The Formula Flap

Rightly or wrongly, multinational corporations have been accused of a multitude of sins: bribery, tax evasion, reaping outlandish profits, seeking to overthrow governments. Lately the list has grown to include a truly ghastly accusation. Nestle Alimentana of Vevey, Switzerland, the mammoth (1974 sales: $5.6 billion) and venerable food company, is being charged by activists with responsibility for mass deaths of babies.

Nestle is a leading producer of powdered formulas for infant milk sold in less developed nations, where many mothers are uneducated and illiterate.

Too often these women either prepare formulas in an unsanitary fashion or dilute them excessively in order to economize. In the first case, babies develop digestive disorders that can lead to malnutrition; in the second, they become malnourished directly. Either way, the malnutrition can cause death.

Breast v. Bottle. Two years ago, a British journalist named Mike Muller first suggested publicly that powdered-formula manufacturers contributed to the death of Third World infants by hard-selling their products to people incapable of using them properly. In a 28-page pamphlet, Muller accused the industry of encouraging mothers to give up breast feeding, but added the qualification that other factors, such as working at a job, influence women to switch to bottle feeding.

In May 1974 the Bern-based Third World Working Group (which lobbies in Switzerland for support of less developed countries) published Muller's report--with a few changes. Muller had criticized the industry as a whole, but the Bern activists titled their pamphlet Nestle Kills Babies. They also omitted some of Muller's qualifying remarks and included a preface that singled out Nestle for an accusation of "unethical and immoral" behavior. Nestle sued for libel, and the trial began last November in Bern. The controversy has stimulated great interest throughout Switzerland, 80,000 of whose 6 1/2 million inhabitants are Nestle shareholders.

Both sides are passionate about the case. Says Hans Schmocker, 35, a Presbyterian minister who is a member of the Third World group: "Nestle has known about this problem for 30 years and has done little about it." The powdered formulas, he adds, "should be provided in pharmacies or through doctors.

They should not be advertised on the radio in native languages, such as Swahili, which are understood by illiterates."

Counters Nestle Managing Director Arthur Fuerer: "No one has yet hit on the idea of demanding that wine be sold through doctors or pharmacies because hundreds of thousands of people get drunk on it and sometimes cause fatal accidents." Nestle officials insist that their advertising has always stressed, as one billboard in Nigeria puts it, that BREAST MILK IS BEST. Often, however, mothers themselves are undernourished and must supplement their own milk with formula. Nestle was also a principal architect of an ethical code recently adopted by nine infant-food producers. The code requires that promotional materials in the Third World adequately educate illiterate consumers.

Last week, after two months of recess, proceedings in the libel trial resumed as the Third World Working Group furnished the court with documents supporting its claim. The judge has yet to decide whether to call more witnesses, but both litigants have assembled camps of sympathetic experts.

Growing Pains. If Nestle loses, its image will be sullied but it will be under no legal obligation to change its business operations. If Nestle wins, the Third World group will probably have to pay a token fine or issue a public apology. Whatever the outcome, no definitive conclusions--either about the causes of death of Third World babies or about the limits of corporate responsibility--are likely to come out of the trial.

The episode does bring to light a genuine problem faced by nations undergoing the growing pains of industrialization. Yet it is worth noting that in none of the 100 or so developing nations in which Nestle sells its milk formula has there been any echo of the protests in Bern.

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