How to Avoid Nestle in the US
Completely avoiding Nestlé in the US is a pretty difficult thing to do in the US because the company owns over 2,000 brands across coffee, pet care, bottled water, frozen meals, and chocolate. For reference, there are many reasons why I believe you should avoid Nestle as a company overall. However, explaining all my grievances would take too long. A quick list from Wikipedia reads:
forced labour
modern slavery
child labour
incidents of contaminated and infested food products
deliberately false and misleading claims in marketing of breast milk substitutes, particularly in developing countries
preventing access to non-bottled water in impoverished countries
issues around animal welfare commitments
actively spreading disinformation about recycling
illegal water-pumping from drought-stricken Native American reservations
price fixing
union-busting activity
deforestation
lobbying to support misinformation about infant and women's nutrition. In 2014, Nestlé alone spent an estimated $160,000 on lobbying related to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
This page goes into depth on each of the bullets, which is why I'd strongly advise you to go to the link and read as many sections as you can.
But, to avoid this company is especially hard, because as I mentioned before, the company owns over 2,000 brands across many different items. However, watching for major consumer brands to cross them out of daily use isn't necessarily
an impossible task. These brands include Coffee & Drinks: Nescafé, Nespresso, Nestea, Starbucks At-Home packs; Chocolate & Snacks: KitKat, Aero, Toll House, Quality Street, Smarties; Water: Sanpellegrino, Perrier, Acqua Panna, Nestlé Pure Life; Frozen & Prepared Foods: DiGiorno, Hot Pockets, Lean Cuisine; Pet Care: Purina, Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies; Baby Food & Health: Gerber, Boost.
There are then many ways you can actively avoid these brands. For example, you can check the fine print and look for the "Distributed by Nestle" or parent company logo. You can shift to Whole Foods from farmers markets, which not only give you healthier food options, but also allow you to support smaller and independent farmers. There are also mobile tools like Buycott that allow you to scan barcodes while shopping to reveal the parent company ownership. At the end of the day, avoiding the company is all about being educated on the matter, and it is much easier than you may think.
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