Nestle has come under fire recently for not stopping business in Russia. They said,” access to food is a basic right and a key value for the world’s largest food company.” After much criticism Nestle suspended most of their manufacturing in Russia while still keeping what they consider essential products, such as infant formula and medical nutrition. It’s ironic in many ways, the first way being that Nestle has had many cases of controversy in the past, one that includes infant formula.

In 1977 the company was met with protest for being what the public considered misleading. Nestle introduced infant formula which they deemed healthier/safer for infants. When they first introduced it, a lot of new mothers were used as guinea pigs, they were only given a certain amount of infant formula. The amount lasted right up until around lactation stopping, this making mothers unable to go back to breast feeding, forcing them to rely and buy more formula.

Their products aren’t the only thing that is unethical, but the labor behind the way in which their products are made or obtained have been deemed extremely unethical. It was discovered that Nestle was involved with slave labor in Thailand, they’d bring in illegal immigrants to work for their fishing business, while simultaneously giving them a heavy illegal fee, thus trapping these workers in the fishing industry to pay off a debt. Workers described the working conditions,” Sometimes, the net is too heavy, and workers get pulled into the water and just disappear. When someone dies, he gets thrown into the water.”

For a company that has no regard for its customers or employees, it’s really not surprising that it took a long time for them to suspend manufacturing. Of course food is a basic right that Russian people deserve, as most citizens want nothing to do with this war and disagree with Putin. That being said, it is quite clear Nestle is a money hungry company, so it’s obvious they weren’t in it for morally correct reasons.