The final supreme court decision hinged on whether the town’s comprehensive plan was a “visionary” document or a regulatory one — largely ignoring the common sense question as to whether a Swiss multinational can force a town to permit a 24/7 truck loading station in a residentially zoned area.

Gotta love those Nestle guys.

This includes information on other areas of concern about Nestlé activities. Also news of its underhand tactics, such as the spy that infiltrated a Swiss campaign group that was producing a book on Nestlé, including on its water activities.

It’s focused entirely on Nestle-related issues, and because it’s not a fly fishing blog (like the Trout Underground), there’s lots, lots more to talk about.

The Trout Underground will continue taking note of Nestle’s activities, but most of the action will be taking place on StopNestleWaters.org.

See you there!

You mean you’re seeing a Google ad for Poland Spring on my Web site?

Google allows advertisers to target specific regions (based on IP filtering). Since that money goes to paying for this site’s hosting, in a perverse way, Nestle’s paying for me to beat them up…

Mike: Thanks so much for the link to the Nestle Chairman about the role of charitable giving in Nestle’s corporate vision. Well, actually, non-charitable giving, since they want something for it…

Reid: Exactly how does a school let that happen? Damn.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to these Nestle threads. Given the beating they’re taking these days, you’ve gotta figure Nestle’s noticing…

Oh yeah, Nestle/Poland Spring does no advertising.. yeah…right…..

Its current Chairman and previous Chief Executive Officer, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé, is famous for saying in Boston that money should only be given to charities if it will increase shareholder value – a not entirely unexpected motivation, but not one usually voiced so clearly.

See my blog for more information, for example:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/03/nestle-generosity-to-good-causes.html

Nestlé was last month named as one of the ten most criticized corporations on the planet by an industry risk assessment firm. For an overview of criticisms see the site:
http://www.nestlesa.org/

If any experts on Nestlé’s water activities would like to write for that site, contact the administrator.

When asked if this sort of a donation was a norm for Nestle, Dubois answered that they had given a ball field in Michigan, and regularly made donations to the Poland Maine school system. Then, answering another question as to whether this would be used as a PR tool, Dubois again stated that it definitely would not. But one member of the audience then wondered to the board whether these schools had had the same promises made by Nestle, that there donations would not be used as a PR vehicle. And how could we in Fryeburg ensure that the 175k donation would not be used at a PR vehicle in other communities. Mr. Dubois assured that it would not be used.

Now, let’s all wait and see if the press release comes out about the donation to the school district, just as the press release came out about the 35k Nestle donated to the rescue squad for defibrilators.

My goals were a little less ambitious: I wanted the whole city of McCloud to participate in a Nestle negotiation – not just the mokes who negotiated (and I use the term loosely) the first deal with Nestle.

That contract went so far beyond “sweetheart” that Nestle’s lawyers might as well have written it (oh wait, they did).

At this point, I’m happy to keep pointing out Nestle’s bad faith issues and the enviro-related issues around water bottling, but what I’m really watching is the process around the contract renegotiation that Nestle has repeatedly promised (they’ve promised a lot [no groundwater pumping, in depth EIR, new contract) but have delivered damn near nothing in writing as of yet.

And yes, it’s interesting how cheaply rural townsfolk will sell their priceless resources. Nestle throws a few bucks around (early in the process), and they suddenly stand to make several bazillion dollars over the life of a contract, and the town’s left with a few donations, a handful of not-even-living-wage jobs, and all the negative impacts (smog, road destruction, loss of resource, etc).

Their “Good Neighbor” activities include throwing a paltry $5,000 at local non-profit, high profile events….whoops!…(They cut back this past weekend and only “donated” $4,000 to the local McCloud festival.) This keeps Nestle in the press for their “good deeds”. For a lot of people, $5,000 is a lot of money. For Nestle, it’s a drop in the bucket! It’s so easy for them to keep greasing the palms of the locals. Follow the money!

Hopefully, the decision makers in McCloud will have become educated on this issue, beyond what they get from Nestle’s PR machine, so they will realize that they will save money and grief by keeping Nestle out of town! Right now, the money that Nestle is throwing at the town and local communities is very tempting.