Appalled by Nestle

I’m appalled to learn that so many in our area are welcoming Nestle Waters to Centre County, especially since Burnside Township faces a water shortage. One could write a novel on Nestle’s unethical business practices.

▪ While Californians endure water restrictions due to their worst drought in 1,200 years, Nestle continues pumping water out of their ground. In an interview with CNBC on March 24, 2015, 1- years after saying that “access to water is not a public right,” then-CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe insisted that the world will run out of fresh water and we must turn off our taps: “We have a major water management crisis...We are destroying 20 percent more water for human consumption than there is available.”

Meanwhile, Nestle pumps billions of gallons of water from people and the environment globally, store it in their warehouses and ship to stores to sell for profit.

▪ While the citizens of Flint, Michigan, suffered from leaden water, Nestle sued Osceola Township, Michigan, for the “right” to pump 400 gallons per minute from local sources after the township denied their request.

In other words, Nestle helped to create a water management crisis by pumping billions of gallons of water from local sources and now they’re trying to be the hero?

Nestle’s legacy is one of greed, deception, human rights abuses and environmental degradation. If Nestle is allowed to come here, what makes anyone think that we’ll fair better than any of the other locations that Nestle has taken advantage of?

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Appalled by Nestle."