Press Release 30 August 2004

Baby Milk Action and boycott supporters demonstrated outside the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh tonight, leafleting the audience arriving for the Perrier Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe to raise awareness of Nestlé's aggressive marketing of baby foods. Nestlé bought Perrier in 1992 and past winnners of the Perrier Award such as Emma Thompson and Steve Coogan have called for a boycott of the Awards. A 14 feet tall puppet with a boycott Nestlé sign greeted arrivals at the entrance.

According to the World Health Organisation, 1.5 million infants die around the world every year because they are not breastfed. A marketing code for breastmilk substitutes was introduced in 1981 and Nestlé is found to violate this more than any other company. It is not just baby milk that is an issue with Nestlé. For example, successful legal actions have been brought against Nestlé in the US and Brazil over the environmental impact of its water bottling operations, but Nestlé has still to stop pumping.

As Emma Thompson, a pre-Nestlé Perrier winner says: "The Perrier Awards should be boycotted by all right-thinking people, because Nestlé has got to be stopped."

Mike Brady, Campaigns and Networking Coordinator at Baby Milk Action, which coordinates the international boycott said: "The latest evidence presented at the House of Commons in May this year shows Nestlé to be the worst of the baby food companies, putting its own profits before health and contributing to the needless death and suffering of infants around the world." (see press release at  http://www.ibfan.org/ for the monitoring evidence)

For further information contact Mike Brady on 07986 736179. For information on the boycott see the website  http://www.babymilkaction.org/ Pictures from the demonstration will be posted on the website shortly.

The corporate-free alternative to the Perrier Award took place at the Bongo Club last night (29th August). The Tap Water Awards, launched in 2001, honoured the best acts keeping to the true spirit of the fringe. Winners included Mark Watson for his 'Overambitious 24 hour show'. Awards were presented by Mark Ballard MSP, Stewart Lee (co-author and director of 'Jerry Springer the Opera') and others and were hosted by Dusty Limits. Further information can be found at  http://www.tapwaterawards.org/

Baby Milk Action will be holding a public meeting in Edinburgh on 23 October to present the evidence. A campaigner from Brazil whose group was involved in a successful legal action against Nestlé Perrier's damaging water bottling operation in a historic mineral spring town will also be speaking at the meeting. Nestlé has still not stopped its activities and campaigners are seeking international solidarity to hold Nestlé to account

For information on Nestlé Perrier's damaging environmental impact in Brazil see the article in Corporate Watch at:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/nestle_keep_at_it.htm

Mike Brady
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Mike Brady
Campaigns and Networking Coordinator
Baby Milk Action

Visit our website  http://www.babymilkaction.org/

Baby Milk Action is the UK member of the International Baby Food Action
Network - IBFAN -  http://www.ibfan.org/

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