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From an international boycott in the 1970s to current medical warnings against ultra-processed foods and their suspected role in the global obesity crisis, Nestlé has come under intense public scrutiny. For its critics, the Swiss giant epitomises the negative impacts of the food industry on development and the Global South. What has so far eluded historical inquiry is how, from its creation in 1866 through much of the twentieth century, Nestlé shaped, and was shaped by, the ideas and practices of international development.
In Formulating development: How Nestlé shaped the aid industry, historian Lola Wilhelm takes the reader from the Alpine valleys of nineteenth century Switzerland to the hospitals of post-independence West Africa. She finds that Nestlé earned a seat at the table of international aid by partnering respected institutions, Save the Children and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.The book tells how Nestlé's humanitarian ventures brokered the Red Cross in wartime Europe, of its clinical trials in Helvetic and Senegalese maternities, and of its agricultural modernisation schemes in Switzerland, Mexico, India, and the Ivory Coast. But these corporate manoeuvres were never to everyone's taste. Against the backdrop of war and the downfall of Europe's colonial empires, the volume uncovers the long-forgotten alliances and controversies that continue to shape the aid industry.
Based on extensive research from Nestlé's archives, the records of leading aid agencies, and the experiences of hospital patients and purported aid recipients, this book interrogates the legacies of this history for international development today.