by anti-baby formula campaigners, hoped to

use Breakthrough's respectability and positive image to bolster its own

position.

 

The company offered to support the charity financially and promote its work

on packets of Nestlé breakfast cereals, such as Shredded Wheat and Golden

Grahams.

 

The charity declined the offer, which was made by Cereal Partners, a joint

venture with a US firm producing Nestlé's breakfast brands, because

research suggests that breast-feeding reduces the risk of breast cancer.

 

Delyth Morgan, Breakthrough's chief executive, said: " We can confirm we

were approached by Cereal Partners regarding a proposed cause-related

marketing promotion but after careful consideration decided not to proceed

with the partnership. "

 

Breakthrough, which has close links with Marks & Spencer and Avon, aims to

raise £7m a year and funds research projects at the Institute of Cancer

Research in London.

 

The refusal is a blow for Nestlé, which campaigners accuse of jeopardising

the lives of mothers and infants by pushing powdered baby milk sales in

developing countries where water supplies are often polluted. Thousands of

mothers suffer malnourishment, argue Nestlé's critics, and thousands of

bottle-fed children die of diarrhoea.

 

The International Baby Food Action Network also alleges that Nestlé fails

to abide by an international code banning unethical marketing practices,

including inducements to doctors to recommend bottles and free trial

supplies of milk substitute to mothers.

 

Nestlé rejects the charges, insisting it is a socially responsible company.

 

Patti Rundall, policy director of Cambridge-based Baby Milk Action, the

British wing of the anti-Nestlé network, said: " With its enormous marketing

budget, running into the billions, Nestlé undermines breast-feeding, which

is a lifeline for infants.

 

" Evidence continues to mount about the importance of breast-feeding in the

long term in reducing heart disease, obesity, diabetes and breast cancer. "

 

Ms Rundall said that as a result of the Nestlé boycott, the big UK

development agencies had for years been refusing to accept money from

Nestlé, as had several health authorities, universities and celebrities.

 

" They all know how Nestlé will use their good name to cover up its

dangerous marketing. It is heartening that health charities with a UK focus

are starting to consider the global impact of such companies too. "

 

In a statement, the company said: " Nestlé takes its corporate social

responsibilities very seriously. The company firmly believes that

breast-feeding is the best way to feed a baby, and we are strongly

committed to the protection and promotion of breast-feeding.

 

" However, when mothers cannot or choose not to breast-feed, infant formula

is the only product recognised by the World Health Organisation as a

suitable alternative. Nestlé globally adopts the WHO code. "

 

Writers Germaine Greer and Jim Crace pulled out of the Guardian Hay

Festival two years ago after Nestlé was named as one of the sponsors, and

the company's vice-chairman, Niels Christiansen, spoke on the subject Good

Business: a Moral Maze.