Nestle Chairman Says Water is Not a Human Right

In an interview from the Documentary We Feed The World (2005), Nestle CEO 1997-2005 and BoD Chairman 2005 till date Peter Brabeck opined that water is not a human right and should not be, he also expressed  doubt on the veracity of claims that Natural/Organic products are the best. He made this comment while at the helm of affairs at Nestle. He was the CEO until 2008 when he stepped down and is still the Chair person of the multinational's Board of Directors. excerpts from the translation.

Today people believe that everything that comes from Nature is good. That represents a huge change because until recently, we always learnt that Nature could be pitiless. Man is now in the position of being able to provide some balance to Nature, but in spite of this we have something approaching a shibboleth that everything that comes from Nature is good. A good example is the Organic Movement. Organic is now best. But Organic is not best. After 15 years of eating GM food products in the USA, not one single case of illness has occurred from eating them till date. And in spite of this we're all uneasy about it here in Europe, that something might happen to us. It's hypocrisy more than anything else.

 There's that lovely old Austrian folk song: "The dear cattle needs water, hollera, holleri". If you remember. Water is of course the most important raw material we have today in the world. It's a question of whether we should privatize the normal water supply for the population. And there are two different opinions on the matter. The opinion which I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means that as a human being you should have a right to water. That's an extreme solution. And the other view says that water is a food stuff like any other, and like any other food stuff it should have a market value. Personally I believe it's better to give a food stuff a value, so that we are all aware that it has a price, and then that one should take specific measures for the part of the population that has no access to this water, and there are many different possibilities there.

I'm still of the opinion that the biggest social responsibility of any CEO is to maintain and ensure the successful and profitable future of his enterprise.

Jerk. He reminds me of the character Peter Wayland in the movie Prometheus. Nestle employs 328,000 people globally and it is beleived 4.5 Million people depend on the firm indirectly for their lively-hood. I see why he feels like a god.

via