Nestle CEO: Water Is Not A Human Right, Should Be Privatized
Is water a free and basic human right, or should all the water on the planet belong to major corporations and be treated as a product? Should the poor who cannot afford to pay these said corporations suffer from starvation due to their lack of financial wealth? According to the former CEO and now Chairman of the largest food product manufacturer in the world, corporations should own every drop of water on the planet — and you’re not getting any unless you pay up.
The company notorious for sending out hordes of ‘internet warriors’ to defend the company and its actions online in comments and message boards (perhaps we’ll find some below) even takes a firm stance behind Monsanto’s GMOs and their ‘proven safety’. In fact, the former Nestle CEO actually says that his idea of water privatization is very similar to Monsanto’s GMOs. In a video interview, Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe states that there has never been ‘one illness’ ever caused from the consumption of GMOs.
Watch the video below for yourself:
The way in which this sociopath clearly has zero regard for the human race outside of his own wealth and the development of Nestle, who has been caught funding attacks against GMO labeling, can be witnessed when watching and listening to his talk on the issue.
This is a company that actually goes into struggling rural areas and extracts the groundwater for their bottled water products, completely destroying the water supply of the area without any compensation. In fact, they actually make rural areas in the United States foot the bill.
As reported on by Corporate Watch, Nestle and former CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe have a long history of disregarding public health and abusing the environment to take part in the profit of an astounding $35 billion in annual profit from water bottle sales alone.
The report states:
“Nestlé production of mineral water involves the abuse of vulnerable water resources. In the Serra da Mantiqueira region of Brazil, home to the “circuit of waters” park whose groundwater has a high mineral content and medicinal properties, over-pumping has resulted in depletion and long-term damage.”
Nestle has also come under fire over the assertion that they are actually conducting business with massive slavery rings. Another Corporate Watch entry details:
“In 2001, Nestlé faced criticism for buying cocoa from the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which may have been produced using child slaves.[58] According to an investigative report by the BBC, hundreds of thousands of children in Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo were being purchased from their destitute parents and shipped to the Ivory Coast, to be sold as slaves to cocoa farms.”
So is water a human right, or should it be owned by big corporations? Well, if water is not here for all of us, then perhaps air should be owned by major corporations as well. And as for crops, Monsanto is already working hard to make sure their monopoly on our staple crops and beyond is well situated. It should really come as no surprise that this Nestle Chairman fights to keep Monsanto’s GMOs alive and well in the food supply, as his ideology lines right up with that of Monsanto.
I disagree with the authors output. The outcome is as a result of consumerism and is a result of needs being met. That is what Nestlé does, and, admittedly didn't always do well. All companies of the'world' have a major problem with being world sized. Their output is tested by the demand and supply. One only buys bottled water if you a) need it b) merely want it . All other issues don't matter. The issue of the author is too wide to reduce the long term objectives of the company. I worked in general advertising and then got a real position at Nestlé Australia then transferred to Nestlé worldwide. The company is broad. It has wide responsibilities and opportunities. Without the visibility and raising views of the market place, improvements will not happen. That is a secret to good innovation. It is also as important that all consumers have the right to discover damage and warnings to others is important. Keep challenging, without the challenge of the mind where will be human innovation.
My water is metered by the city government and I pay for it. I also purchase large containers of water for drinking because government water is not in fact safe for drinking. From Egyptian times at least, water was used to make beer and fed to infants as well as adults, because "natural" water was unsafe. Putting a value on water means a precious resource is not abused. What is wrong with that?
Bill Goode I disagree with you. I think water is 70% human right and 30% property right. Private land and carried water is indeed personnel. My pond, my well and rain that falls on my property is my personal water.
But if we are on public land with a lake that is human right water. I can take 20 oz bottle and partake of that water. All water in MY bottle is now property water.
But what if someone takes over the lake? Or drains it?
Then the water is personal property water. But as long as it is public and available it certainly could be classified as property since it would be tax payer supported.
However, I would lean more towards human rights since no matter on your nationality If you walk in the US you can go to this public spot and partake of the water.Tourist, illegal alien, real alien etc,. You could also put it in a water bottle and it would then become your property water.
The person in the desert certainly is entitled to all the human right water he can find. If he fails to find any that does not mean he does not deserve it or have a right to it. It just means human right water was out of stock or just not found.
All water is not for everyone to use. My water bottle only belongs to who I want, ME.
All human rights water is everyone’s water as long as they are close enough to use it. Assuming someone has a desire to travel then all human right water could be available.
I think this is obvious but property water should not be stolen. Human rights water should remain available.
I would say almost all water is owned already anyway but some property water is more human rights leaning then other property water.
I will admit this is a wavy line but I don’t see it as a problem between the human rights water and property water. The line being wavy is in a comfortable balance.
Well, I’m glad to see someone putting some thought into this.
First off, I wonder how you arrived at the 70 / 30 proportion.
