Rekindled

Why is it that some large corporations seem to think they can do whatever they want in order to increase profits?  Their sole purpose seems to be making more and more money and they can end up behaving in ways that are completely unethical.

For example, Nestle (and other companies) continually breach international marketing guidelines on baby milk, leading to infant deaths and suffering around the world.  The International Marketing Code (1981) states that any marketing activity should not undermine breastfeeding, and yet many companies continually breach this code.  Nestle has consistently been the worst offender.

Breast milk is the best possible food for babies and the World Health Organisation recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed until 6 months of age whenever possible.  It contains all the nutrients a baby needs, as well as antibodies that help prevent childhood illnesses.  Increasing breastfeeding rates would help to decrease child mortality.  In addition, there is growing evidence that children who are breast fed are less likely to have health problems in their adult life.

In developing countries there are two further problems with the aggressive marketing of baby milk products.  Firstly, many mothers have to use dirty water to make up the formula.  There may be no facilities for sterilising the water, and even if there are, many people are unaware of the need to sterilise the water due to lack of education or illiteracy.  Secondly, formula costs money, unlike breast milk which is free.  If a family is living in poverty the mother may dilute the formula to make it go further, which leads to infant malnutrition.

So what exactly does ‘aggressive marketing’ mean?  Here are some real-life examples:

1. Supplying baby formula free of charge in hospitals to new mothers. Giving away baby milk for free is a good thing, right?  Unfortunately not.  Once a mother stops breastfeeding then her body will stop producing milk.  Once mother and baby leave the hospital, she has no choice but to continue using formula, but now she has to pay to feed her baby.  This practice was banned by the World Health Authority in 1994.
2. Selling baby formula with labels in the wrong language. This means that parents cannot read the information about formula, let alone the instructions for how to mix the formula correctly and safely.
3. Giving free formula as humanitarian aid/disaster relief. This again causes the same problem as (1), and is often labelled with the wrong language as per (2).  In an emergency situation there many not be enough clean water or fuel (to warm the milk) to make up the formula safely.
4. Undermining breastfeeding by making health claims about formula. For example, adverts for baby milk formula often mention the health benefits of the product – but compared to breast milk it is nowhere near as good.
5. Directly promoting to pregnant women and new mums. For example direct mail, free samples, parent clubs etc.
6. Promoting to health professionals. E.g. providing free gifts or even commissions.  This is banned by the International Code.
7. Lobbying governments against measures to promote breastfeeding.

So what can we do to stop this?  Well, as ‘consumers’ our main power is in how we spend our money.  So if you disagree with a company’s actions, stop buying their products.  I have decided to boycott all Nestle products.  There is a list of all the brands that Nestle profits from on the Baby Milk Action website.  I have just found out this week that the Body Shop, which up until now has been my favourite place for make up and skincare products, is one of these brands, so I now have a big dilemma.  I can’t decide whether I should add Body Shop to my personal boycott or whether that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, since I believe that the Body Shop itself has high ethical standards.  What do you think?  Leave a comment to let me know if you are joining the boycott too.

For more information see:

• Baby Milk Action
• The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN)
• World Health Organisation: Breastfeeding
• Patient UK: Breastfeeding – The Benefits

Following my last post, Alistair Burt MP has emailed me to say that he intends to adopt the Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill as his Private Members Bill. Hurrah!

A press release has been published in which he says:

At present I am thinking of taking through an amendment to the last Sustainable Communities Bill, a measure which was promoted by one of my Conservative colleagues, and was designed to make more transparent the use of public money in each local authority area, and give some extra opportunity for the public to have more say on expenditure in their area. A number of Parish Councils, including local ones, have contacted me about promoting this measure which I believe is in line with the public’s demand to be more involved in policy-making and engaging with the democratic process.

Alistair Burt, MP for North East Bedfordshire

Incidentally I much preferred his short email response to the three page letters I usually get from my own MP, which just seem to ramble on about what ‘the party’ is doing without actually answering my questions directly.  Thank you Mr Burt!

The Sustainable Communities Act (2007) is a fantastic piece of legislation that allows local councils to apply to central government for more control over local decisions with regards to the environment (e.g. promoting local renewable energy, increasing recycling and protecting green spaces), local economies (e.g. promoting local shops, local businesses and local jobs), social inclusion (e.g. protecting local public services and alleviating fuel poverty and food poverty) and democratic involvement (e.g. increasing the ways local people can participate in local decision making and promoting new ways in which people can influence what happens locally).

