Which companies to boycott and why?

[xwitchymagicx]

Right now, honestly, I'm content with buying simply vegan products. Fretting over fair trade, organic, union made, independently made, etc, etc is just way to much for me, especially since I really don't care about all that.

Me to. Thinking about what is vegan or not is enough for me most of the time.

[Roxy]

Right now, honestly, I'm content with buying simply vegan products. Fretting over fair trade, organic, union made, independently made, etc, etc is just way to much for me, especially since I really don't care about all that.

Really? You don't care about all of those things? I hope that in time and with a greater awareness, these things will become just as important to you as your veganism is.

[xwitchymagicx]

I feel that fair trade etc are important it is just hard because my mum won't buy the things! When I'm going shopping on my own I'll buy them if I can.

[foxytina_69]

i understand how tigerlily feels, except i do care about it and the people being affected by these things, and do wish i could afford all those types of things. not buying them doesnt make me feel like im a bad vegan, but it makes me feel sad about it simply because i wish i could buy the fair trade products and such, and support the families and people who are badly treated. basically it makes me feel like more or less a bad person rather than a bad vegan.

its hard to do those things when you have a limited income, but it will get easier with time and more income. i feel so great when i can afford to buy a chocolate bar that the proceeds go to the animals, or when i can buy fair trade products to help the families being shorted out of so much, or when i can boycott places to show them i dont support the way they treat other people/animals. sometimes in life though, i think you dont always have a choice. but if you do have the choice, take advantage and do what you can. every little last bit helps i think! a simple act could bring love into someone elses heart who is hurting. i dont think it has anything to do with veganism, it has more to do with morals i think.

when i lived with my mom, i would buy so many great things. i used to buy this fair trade organic coffee. theres nothing more delicious than that coffee, and knowing youre helping a family somewhere out there with every sip. its so expensive though!

[Gliondrach]

Just do the best you can. Some companies are obvious abusers. Some not so obvious. Perhaps your mobile 'phone (or cell 'phone, for the people in the Americas) company gives funds to a vivisection lab. Perhaps the company who made your television also makes equipment for slaughterhouses.

Should we stop going to shops to buy clothes that also have a department selling meat? Should we boycot healthfood shops that sell tablets containing lactose?

We live in a world that is geared for the meat eaters. Until the Revolution, we can only do our best.

Roll on the Revolution!

[Vegan Chick]

Glaxosmithkline have got to be the worst offenders i think, they make sooo many things that you see everyday, toothpaste, household products and mainly medication.

I believe that they supply HLS with approx 70 per cent of its work to test on those poor frightened animals!!!

I'm currently putting together a list of well known products by all companies who continue to test on animals, and my mum said she will pass copies to everyone she knows

P.s. I happened to check the back of a marmite jar today and found that it is made by Unilever (or UniEvil). I cant believe that these companies get their grubby hands everywhere!!!

[lozza]

what? no way please dont tell me marmite is made my unilever
thats one of the things i love most of all and its vegan...but i suppose i never really buy the 'real' marmite anyway. i usually buy the supermarket own brand. i hope its still ok to buy that.

i have just read through the whole 7 pages of this because i wanted to know about every company i should try to avoid.

the ones that shocked me the most were green & blacks..i cant believe they have been taken over by cadbury who are linked with schweppes, who of course are owned by coca-cola. i knew about the sports companies, and the cosmetics companies. unilever & p+g especially. those are my 2 most hated companies and i boycott them.
but there was so many i didnt know about.

i myself am feeling VERY overwhelmed. until now i thought i lead a pretty ethical lifestyle. but i guess not theres so many things that i have used that i didnt know were made by evil companies.

i've been vegan for 3 years. and up until a month ago, even, i was drinking lucozade (luckily, i only ever drank it now & again, which isnt good, but i wasnt drinking it all the time & i've stopped now). & in the last 6 months, i've used products i didnt know were owned by unilever like bertolli olive oil (only used that once though). just little things like that.

last year, my flatmate bought me a wella hair conditioner and i hadnt used it til last month. i've finished the bottle now and realised wella is a p+g subsidiary...

ugh..! i think i'm gonna need to make a list for myself. just so i remember everything.

this is really hard though, cos NONE of my friends are vegetarian, let alone vegan. and none of them seem to have any morals/ethics. when i talk about/mention mine, they look at me blankly. or they just dont get me..like they are not on my wavelength. i wish i had another vegan friend :'( or at least an ethical friend...i feel so alone in this. my boyfriend is really supportive of my veganism and how i care about things like; i wont buy from sports shops etc. but lately i think he thinks i am taking it too far by avoiding coca-cola, or not shopping at asda cos its owned by walmart.