All human rights are innate to the individual. He is born with them and he carries them with him throughout his life, whether he recognizes them or not; whether he desires them or not. He can’t even dispose of them, as long as he lives, though he may choose to ignore them. Human rights are subjective, and are not of the physical universe. Right to speech, right to religion, right to self defense, right to associate, right to travel, etc.
Note – A firearm may be owned by an individual as a property right, but the right to use it in self-defense is a human right, regardless of what the 2nd Amendment says.
Property rights are of the physical universe, including one’s own body (ref – Michael Badnarick’s course on the US Constitution on YouTube). Property is something that one can grab hold of and carry with one and / or dispose of, as one goes along through life. Property is a physical thing, the ownership of which can be transferred or distributed among people. Property is most commonly considered to be land, but it also includes one’s car, one’s house and all of one’s belongings, including one’s body.
I would say that I am not a big fan of government ownership of land. Over ninety percent of the land the federal government owns, it does so in violation of the US Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, explaining proper federal acquisition & possession). Much of the state, county and city lands where I live in Arizona, lay vacant and not in use, same being true elsewhere in the western states I’m familiar with. Such lands should be restored to private ownership, so someone can make money from the land to bolster the economy.
So regarding the public lands you speak of, I would ask how was that land acquired?
Why do we have a distinction in rights between someone in the Sahara Desert looking for water as opposed to someone next to a stream on public land? The fellow in the Sahara can’t enforce a human right to water, as there is no water to be had, unless he has it with him as a property right. There is no human right to enforce in such a case. The fellow next to a public stream takes water from the stream by virtue of his taxes and being a part owner of that stream as a public citizen.
A person of a nationality different than American takes water from the stream by virtue of the public granting him the water, as a guest in the country. When he has the water, it’s his as a property right. It’s a transfer of property from the public to the individual. Human rights are not transferable, as they are innate to the individual. One can’t even dispose of a human right, even if he wanted to, though he might choose not to recognize it or enforce it.
On the other hand, if a fellow is out in the middle of the Mojave Desert (Southern California) with no water, how will he enforce a human right to water that is not there to be had? He can still speak and practice his religion, which are human rights and are innately part of him. He can practice those rights and enforce them. Water is not innate to the individual, except the water innate in his body, and even that is owned by the individual as a property right.
Water is everyone’s right
Yeah, I know but even with filters, my water tastes NASTY. I don’t want to drink it and I certainly don’t want to give it to my kids 🙁
Use a good distiller for my water. Removes 18 toxins/chemicals including flouride. Live in NY where we have great tasting water. Distiller makes it taste better and healthier. There is brown crud at the bottom of the steel boiler after every use.
There are laws in many U.S. states that make the collection of rain water on your own property illegal. The government said that the water belongs to someone else, so you must let it sink into the ground (even though most of it will just be absorbed by plants or evaporate).
Collecting rain water, puddles all illegal – & lots more. Think Agenda 21 – The UN Agenda for the 21st Century.
That’s ridiculous. One should fight against such outlandish laws. What would be wrong to catch & save the run-off from your roof for times of drought? Any idea what the reason could be? It just does not make sense to me. It seems backwards.
And who do they say it belongs to??? It’s natural rain water. Nobody owns it, especially when it lands on my property!!!!!
Nestles just got a sweetheart deal in Michigan to siphon off more water while people in Detroit are having their water shut off and People in Flint still can not drink their water…they also continued to take/siphon off water in California while California is under Drought conditions. Nestles and this OIL company are NOT to be Trusted! In my book they are the pond scum that sinks to the bottom, covers over the pond and kills off all living things in the pond!
Don’t buy their products!
Doesn’t help, their spring water facilities need to be blocked.
Stop buying Hershey chocolate too.
This is simply INSANE. Water is essential to life – humans, animals & plants. Of course, it should be FREE & GRATIS. It is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT!
Is the example in Bolivia a taste of the coming nwo that we have been forced into, blindly and unknowingly?
If you owned property and Bechtel’s water fell on your roof,and your land,why couldn’t you charge them an exorbitant fee/rent for the storage of their water or its traverse across your property? And wouldn’t Bechtel be responsible for any flood damage done to your property?
You people are all nuts. All he’s saying is that water should have a market price. Unlike air which you can just breathe, water has to be collected, transported, purified, etc etc. Nobody’s going to do this for free.
Water exist through creation before humans so how the hell can anyone privately own it. This is stupid. Water is also under ground in wells on ppl land. No one should own water. That’s like owning the oceans.
Remember when Nestle gave powdered formula to struggling new moms in very poor countries, instead of encouraging them to breast feed, then when the babies were hooked on formula those evil suits at Nestle began charging for it!
Don’t let them take away a basic right to clean water for all. I recently read that the next world war will be over fresh water – well, the first bullets have been fired. Corporations like this buying up huge swathes of land near fresh water rivers etc.
It’s been recognised as a human right since 2010: https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml