Let *them* eat cereal: what’s next?

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The consumer boycott of Kellogg’s products runs from April 1st through to June 30 (context in this post).

With any luck, the earnings report for the second quarter of 2024 will earn (har har) asshole and Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick a good spanking, and force the corporation to reckon with their price gauging, sourcing practices, worker exploitation, and so forth.

Does that mean we are done?

Actually, it means we are just getting started.

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By popular demand (aka, voting on the LetThemEatCereal.info site), the next boycott targets Nestlé, from July 1st through September 30th.

Just like Kellogg’s, Nestlé has untold numbers of what the industry calls “white labels”; that is, items that they produce, process and package for sale by other companies. In many cases, it’s nigh imposible to find out which corporation actually makes something we consume, and that is by design; on the LetThemEatCereal site, there’s a page listing Nestlé brands that seems to have been taken wholesale from this Wikipedia page–if you know of any other brands or products sold under other corporation labels, that are in fact produced by Nestlé, please use the site’s contact form to expand and corroborate the list.

Two weeks is shortish notice, if you haven’t been keeping up with the website or aren’t subscribed to their newsletter, but that page should give you a decent leg up on planning your shopping for the third quarter of the year–that’s just over two weeks from today. (footnote ²)

There are, of course, some items that have no feasible substitution, either because the alternatives are well beyond one’s budget, or not on sale locally (and shipping moves them to the “beyond budget” section), or the company has what is essentially a monopoly of the market under their different brands plus the white label stuff.

So, you know, go forth and boycott Nestlé–as best you can, given all the exceptions and limitations outlined in the preceding paragraphs–for ninety two days, starting July 1st.

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Our good de facto guide through these troubled waters, TallGirl6234 on TikTok (see footnote ¹), insists that these consumer boycotts are entirely apolitical, since people from every spot in the political divide (it’s not really a spectrum, is it?) is affected by corporate greed in these late-stage-capitalism times.

At the same time, let us all acknowledge that the only way to break up monopolies (of goods or services) in the U.S., is by empowering the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to actually go after companies that are de facto monopolies (see amazon web services, or google search, or microsoft office, or…), or that are colluding to act like a monopoly (oh boy, so many–from tech giants to landlords to hey, food and beverage corporations)

And the only way to empower–in budget and legislation–both of these agencies is to elect politicians that will fund the FTC and will prod the DoJ to engage in antitrust activities.

And the only way to elect people is to vote for them–that is, to vote for politicians who acknowledge these issues and who have stated positions on them, that are favorable for consumers (aka, ordinary folk who vote), rather than favorable to corporations.

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Which brings me to the good work of the amazing Romancing the Vote peeps.

If you don’t know who or what I’m talking about, there’s context in this post; the auction will happen the first five days of July, and the form to donate items for the auction is now open! Go forth to this link, do your bit to help other people exercise their right to vote come November.

For the most significant form of collective action in a democracy is the vote, and it is a citizen’s right and duty to use it for the collective good, to the best of their understanding.

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¹ The lady in question will be the first to say that she doesn’t want to be the “face of the revolution”, for a host of reasons, starting with “collective action means all of us”–see her TikTok here.

² For reasons beyond my ken, my ISP has blocked the LetThemEatCereal site; I can access is on my cellphone, but as I cannot work wordpress there–yes, I am that person–, and I don’t have any other device that can get online through my phone–yes, truly, I am that person–, I cannot provide my kind readers the specific URL/link to that page. However, it’s pretty easy to navigate there from the site’s landing page: there’s a menu on the top right, click on that, select “corp info” and then select “Nestlé products on that next list. Voilà!