Nestlé boycott: does it really make a difference?

Rachel Carpenter discusses how to make your opinion count and why there are better ways to make a difference than boycotting

there are more effective ways to get a message across than simply boycotting buy Fairtrade this easter, it's the only way to garantee that farmers get a fair price

Glancing furtively from side to side to ensure no-one was watching, I sneaked inside the dimly lit building and slid my money subtly across the counter. Scooping up my purchase, I tried to scuttle outside before anyone spotted me. Alas, I was not quick enough. "So you finally gave in?" My colleague glanced from my guilt-ridden face to the ice-cream in my hand. I mumbled a reply and turned away, ashamed not of the calories, but of the large Nestlé logo on the packaging.

I was spending the summer living and working on a French campsite where almost every food product was delivered in a huge Nestlé van, and I had soon realised that my resolve to boycott the brand might well buckle.

It was the baby milk issue that first put me off Nestlé. According to the World Health Organisation, 1.5 million infants die around the world every year because they are not breastfed. Reports suggest that Nestlé was ensnaring vulnerable mothers in developing countries to stop breastfeeding and buy their products instead, often through use of unfair promotions or advertising, and I didn’t want to be a part of their profits.

But this summer I started questioning the effectiveness of the Nestlé boycott. With annual sales of 98,458 million in 2006, were they really going to notice the absence of my few measly pounds? I was stuck on a campsite in the middle of rural France where there was no alternative brand and, in reality, the only person to notice my boycott would have been me. Was it all really worth it?

I'm not suggesting that we should all become Nestlé's biggest supporters and forget the ethical issues, nor am I claiming that it's fine to buy their products when they are sitting alongside Fairtrade alternatives, but maybe there are more effective ways of getting the message across than simply boycotting. A letter detailing specific concerns about ethical policy arriving in a Nestlé in-tray, for example, would be much more widely noticed than me turning away from a shop, still clinking 60p in my pocket. A phone-call to a customer concerns line would, at least, be logged, whereas no one from Nestlé would be there to see me sulkily watching other people enjoy their ice-creams.

Rather than simply denying ourselves products, I think we should be making more positive, proactive choices. As Easter approaches and chocolate slowly takes over the supermarket aisles, set yourself some ethical chocolate guidelines. Buy Fairtrade, there is a huge choice of products and it's the one way to guarantee that the farmers get a fair price, and are not victims of human trafficking.

Secondly, if you feel strongly about an issue, contact the companies that can really make a difference by changing their habits. Write, email, phone or fax - as a consumer, you have the right to comment on their ethical policy. If enough people write, they might actually do something.