The statistics confirm a catastrophic toll: Nestlé’s aggressive marketing of infant formula in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) directly caused ~10.9 million infant deaths between 1960–2015, with peaks of 212,000 deaths annually in the early 1980s. This was driven by promoting formula in regions without clean water access, leading to fatal waterborne diseases when formula was mixed with contaminated water.
A Grim Inheritance of Death, Wrapped in Corporate Platitudes
The World Economic Forum, that peculiar congregation of the world’s elite masquerading as saviors while sipping champagne in Davos, has appointed yet another mascot for unfettered capitalist excess. The former Nestlé CEO now helming this plutocratic carnival brings with him not just a résumé glistening with corporate accomplishments, but hands stained with the invisible blood of millions. His infamous declaration that water — the very essence of life itself — is not a human right but rather a commodity to be bought and sold represents not just a gaffe, but the perfect crystallization of the neoliberal ethos that has poisoned our global commons. “Water is not a public right,” the man declared with all the casual brutality that only extreme privilege can sustain. “The water you need for survival is a right, but water as a public good is not.” Tell that to the parched children of Bhati Dilwan.
Calculating Death with Spreadsheets and PowerPoints
Let us be brutally clear about what happened under Nestlé’s watch. According to rigorous economic research from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, when Nestlé aggressively penetrated markets in low- and middle-income countries, infant mortality increased by a staggering 27% among households without access to clean water. This is not speculation but econometric fact — the company’s market entry correlates directly with this surge in infant deaths. The data does not lie, though corporate PR departments habitually do, spewing obfuscations with the reliability of Old Faithful. The numbers are stark, unambiguous: 10.9 million dead infants. Not “lost.” Not “unfortunate outcomes.” Dead. D-E-A-D. More humans than live in all of Portugal or Sweden, eliminated before they could speak their first words, all so quarterly earnings reports could include another decimal point.
Manufactured Malnutrition: A Corporate Art Form
“The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself,” wrote the philosopher Kant, and one might suggest Nestlé took this as a corporate mission statement rather than a warning. While publicly championing infant health, internal documents reveal that executives understood perfectly well the deadly consequences of promoting formula to mothers in regions where clean water was as rare as corporate conscience. Women who could have safely breastfed were persuaded — through cynical marketing disguised as medical advice — to use formula products that, when mixed with contaminated water, became lethal cocktails for their infants. The company’s representatives donned nurse uniforms in maternity wards across Africa and Asia, dispensing “medical advice” with the scientific validity of medieval bloodletting. In the Philippines, company-branded “milk nurses” infiltrated hospitals, presenting themselves as healthcare professionals while peddling products with the ethical compass of street-corner drug dealers. Mothers were given just enough free samples for their breast milk to dry up, trapping them in formula dependency — a business strategy so devilishly effective it could have been drafted by Mephistopheles himself.
The Arithmetic of Corporate Murder: Compound Interest in Infant Corpses
If we are to believe — as we must — the Berkeley research indicating nearly 11 million infants perished due to these practices, we are confronted with a death toll that exceeds many of the 20th century’s most notorious atrocities. Yet where are the tribunals? Where are the reparations? Where is the historical reckoning? Fucking nowhere, of course, because corporate crimes enjoy a peculiar immunity from moral judgment, especially when perpetrated against the poor of the Global South. Would we accept such mortality figures if they occurred in Geneva rather than Goma? In Manhattan rather than Maputo? Of course not. But brown babies in distant lands register in corporate accounting as “market entry costs,” not as human beings whose lives demand equal consideration to those born in Western prosperity.
Water as Weapon: Privatizing Life Itself
Consider the breathtaking arrogance required to deny the most basic necessity of life to those who cannot afford to purchase it. In Pakistan’s Bhati Dilwan village, Nestlé’s aggressive water extraction depleted local aquifers while simultaneously selling bottled water to those who once accessed it freely — a perfect microcosm of late capitalism’s circular logic of manufactured scarcity and dependency. The company drilled deep wells, draining the water table and leaving local farmers with parched fields and empty household taps. Meanwhile, tanker trucks emblazoned with Nestlé’s logo rumbled through dusty streets, delivering bottled “Pure Life” water at prices local residents could scarcely afford. The company extracted approximately 4.3 million gallons of water daily without meaningful environmental assessment or community compensation. In California’s San Bernardino National Forest, Nestlé continued drawing millions of gallons annually under a permit that expired in 1988, treating public resources as colonial bounty. In Michigan, the company pays a pitiful $200 annually for permission to extract up to 576,000 gallons of water daily — about $0.000001 per gallon — while residents of nearby Flint were poisoned by their municipal supply. This isn’t just business; it’s hydrological warfare.
The Empirical Evidence of Calculated Infanticide
Let us return to the cold, hard data: a 27% increase in infant mortality is not a statistical blip or a regrettable side effect — it’s a catastrophe of human suffering that any functioning moral calculus would recognize as unconscionable. The research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research meticulously controls for confounding variables, conclusively linking Nestlé’s marketing practices to this lethal outcome. As economist Paul Gertler notes, “The magnitude of these effects is staggering.” When the formula hit communities without clean water infrastructure, diarrheal disease skyrocketed. In Indonesia, infant mortality rose by 8.9 percentage points. In parts of Africa, the impact was even more devastating, with mortality increasing by 12–15 percentage points in rural regions. Each data point represents a tiny coffin, a devastated mother, a family shattered — all entirely preventable had profit not been the primary concern.
Corporate Sociopathy as Leadership Model: The Nestlé Ethos
The appointment of such a figure to head the WEF reveals the fundamental contradiction at the heart of global capitalism’s self-regulation fantasy. As Einstein sagely observed, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Yet here we are, elevating precisely those who perfected the exploitation playbook to positions where they claim to mitigate the very devastation their philosophies engendered. It’s rather like appointing an arsonist as fire chief based on his extensive experience with flames. Nestlé’s corporate culture has repeatedly demonstrated what psychologists would immediately recognize as sociopathic traits: superficial charm in public relations, pathological lying about environmental impacts, lack of remorse for demonstrable harm, and failure to accept responsibility for consequences. Their former CEO’s appointment represents not an anomaly but the logical conclusion of a system that mistakes financial accumulation for moral worth.
