Kennedy Hearings 1978
Channel: Nestle Boycott
Date: 2016-06-08

An important event from the early years of the Nestle Boycott.

At this 1978 US Senate hearing, Senator Ted Kennedy challenges Nestle and the other baby milk corporations: How can they justify aggressively marketing their products in situations where the predictable outcome is infant suffering and even death?
This hearing led WHO to develop a landmark “code of marketing,” which was adopted by the UN World Health Assembly in 1981*. 

And every day since, these same corporations continuously fight its implementation. According to a new WHO global monitoring report (2016-05-09, using the latest statistics from The Lancet), 823,000 lives could be saved each year through broader adoption of breastfeeding, which saves lives in conditions where bottled feeding is deadly.

It’s a crime to let this industry reap billions each year at the cost of so many lives. This global campaign still needs YOU to step up and continue the pressure; so please, go to babymilkaction.org, and see what you can do to help.

*WHO/UNICEF International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (1981)

Index of speakers:

00:00 Oswaldo Ballarin (President, Nestle Brazil)
02:43 Rev. Daniel Driscoll (Maryknoll Fathers)
08:00 Frank A Sprole (Bristol-Myers Co.)
08:26 Fatima Patel, RN (Lima, Peru)
10:51 Allan Jackson, MD (Kingston, Jamaica)
11:39 Navidad Clavano, MD (The Philippines)
15:57 Derrick B Jelliffe, M.D (UCLA)
16:30 Leah Margulies (Interfaith Center)
18:53 Manuel Carballo, MD (World Health Organization)
21:05 James Post (Boston University)
22:50 Oswaldo Ballarin (President, Nestle Brazil)
26:24 Patricia Young (United Presbyterian Church)