*sigh*
anyone else feel alone?

[Vegan Chick]

I'm with you there girl. I feel exactly the same. I am finding it so frustating at the moment because nodbody wants to listen to what I say about why I avoid using these things. They ask me why i am so 'fussy'!!! about things, yet dont let me tell them the real reasons (totally see no evil hear no evil). They think turning a blind eye means no cruelty goes on.

I keep trying to discuss things that upset me etc... with my boyfriend, and my family, but they just say 'I dont want to know, dont tell me, I enjoy meat and im not changing products so stop talking about it', and being as I think about all this 24/7, Im finding it really lonely, and its building up inside me.

Well at least I can offload a bit on here and you guys totally understand what Im on about x

[lozza]

when i first went vegan..i used to get upset cos nobody wanted to listen to my views on meat eggs or dairy..but after 3 years i am sick of trying to convince people and i am not one for wanting to change people..(not saying you are)..

now i am more concerned about things like animal testing and trying to avoid evil companies..but thats something that people are like "yeah im totally against it, i dont like it" but they dont realise that practically ALL the products they use are cruelty-products.

i'm starting to think that theres no changing peoples minds.. my best friend's fave shamnpoo is pantene. she has no idea about procter & gamble..when i told her about them she just said "oh well..whats the point in me stopping using it? i eat meat so i'd be a hypocrite if i didnt use it"

yeah so, you eat meat therefore its ok to poison dogs & cats with shampoo? dont get me wrong i love my best friend to bits..but she doesnt have any morals..her cousin might be becoming a model for l'oreal. she told me all excitedly..and she couldnt understand why i wasnt jumping foir joy with her. "its every girls dream!" yeah of course!

[ricky]

We can each of us only do the best we can, and not get upset when other people - even our friends - are indifferent to the things that we care about. Is it right to say that your friend has no morals? After all, before we understood about these things, did we care? It isn't easy, but just speaking for myself, I just accept that my friends and family see things differently, and all the talking has no impact on them.

[Troutina]

Lately if I mention something, I get the "you believe anything anyone tells you on the internet" rubbish back.
I tend to completely keep my beliefs to myself- only mention them if its relevant.
People get SO sensitive when you question their (lack of) morals.

[lozza]

well i suppose, she doesnt have NO morals..that was a bit harsh & unfair to say so..but i just mean she is more concerned with her looks & the latest shampoo or perfume than whats the right thing to do.

i would never say to her "you have no morals" - thats just a bit nasty. like i said she is my best friend and i love her dearly..i guess i have to accept that some people see things differently..its just hard.

[snaffler]

Supermarkets are impossible to boycott for most of us, in my town we have ASDA and Sainsbury, ASDA are crap regarding all the Wallmart corperate stuff, but all the people I know who work for them love it, they are getting good T&C and they say they are being paid well and treated good.
From a shoppers view they sale loads of vegan products in my local ASDA store.

Sainsbury have a good wide range of vegan foods and half decent label system to help with this, the down side the CEO is a funder of animal research and is pro HLS and funds HLS work. He is also the science minister who has helped AR activist movement become classed as a terrorist movement.
The staff we know who work their say it's OK, but the sick pay system is diabolical and the staff can get dissmissed for pathetic reasons, E.G not packing the first few items for the customer.
From a shopper view good for vegan stuff.

I support the local wholefood shop but it can't all be done their

[lozza]

i am starting to really go off supermarkets. i useds to buy all my fruit & veg there..but i think i wanna switch to a fruit & veg stall..theres one on my street so i have no excuse really.

but some things i have to get at a supermarket! H&B is just too expensive sometimes

[GoodbyeGirl]

Which clothing companies do not use sweatshops?? I feel very uninformed about this. I assume all the big ones like Old Navy, Gap, Forever 21 etc. do.
But if I buy clothes in a small private owned retail store what is the guarantee that it's not from a sweatshop too? The only difference might be that they get their garments from one sweatshop locally (LA has a few of them) and not from China. This issue feels rather frustrating and complicated.... Abercombie & Fitch are on my 'OK list' right know because of their refusal to buy Australian wool products...but then again, I'm not sure if their clothes are produced by slave labor or not.....

do you know of a store called American Apparel? they are in los angeles and they make tee shirts and such. they are known for using organic cotton and paying their employees a living wage.

[Wanda]

do you know of a store called American Apparel? they are in los angeles and they make tee shirts and such. they are known for using organic cotton and paying their employees a living wage.

I had them on my list for a while (they had asked me to be added).
But then someone told me about the controversy surrounding this company (you can find out about this when you google).
I contacted American Apparel about this and they never answered me.
So for now, I'm not adding them back.

