Category: honorary degree
Brabeck/Nestle/Water Teach In Event presenter’s notes – University of Alberta, Feb 29, 2012
BRABECK-NESTLE-WATER TEACH-IN NOTES
The Teach-In was held the day before the honorary degree ceremony.
This attached pdf file includes presenter’s notes from:
Sara Dorow (Associate Professor, Sociology, UofA)
Sourayan Mookerjee (Associate Professor, Sociology, UofA)
John Parkins (Associate Professor, Rural Economics and Sociology, UofA)
David Kahane (Political Science, UofA)
Dr. Amy Kaler (Sociology) This is the letter I wrote to Indira Samarasekera and to Linda Hughes, Chancellor of the University, on February 7, the date the honorary degree was announced
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Dear Drs Hughes and Samarasekera,
I received an announcement in my University of Alberta email this morning informing me that Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chair of the Nestle Group, will be receiving an honorary degree from the University on the the first of March. According to the email, this degree is intended to honor individuals who have made major contributions to “the preservation, distribution and management of one of humanity’s most vital resources: water”.
I was surprised to see Mr Brabeck-Letmathe’s name among the honorees. While I have no doubt he is an effective businessperson, his company is not known for its stewardship of water. As I’m sure you know, Nestle has been embroiled for decades in controversies surrounding the promotion of breastmilk substitutes to poor women in the global south. The key question here was whether Nestle was adequately mindful that women without secure access to clean water would use dirty water to dilute the milk-substitute concentrate, resulting in enormously increased risk of diarrhoeal diseases to their babies; and whether Nestle as a company was prioritizing the sale of milk substitute and its attendant risk over maternal and child health. A worldwide boycott of Nestle took place between 1977 and 1984, called off when the company agreed to abide by the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. However, since 1984 there have been repeated allegations that the company has backslid, and evidence is continually surfacing that Nestle has not been maintaining a firewall between dirty water and babies, despite reassuring statements from its leadership.
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Dr. Amy Kaler (Sociology & School of Public Health)
February 9, 2012
Dear Drs Hughes and Samarasekera,
I’m writing to follow up the message below, which I sent on Tuesday. The issues raised have generated quite a lot of interest and email traffic on campus, particularly among the faculty members to whom this message is cc’ed. I understand that the question of this honorary degree has also “gone viral”, such that many members of the university community are encountering it in different media.
Unfortunately, to my knowledge there has been no response from your offices, either in the form of a simple acknowledgment of the concerns raised or in the more robust form of a substantial reply to my request for more information about this decision. I would appreciate receiving a response of either sort, and I know my appreciation would be shared by other who are perturbed by the apparent implications of this award. Continue reading
Edmonton Journal Editorial advocates expanding diversity on water panel
“Diverse water panel welcome idea”
March 1, 2012
In this province, spending energy on water surely must be seen as at least as valuable as the reverse.
Unlike oilsands bitumen, water is a partially renewable resource, but our fresh reserves are under intensifying pressure from booming industry and nation-leading population growth and it is well past time for our deepest thinkers to form a strategy that will provoke responsible governmental policy on preservation and recycling.
If, as some fear, the Redford government is prepared to embrace the concept of a provincewide water market as a means of regulation, it must also address the resulting commodification and potential for a damaging increase in demand. Continue reading
Dr Samarasekera dismisses opposition to the honorary degree (Edmonton Journal & Regina Leader Post)
“What I don’t understand is why doesn’t Maude Barlow just phone me?” [Dr. Samarasekera] asked, adding “ we want to hear from everyone.”
On February 27, 2012, Sheila Pratt’s Edmonton Journal article is republished outlining Dr. Samarasekera’s response to opposition:
[Dr. Samarasekera} declined to discuss what role might be played by Brabeck-Letmathe, who advocates water markets and whose company runs one of world’s biggest bottled water businesses.
She acknowledged the announcement of his honorary degreee caused some controversy and that her office has received a lot of mail, including aletter from Maude Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians and a former senior adviser on water to the United Nations in 2007-08.
This blog was conceived after I read this comment that no matter the intention, reminds me how things are done in Alberta. Backroom off-record talks. Why wouldn’t the suggestion be that this distinguished international expert on water participate as a board member of the new Water Initiative at the University of Alberta?
