Beer at What Cost? How Heineken and AB InBev Exploit Mexican Communities
Posted on December 20, 2024 in AB InBev, Heineken, Sabotage, MexicoThe brewing giants Heineken and Grupo Modelo (controlled by AB InBev) are driving down barley prices for farmers in Mexico’s Altiplano region while overexploiting scarce local water resources. To produce just one liter of beer, these companies extract between 2.6 to 5 liters of water, amounting to billions of liters annually – at an absurdly low cost. This unchecked extraction burdens local communities already grappling with water scarcity, all while these corporations report massive profits.
The case highlights the hypocrisy of Big Alcohol’s claims of supporting local farmers and marginalized groups. Companies like Heineken and AB InBev often promote themselves as champions of local economies, parading corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that paint an image of sustainability and partnership with communities. In reality, their practices in Mexico reveal a starkly different story: exploitation of farmers who are paid too little for their barley and depletion of precious water resources, undermining both livelihoods and local ecosystems.
This situation echoes similar patterns seen elsewhere, such as in Sri Lanka, where alcohol companies’ demand for natural resources exacerbates food insecurity and economic hardships. Across regions, the alcohol industry consistently prioritizes profits over sustainability, equity, and community well-being. These harmful practices expose the deep conflict of interest between their profit-driven operations and the real needs of the communities where they operate.
The example from Mexico makes it clear: behind the polished CSR campaigns and promises of community support, alcohol companies like Heineken and AB InBev continue to exploit local farmers and precious resources. It’s time to challenge their harmful business practices and demand policies that prioritize people, ecosystems, and true sustainability over profits for health harming industries.
Sabotage is Big Alcohol’s deliberate actions to damage and obstruct people’s access to public goods. This strategy comprises calculated actions to break and undermine society’s rules, laws, and regulations. This strategy also includes willful activity that jeopardizes people’s access to essential resources such as water and basic food. And it includes Big Alcohol’s deliberate activities to damage or disrupt the proper functioning of society’s institutions, preventing them from addressing alcohol-related harm in the public interest.
Examples of this strategy include corruption, bribery, tax evasion and avoidance, price-fixing cartels, violations of alcohol marketing rules, and other unethical practices, such as depleting scarce drinking water.