Why Not "Drink Local"?
by Jim Hightower
In a triumph of marketing over reasoning, the bottled water industry has turned us into conspicuously silly consumers.
Controlled by a handful of global conglomerates (such as Coca-Cola and Nestle), the water industry has created the fantasy that if it's in a bottle, it's purer than what comes out of the tap.
But wait — the Environmental Protection Agency stringently regulates the public water systems, requiring tests several times a day for bacteria and other contaminants ...
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Posted by: Samayel
Comment: #1
Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:22 PM
Good to see a voice of reason in the arena! The subject here is timely, the opinion valid. For people like me, in Michigan, surrounded by Great Lakes and with a water table that is much higher than most western states will ever have, it's easy to forget that water is a problem. Those who are watching closely know that lake levels are down, water tables are shrinking, and that if we continue to allow corporations to pump water out of the state at an unsustainable rate, trouble will come. It might get you money to maintain local roads or balance a troubled budget, but there's nothing in the contract about replacing thousands of wells that won't be deep enough to draw from a reduced water table in our lifetime. One guess as to who won't be footing the tab for all those consumer wells...it won't be Coca Cola or Nestle. Thanks for putting a good word in where people can see it!
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Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Comment: #2
Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:29 PM
Hey, I'm from Michigan too; and I like water too, and isn't it remarkable that in this great land blessed with an abundance of fresh water, that water can be sold for a dollar a drink? It is like selling refrigerators to Eskimos, and it is only possible because in this country, everything worth having has a price tag on it, and even if it is fresh air, fresh water or sunshine; and it does not have a price tag on it, -then any sob can turn it into so much of a free toilet that any we have left when they are done we will pay for. We don't buy water in Michgan. We pay capitalists to destroy our environment one piece at a time so they can properly price the priceless. I need a drink.
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