[Lentil]

I've got my diet sorted out now and I've been trying to buy cleaning products, etc. which are vegan-friendly but I'm finding it really hard to work out the good guys from the bad! I know there are quite a few threads which mention this problem so if there is one giving good clear answers please feel free to give me a shove in that direction

I was wondering if we could have a sticky (or maybe there is already one and I just didn't see it?) listing good and bad companies (mainly cleaning products but also any other companies which need boycotting).

So far the only ones I'm sure of are:

[B]Good[B]
Ecover and Co-op own brand (both animal friendly, mostly vegan but clearly labelled if not)

Bad
Procter & Gamble (terrible animal cruelty ) Their list of products includes:
Ace (bleach)
Always & Alldays
Ariel
Attends
Aussie Hair Care
Bold
Bounce
Bounty (kitchen roll)
Braun Electrical
Camay
Charmin (loo roll)
Circ
Clairol - all products
Covergirl
Crest
Daz
Dreft
Duracell Batteries
Eukanuba (pet food)
Fairy
Febreze
Flash
Gillette - all products
Giorgio Beverly Hills (fragrance)
Herbal Essences - all products
Hugo Boss (fragrance)
Head and Shoulders
IAMS
Lacoste (fragrance)
Laura Biagiotti (fragrance)
Lenor & Downy
Max Factor - all products
Olay - all products
Old Spice
Oral B – all products
Pampers - disposable nappies
Pantene - hair care
Pringles - yes Pringles crisps!
Secret - deodorant
Sinex
Swiffer
Tampax
Tempo (tissues)
Tide
Vaporub
Vidal Sassoon (VS)
Wash'n'Go
Wella - all products
Zest

Nestle (just been reading about how they inject coffee into kittens' stomachs )
I've yet to look up their list of products

[Cherry]

Good idea Lentil. I think there's a really long post around here somewhere of companies to boycott, but it'd be great to compile a list.

In terms of cleaning stuff, I've switched entirely to Ecover. I know Catmogg will tell me off but I use mostly Original Source shower gel and stuff as it's all vegan, with a few Lush things.

P&G have such a long list!!!

[herbwormwood]

soda crystals do most cleaning jobs and are available in cheap shops and most supermarkets. Also I use Bio D laundry liquid and washing up liquid. I get 5 litre containers and then decant. For heavy duty cleaning I use Astonish products.
Narural Collection does some more unusual cleaning produts. If you shop online with them via th Greenpeace website, some of the purchase price gets donated to Greenpeace. Not all vegan but non vegan items are marked as such.
I have now eliminated all non vegan cleaning products from my home. When I go to oter people's houses and see what they use, I struggle to keep my mouth shut (for diplomacy's sake) because I know most of the stuff they use is basically poison.

[Troutina]

Why do you boycott Hugo Boss?
My boyfriend will not be pleased, he did some research and found nothing on them, and apparantly it says they dont test on animals so he just bought a £25 bottle of the stuff

[Tigerlily]

Why do you boycott Hugo Boss?
My boyfriend will not be pleased, he did some research and found nothing on them, and apparantly it says they dont test on animals so he just bought a £25 bottle of the stuff

They are still owned by P&G, though, I think.

[Troutina]

They are still owned by P&G, though, I think.

You're right, I can't believe we missed that.
He is not best pleased, in fact his exact words were:
"Bum cracks".

[mrknifey87]

Regarding Coca-Cola, I think the issue deserves some clarification:

First, all that has been said about Coke's depletion of India's water table is as far as I know completely true. That in and of itself should be enough of a reason to boycott the stuff. That said, the accusation of human rights violations should be approached with a level of skepticism.

You have to remember that we're talking about Columbia here, one of the most hostile places in the world for unionists. Since 1990, some 4000+ unionists have been kidnapped and killed by right-wing paramilitary death squads. So the fact that Coke union reps were being threatened isn't in and of itself an indictment of Coca-Cola. Also, Coke doesn't own the plant in Carepa, it is actually owned by a South-American subsidiary (its name escapes me now) that Coke owns most of the stock in. The emotional impact you get from reading the KillerCoke site is that Coke somehow orchestrated the death of these brave men. That's ridiculous. No one actually knows for sure what happened there except several unionists were killed under suspicious circumstances, and a SINALTRAINAL leader, Isidro Gil, was executed inside the plant's gates. My theory is that the head of the plant knew what was going on and let it happen. His knowledge of the incident doesn't necessarily mean that Coke's subsidiary knew it was going to happen, nor Coke. This is an interpretive scenario, so draw your own conclusion. However, there is a major problem with Coke's handling of the situation!

