[GreenYes] Re: FYI on Bottled Water: No More Sweetheart Deals for Nestle

[Peter Spendelow <spendelow.peter@no.address>]

There are lots of reasons to promote the use of tap water over bottled
water, such as the energy and environmental costs of making the
bottles and the energy costs of transporting full water bottles by
truck, but this alert does not address these real issues at all.
Instead, it is claiming that a large company is abusing the public by
negotiating deals for obtaining the drinking water to put in its
bottles.  It strongly implies that people are losing their access to
water because a bottled water company is negotiating sweetheart deals
to control access to water.

We need a reality check here.  All the bottled water in the United
States is only a tiny, almost microscopic, fraction of the drinking-
quality water we use each year.

It is a rare person who drinks more than 64 oz (1/2 gallon) of bottled
water each day.  In contrast, just a single toilet flush uses between
1 and 3 gallons of water.  Washing dishes, doing laundry, taking
showers - all use multiple times the amount of bottled water that we
drink.  That is all inside the house - add in watering lawns, and you
multiply our household water use a few more times.  Yet households are
a relatively small consumer of water.  By far, most of the fresh water
that we as a nation use is used in agriculture.

What I conclude from this is that if you are interested in making sure
that the public has good access to water, there are far, far better
things you can do to promote water conservation than to go after a
bottled water company.  Changing your landscaping to plant drought-
tolerant plants, changing your diet to avoid meat, shortening your
showers, using water-efficient appliances - all those can have a real
effect in conserving water.  If you want to go after companies that
use large amounts of water, go after the large agricultural companies,
not the bottled water companies.  Even better, take responsibility to
minimize those things you do that consume good drinking water.

Peter


On Feb 14, 6:30 am, Pete Pasterz <PAPast...@no.address> wrote:
> ________________________________
>
>         From: activistnetw...@no.address [mailto:activistnetw...@no.address]
>         Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:21 AM
>         To: Pete Pasterz
>         Subject: [text][html][bayes] No More Sweetheart Deals for Nestle
>
>  <http://img.getactivehub.com/an2/custom_images/stopcorporateabuse/head...>  
> Dear Pete,
>
> No More Sweetheart Deals for Nestlé
>
>  <http://img.getactivehub.com/alert_images/speak_up.gif> Today is a day for sweethearts, not sweetheart deals for the world's largest food and beverage corporation.
>
> Click here to send Nestlé CEO Kim Jeffery a valentine <http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/ct/31MrMrS16Rp1/>  asking him to be a dear and stop threatening local democratic control of water.
>
>  <http://img.getactivehub.com/an2/custom_images/stopcorporateabuse/mcwc...> Not only has Nestlé commodified our most precious resource, it has pressured communities into deals that sell off the resource for less than 1/64 of a cent per gallon. They then sell the water back to us for more than $1 per gallon.
>
> If that equation doesn't sit right with you, send Kim Jeffery a tough love valentine <http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/ct/31MrMrS16Rp1/> .
>
> For years Nestlé has ignored community concerns - and the environment - when it takes and bottles water for brands like Poland Spring, Deer Park, Ice Mountain and Arrowhead. To get their way they have circumvented local democratic processes and spent millions to green their image - all to secure sweetheart water deals from Maine to Michigan to California.
>
> Communities are suing to put a stop to the corporation's abuses and they could use your help. Nestlé is fighting their efforts tooth and nail.
>
> So if the corporation won't listen to the law or local interests, perhaps they will listen to love? Click here to shower Kim Jeffery with the 'affection' he needs to be a sweetheart and cease the sweetheart deals. <http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/ct/31MrMrS16Rp1/>
>
> Onward,
>
>  <http://img.getactivehub.com/an2/custom_images/stopcorporateabuse/gigi...>
>
> Gigi Kellett
> Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Director
>
>  <http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/campaign/nestle_no_more_sweethea...>  
> Take Action!    
> Instructions:
> Click here to take action <http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/campaign/nestle_no_more_sweethea...>  on this issue.
>
> Tell-A-Friend:
> Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
>  Tell-a-Friend! <http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/campaign/nestle_no_more_sweethea...>  
>
> What's At Stake:
>
> Nestlé is the largest bottled water corporation in the world, with over 70 brands sold in 130 countries. From California to Michigan to Maine, Nestlé is interfering in local, democratic decision-making over water.  Read more. <http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/ct/3dMrMrS16Rpq/>
>
> Photo: Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation march against Nestlé's bottling plant in their community.
>
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