Feb. 15, 2012 - Issue #852: The Coffee Issue
Water, water, everywhere
An honorary degree for the CEO of Nestlé causes international concern
Indira Samarasekera's goal when taking on the job of University of Alberta president was to make the institution internationally renowned—one of the top universities in the world by the year 2020. But the current international uproar over the granting of an honourary degree to the chairman of Nestlé is probably not what Samarasekera had in mind.
On February 8 it was announced Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, CEO of the Nestlé Group, would be the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Alberta—an honour that has been described as the university's highest. The degree is viewed as problematic by national and international advocates of water due to Nestlé's promotion of baby formula in less economically developed countries and Brabeck's controversial advocacy of the commodification of water.
"It's undeserved kudos," says Mike Brady of Baby Milk Action in the UK. "We think it would bring the university into disrepute knowing that Nestlé will use it [the degree] to divert criticism." Baby Milk Action has worked for decades to bring attention to the problematic ways in which Nestlé markets baby formula in countries like Pakistan.
Despite the sustained boycott campaign against Nestlé since the '70s, the company refuses to acknowledge the problems with its marketing practices, which violate international standards developed by the World Health Assembly. "Nestlé has been has been found to be one of the foremost boycotted companies on the planet," says Brady.
In addition to the baby formula controversy, Nestlé has also had to pay settlements for misleading advertising when it claimed its Poland Springs brand was "pure spring water," and has been challenged by American jurisdictions in Michigan, Colorado, Maine, California, Florida and Pennsylvania for targeting small communities and withdrawing massive amounts of water from aquifers for bottled water. In 2003 Food and Water Watch estimates Nestlé withdrew seven billion litres of water in the US.
Although both the president and chancellor of the University of Alberta have so far refused to give interviews on the subject, the institution released a statement on its blog Colloquy, stating the choice of Brabeck for an honorary degree is due to his "decision to use his exceptional position within the global corporate sector, as Chairman of Nestlé, to engage government and business leaders on the critical issues of water resource scarcity and security."
The Council of Canadians, however, has stated that it is this advocacy that is the problem. "Brabeck and Nestlé have been very active in advocacy," says Scott Harris, the prairies regional organizer for the Council of Canadians. Harris states that Nestlé has spent millions on advocacy and that, "The end result of advocacy is to move towards a situation where water is treated as a commodity where it is bought and sold and traded and profited off of."
The largest player in the bottled water market, Nestlé owned 30.6 percent of the US market in 2006 with sales of $9.93 billion across its 27 brands of water. Brabeck has been quite public in his advocacy of private water markets as the solution to water scarcity. In 2005, he stated in the documentary We Feed the World that the idea that water is a human right—recognized as such by the UN in 2010—is extreme, saying, "Water is food and should have a market value." In November of last year, Brabeck was appointed to the World Bank's water resources group, an organization whose goal is to "transform the water sector" and includes partnerships with Coca-Cola and Veolia, a private water operator.
Brabeck will receive the honorary degree on March 1 and participate in a presentation the same day with three other water advocates who will also receive honorary degrees. His co-recipients are Steve Hrudy, an academic working on issues of safe drinking water, and Sunita Narain, a vocal water advocate in India who has successfully lobbied corporations and governments to act on issues of environmentalism.
To have three honorary degrees awarded on the same subject is a unique decision on the university's part and could be part of the university's efforts to make water as an institution-wide priority. The field of water research is listed as a top priority by the university in its comprehensive institutional plan—approved by the board of governors last March—along with environment and energy, and infectious diseases. The plan’s aim is to "establish the University of Alberta as the intellectual anchor for international research consortia." In the last three years the university has taken steps toward raising the profile of the latter priorities, partnering with German researchers in 2009 to create the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative which works on issues related to energy and environment and in 2010 with the Government of Alberta to establish the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology.
(The university senate, responsible for the selection of honorary degree recipients, has so far turned down interview requests, as has president Samarasekera.)
The decision to honour two advocates of water as a human right alongside Brabeck could be viewed as an attempt at balance, but Harris believes it doesn't achieve its purpose. "I don't think that's balance, that's giving legitimacy to something Brabeck promotes, that [water is] a commodity," says Harris. "Water is a human right—it's too important to be left to the market."
The Council of Canadians has started an online action alert where people can send in their concerns to the University of Alberta. The International Centre on campus will hold an event on Thursday, February 16 where students and community members are invited to discuss the debate.
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