After USAS got involved, student activist groups demanded an independent audit of the Carepa plant in Columbia. After a while of back-and-forth accusing/denying, Coke finally decided to dispatch an auditing group to the plant. That group is named Cal Safety Compliance Corporation. This name might ring a bell with some older union activists: the group failed to uncover the worst incident of sweatshop abuse in modern American history El Monte, California. They audited a front shop called D&R and somehow didn't notice that the garments were being sent to a sweatshop behind the factory then shipped to manufacturers.

Cal Safety is neither competent nor independent. They announced their visit to the Carepa plant ahead of time, effectively undermining the possible honesty of employees as to how things were at the plant. All that was found were a few broken fire extinguishers and some poorly placed doors. But now, Coke claims that since the plant received a clean bill of health, that everything is A-OK! USAS rejected the audit and is still pressing for an independent audit. Now Coke has responded by requesting with the UFW to have the International Labor Organization run another audit. Coke's damage control, Director of Global Relations Ed Potter, sits on the board of this group! Once again Coke is trying to dodge any sort of real accountability.

And that, my friends, is very, very suspicious. So if you won't boycott Coke for the human rights abuses, boycott it for not submitting to a real independent audit!

[Troutina]

The Coke sold in India is completely different to that sold in the US and UK. It contains over 30 banned substances, a lot of which are believed to cause cancer.

[paperapostle]

Proctor&Gamble for their support to develop RFID* programs.

*http://www.nocards.org/AutoID/overview.shtml
*http://www.democracynow.org/article....=thread&tid=25

[veganwitch]

This thread is informative and discouraging on so many levels. I consider myself to be fairly well informed but I guess you learn something new everyday.

No more duracell or birdseye here.

Also, could someone point me in the right direction for more info about Nestle. ? Specifically the injecting coffee into kittens stomachs???? (please dont' let this be true!). I buy Poland Spring bottled water. I've bought it for years and I recently heard it was now owned by Nestle.

I'm with you folks who find this incredibley overwhelming . Some days (most days) I feel like I can't win no matter what I do.

I had just recently discovered Green and Black's too and thought it was a wonderful thing.

[treehugga]

Just about all the multi's as they are all corrupt.
Especially Nestle and Loreal due to their disgusting human rights abuse. Maxfactor - still testing on animals.
Cigarette companies-gave up when I discovered their corrupt and abusive values plus damage to environment and human rights.

Most of all I despise McD's. For obvious reasons.

I only buy from small companies with good ethical values. There are so many good ones around and we should support them.

[Monday]

Please take heart people. Eaverytime you run out of something replace it with something ethical and vegan and then you will always know where to get it from again (just keep an eye that they are still ethical!!). It is best to try to support small ethical organisations where possible and local ones too.

Ecover unfortunately has a 5 year rolling policy for animal testing on its ingredients.

The Compassionate Shopping Guide and the Animal Free Shopper are really helpful and we also use the Good Shopping Guide.

I too felt overwhelmed when I started and we still make mistakes but just do it one item at a time as you run out and eventually you will find reliable suppliers who you like and it becomes relatively easy and you feel good.

And yes sometimes, you might have to compromise but do the best you can.

Monday xx

[Kevster]

The article has a bit on Coca Killer too:

'The real cost of a bag of salad: You pay 99p. Africa pays 50 litres of fresh water

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 29 April 2006

To you it is a bag of salad, dropped into the supermarket trolley with the weekly groceries. But to farmers in Kenya starved of the water extracted by large scale agriculture to grow it, it may spell destitution. The world is running out of water and British supermarket shoppers are contributing to global drought, according to environmental pressure groups.

Customers who scour the aisles of Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose for Spanish tomatoes, Egyptian potatoes and Kenyan roses, are intensifying the worldwide shortage of our most precious resource.

In Kenya, the food items grown for export include lettuce, rocket, baby leaf salad, mangetout, peas and broccoli. Even producing a small 50g salad bag wastes almost 50 litres of water in the countries where the commodity is at its most precious. A mixed salad containing tomatoes, celery and cucumber, as well as lettuce, would require more than 300 litres. Washing, processing and packaging adds to that total. [...]'

http://news.independent.co.uk/enviro...icle360836.ece

[rianaelf]

Shopping can be a nightmare out there. Takes me twice as long to do any shopping as I am constantly reading the labels.

When I get the chance, I stick stickers that says 'This product was tested on animals' on various items in shops.

hahaha, kool, good idea, where do you get the stickers?

[spockafina]

.

[Russ]

Almost all of what I had in mind has been said;

But here's a few more.

