Earth Equity News

Staying ‘Naturally Hydrated’. Posted by Tom Philpott, Gristmill, September 18, 2008. “Bottled water sales growth may be drying up,’ but the bottled-water industry is veritably gushing on the PR front. Here it is investing in a high-dollar sponsorship of the upcoming presidential campaigns, joining Anheuser-Busch, EDS... BBH, a big U.K. advertising firm, and others. And over here, you've got water giants Nestle Waters, Danone, and Highland Spring rolling out the Natural Hydration Council. Right, because the only way to stay ‘naturally hydrated’ is to package water into tiny plastic bottles and haul it around the globe. The NHC will ‘research and promote the environmental, health and other sustainable benefits of natural bottled water’... [which] reminds me a bit of the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy -- a confederation of Archer Daniels Midland Co., DuPont Co., John Deere, Monsanto, and the Renewable Fuels Association. They want to make sure we know that if we don't; a) grow lots of genetically-modified crops, and b) convert a huge portion of them into fuel for our cars, then the human race will have to give up not only eating, but also, gulp, driving.”