However, according to Steve Shaw, National Co-ordinator of Local Works (the organisation that helped to bring about the original Act), more needs to be done:

The initial take up of the Sustainable Communities Act has been fantastic. So far 100 council areas have submitted a total of 300 proposals for government action to promote and protect local sustainability.  However the process is in danger of being a one off! It must be ongoing.

We need to see the Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill made law. This will ensure that the Act’s process is ongoing [so that councils who haven't yet opted-in can still do so in the future].

Parliament held a ballot recently to select which MPs will be given a chance to introduce a piece of legislation (i.e. a Bill) which has a chance of becoming law. Because of the upcoming election, only the top seven have a realistic chance of changing the law. It is crucial that we persuade one of these lucky MPs to adopt the Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill.

URGENT ACTION:

Your help will be crucial in successfully seeing one of these MPs to take up our Bill, so please do the following:

1. Please write to, or email, at least one of these MPs, but preferably all seven, and ask them to ‘Please adopt the Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill’. This will only take a few minutes and I have included a sample letter for you to personalise below.

2. Please ask others to do the same and forward this email on to anyone who may help – the more letters and emails these MPs receive the better!

Thank you for you fantastic support and efforts: it really has made a big difference. Let’s make sure the Sustainable Communities Act keeps on going!

The seven MPs who came top of the ballot, and their addresses and emails are:

1. Brian Iddon (Labour, Bolton South East): iddonb@parliament.uk
address: Brian Iddon MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

2. David Chaytor (Labour, Bury North): chaytord@parliament.uk
address: David Chaytor MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

3. Andrew Gwynne (Labour, Denton and Reddish): gwynnea@parliament.uk
address: Andrew Gwynne MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

4. Albert Owen (Labour, Ynys Môn): owena@parliament.uk
address: Albert Owen MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

5. Julie Morgan (Labour, Cardiff North): morganj@parliament.uk
address: Julia Morgan MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

6. Anthony Steen (Conservative, Totnes): steena@parliament.uk
address: Anthony Steen MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

7. Alistair Burt (Conservative, North East Bedfordshire): burta@parliament.uk
address: Alistair Burt MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

DRAFT LETTER TO THE SEVEN MPS

Dear [MP’s NAME]

Congratulations on your success in the Private Members’ Ballot. I am writing to ask you to please adopt the Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill.

The Bill is crucial as it will ensure the involvement process in the Sustainable Communities Act is ongoing and not just a one off event. Thousands of people and hundreds of councils across the country want to use the Act but currently can not. This Bill will ensure they can.

I am not one of your constituents but understand what a rare opportunity you have been granted via the Ballot. This Bill already has backing from MPs of all parties, and from the huge Local Works coalition of national organisations, that successfully campaigned for the original Act to become law.

I do hope very much you will take up this Bill.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

[YOUR ADDRESS]

Today, www.350.org are staging the largest day of environmental action in history.  Over 2500 events are going on around the world.

What is 350?  It is the number (in parts per million, or ppm) scientists say is the highest level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere where we will be able to avoid human and natural disaster due to climate change.  At the moment the level of CO2 in the air is 390ppm, which is way too high.  To bring this down to safe levels we need politicians to take action now, to switch our energy supplies from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

To find an event near you, go to http://www.350.org/map.

Recycle Week 2009 starts on Monday 22nd June. This year’s theme is ‘Let’s waste less’ and you can make a pledge at http://www.recyclenow.com/. It wasn’t hard for me to pick my pledge as I already do all of them except one: I pledge to go waste free for a day, or I will cook all the dinners for a week!  I’m not quite sure how I’m going to achieve it, and I haven’t got long to get ready, but I’ll do my best!  I think I will have to make at least one exception, which is cat litter, although I am looking into a flushable alternative.

Several eco bloggers are getting involved and have set themselves special challenges.   For example, The Rubbish Diet, who I read regularly, is such an expert waste reducer that she is going to be helping other people in her community waste less.  For one week in 2008 she managed to throw away just one plaster.  One plaster!  In a whole week!  And she has a family!!!  Read more about her and the other bloggers at http://www.recyclenow.com/recycle_week/blogger_challenge.html.

If you haven’t already, why not mosey on over to http://www.recyclenow.com/ and make a pledge.  You don’t have to go the whole waste free hog like me, there are several options including reusing carrier bags, taking leftovers for lunch, and recycling newspapers and magazines.  Let me know what your pledge is!

Join Greenpeace’s plot to fight the government’s frankly insane and hypocritical plans to build a new runway at Heathrow:

The Ecologist argues that the runway can’t even be justified on economic grounds: http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2038