FROM BELÉM — Multinational companies Bayer and Nestlé are the target of a protest organized by environmentalists this Thursday morning (20) at Agrizone, a space dedicated to agribusiness at COP30. The act denounces contamination by pesticides in the Brazilian Cerrado.
Food and agrochemical giants — such as Bayer, Nestlé, and PepsiCo — have been using the UN (United Nations) climate conference to promote messages about health and sustainability.
“We need to make food more accessible to everyone,” said Suelma Rosa, vice president of PepsiCo for Latin America, during a panel on Saturday (15). Four days earlier, a representative from Nestlé followed a similar line of reasoning in another debate.
Corporate rhetoric is criticized by civil society organizations. “The main motivation behind these discourses is not sustainability or health, but rather corporate survival and financial obligation,” argues Paula Johns, executive director of ACT Promoção da Saúde. In her assessment, these corporations “don’t sell real food.”
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In a report on its activities in 2024, Nestlé Switzerland states that it provided 132 billion servings of affordable micronutrient-fortified foods, such as infant cereals. “Supporting newborns and infants is crucial to laying the foundation for healthy growth and development,” the publication says.
The document also explains that nutrient-rich foods are vital during early childhood. “Small stomachs have difficulty accommodating large volumes of food; therefore, fortified infant cereals and milk formulas play a key role in providing essential nutrients such as iron,” the report continues.
Aimed at children, products like Mucilon have sugar as their second main ingredient, after flour. Furthermore, they are highly processed, especially for children six months and older.
The characteristics of these products are inconsistent with the guidelines of the Dietary Gui