Dr. Colin Soskolne, (Epidemiology) School of Public Health, UofA, comments before the honorary degree ceremony
March 1, 2012
Dr. Colin Soskolne addressed the crowd of a hundred or so students and faculty in front of the Timms Centre, U of Alberta, before the honorary award ceremony. His remarks were informal, but he summarizes them below:
1. I recalled the controversy over Nestle’s infant formula advertising campaign from when I had been, in 1972 – some 40 years ago – travelling in Botswana, Southern Africa, and witnessed for myself bill boards promoting infant formula. What an indelible mark that had left on my memory! Even as a young person with little training in health, it seemed so counter-intuitive a recommendation to me.
Dr. Laurie Adkin (Political Science, UofA) speech before the honorary degree ceremony, University of Alberta, March 1, 2012
February 27-March 1, 2012
“Two of these things belong together; one of these things just doesn’t belong.”
–Sesame Street song
I am grateful for this opportunity to debate the rationale that has been offered to us, so far, for the University Executive’s decision to award an honorary degree to the Chair of Nestlé’s Group. My particular focus is how we can understand the Executive’s decisions regarding the honorary doctorate and the Water Initiative, and its responses to the ethical and governance issues raised by its endorsement of Nestlé. The two key questions, for me, are: why did the honorary degrees committee of the Senate—which is chaired by the Chancellor, and on which both the President and the Provost sit—decide to award Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe an honorary doctorate, and; second, why should we care? What leads us to stand here today, risking frostbite and disapproval?
The President has said that the Swedish International Water Institute Industry Award was given “significant weight” in the honorary degree committee’s decision to offer Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe an honorary doctorate (Colloquy Blog post, February 9, 2012). This award was, in fact, given to Nestlé, for its achievements in conserving water within its operations (and by an institute that Nestlé has funded[1]). But she has contradicted this rationale by also insisting that the degree does not honour Nestlé, but rather, Brabeck-Letmathe’s individual intellectual contributions to debates about water management.[2] The main work referred to in support of Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe‘s intellectual contributions is a report prepared by the 2030 Water Resources Group[3] (2009, World Bank) in which Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe participated.[4] This report outlines a number of technology and market-based approaches to reducing water use. These range from water pricing (which we already have, in a form, in Alberta) to the creation of a water bank or spot market for water.[5] In his role as Chair of Nestlé’s Group, Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe has publicly stated his view that water (apart from that used for drinking and hygiene) should be treated as a commodity, like “any other foodstuff.” He also considers the view, promulgated by NGOs, that access to water is a human right, to be “extreme.”[6]
Dr. Laurie Adkin (Political Science, UofA) writes to the Chancellor, University of Alberta
February 8, 2012
Dear Linda Hughes
I am writing to you with regard to an email I received yesterday from President Samarasekera’s office, announcing that she and the Chancellor intend to bestow an honorary degree upon Mr. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, along with two other individuals.
My concern is specifically with the honouring of Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe for his “work on water”. (The invitation says little about the reasons for this honour, apart from the association with the “future of water.”) As you know, Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe is the Chair of Nestlé Group, one of the world’s largest multinational corporations and the world’s largest marketer of bottled water.
Dr. Janice Williamson (English & Film Studies, UofA) writes
February 27, 2012
As a long-time faculty member at the University of Alberta, I have opposed the University of Alberta decision to award an honorary degree to corporate executive Peter Brabeck-Lamathe, CEO of Nestlé Group and executive with Nestlé since 1997.
The other day, I participated at an interfaculty meeting with University of Alberta colleagues from various faculties and departments. While the reason for our meeting was unrelated to this honorary degree, our conversation turned to the ethical dimensions of our teaching and research. At the table, one person detailed how Nestlé over many years has been a textbook case of controversial corporate practices on a number of fronts. And there was nothing abstract in this attribution since a number of professors from different faculties pointed out that the textbooks they used in their courses include references, articles, and chapters devoted to ethical problems with Nestlé.
Dear Indira Samarasekera Re: the UofA Honorary Doctorate for Nestle Group Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe 