In the 1970s, Nestlé became a lightning rod for criticism against the food industry’s negative impacts on humans and their environment, especially in the Global South. But what has so far eluded historical scrutiny is that the picture was more nuanced.

This book tells the exclusive story of how the Swiss food giant, and more broadly corporate capitalism, have shaped the aid industry since the late nineteenth century. It follows Nestlé’s bid for a share of the humanitarian market brokered by the Red Cross in wartime Europe, of its clinical trials in Swiss and Senegalese maternities, and of its agricultural modernisation schemes in Mexico, India, and the Ivory Coast.

Based on extensive research in the firm’s own historical archives and the records of national and international aid agencies, the volume interrogates the legacies of this long history for international development today.