Marks and Spencer fund nightly bulldozings of Palestinian houses. While Palestinians are still inside. I'm not claiming to have a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict (perhaps overthrowing the American capitalist regime would be a start) but this certainly isn't helping.

Some people spoke of an Asda-Walmart connection; I'm pretty sure they're actually the same company, and just have a different name here in the UK.

As for Sainsburys, are you sure they support animal testing? I try to avoid it anyway because Lord Sainsbury is a bastard for various reasons, but on the back of their products I'm pretty sure it says "Sainsburys is against animal testing and funds research into alternatives."

A great book to read about Sainsburys, Monsanto, Asda/Walmart, privatisation and the way big business dominates government policy is Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain by George Monbiot, who is a really smart guy.

[Enchantress]

Nestle and Coca-Cola, just because they're generally considered to be crap. I should really research unethical companies a bit more .

[veggiesosage]

Asda was actually taken over by Wal mart a couple of years ago.

It annoys me that Asda now puts 'part of the Wal mart family' on its signs, as if that makes it sounds less threatening and more cuddly than 'wal mart evil empire'.

[mophoto]

Get a re-usable bottle like a Nalgene that can last for many, many years.

nalgene- there is another company to boycott
( i have a bottle too, got it before i read this)

http://www.rmad.org/nalgene.html

[Russ]

That is sick.

[Roxy]

I bought a SIGG bottle on-line from this place and I love it!

I have also heard that Nalgene bottles are not healthy as the plastic leaches chemicals into the water.

[mophoto]

thanks roxy!

[Troutina]

Hahahaaaa:

[aubergine]

We passed him in the Lanes on the Brighton meetup on Sunday!

[Troutina]

We passed him in the Lanes on the Brighton meetup on Sunday!

*shudder*

I'm so sorry for you.

[aubergine]

He looked dissapointed we didn't say hello and make a fuss of him.

[Russ]

One can of spraypaint each, let's take back the streets.

[Soul Rebel]

Nestle holds about 50% of the world's breast milk substitute market and is being boycotted for continued breaches of the 1981 WHO Code regulating the marketing of breast milk substitutes.

Nestle encourages bottle feeding primarily by either giving away free samples of baby milk to hospitals, or neglecting to collect payments. It has been criticised for misinforming mothers and health workers in promotional literature. Nestle implies that malnourished mothers, and mothers of twins and premature babies are unable to breastfeed, despite health organisations claims that there is no evidence to support this.

Evidence of direct advertising to mothers has been found in over twenty countries such as South Africa and Thailand. Instructions and health warnings on packaging are often either absent, not prominently displayed or in an inappropriate language. All of these actions directly contravene the Code regulating the marketing of baby milk formulas.

Nestle own nearly 50% of the cosmetics company L'Oreal. L'Oreal was subject to boycott calls from animal rights groups including PeTA because of its animal testing policy. Since then L'Oreal has claimed that it no longer tests finished products on animals. This statement is obviously intended to mislead since finished products do not require further testing and it implies that the ingredients are certainly still subject to tests. Some groups called off the boycott in response to L'Oreals' claims, however there are individuals and organisations who continue the boycott and L'Oreal continues to test on animals.

Note: According to Baby Milk Action, the following Tesco own-brand breakfast cereals are manufactured by Nestle; Corn Flakes, Bran Flakes, Puffed Rice, Sultana Bran, Cocoa Puffs, Cocoa Flakes.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8148/nestle.html

http://danny.oz.au/BFAG/

http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/nestle.html

http://www.infactcanada.ca/nestle_bo...product.htm#US

[veggiewoman]

I learnt about Nestle earlier this year , shocking and sad news.

There is also this website too

http://www.babymilkaction.org/index.html

[apyatez]

billy,
there is a new balance factory shop in keswick in the lakes. it is superb.and cheap as they are made just up the raod

[Roxy]

I'm sorry if it's already been posted, but I found out about this website, where you can vote for which companies belong in the "Corporate Hall of Shame". It also gives some interesting info on reasons to boycott certain companies.

http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/cm...?group_id=1000

[empress]

Sorry if this has been posted already, but I read in the UTNE reader last night about the March of Dimes giving millions of dollars a year to fund animal experimentation.

[cobweb]

I admit I have given up boycotting companies as such . It's a total minefield because so many are controlled by others, etc.........Plus, I am very poor at the moment so my choices are narrowed by poverty .

[Roxy]

You can only do the best you can cobweb. I understand that buying ethically sometimes costs quite a bit more. There are other things you can do though, such as make your own cleaners etc. I'm sure we had a thread somewhere about how to make your own natural cleaners (with ingredients such as baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar etc).