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Mackey's is a merchant's approach to the issue of bottled water: It's a choice for people to make in the marketplace. Princeton University philosopher Peter Singer takes an ethicist's approach. Singer has co-authored two books that grapple specifically with the question of what it means to eat ethically -- how responsible are we for the negative impact, even unknowing, of our food choices on the world?
"Where the drinking water is safe, bottled water is simply a superfluous luxury that we should do without," he says. "How is it different than French merlot? One difference is the value of the product in comparison to the value of transporting and packaging it. It's far lower in the bottled water than in the wine.
"And buying the merlot may help sustain a tradition in the French countryside that we value -- a community, a way of life, a set of values that would disappear if we stopped buying French wines. I doubt if you travel to Fiji you would find a tradition of cultivation of Fiji water.
"We're completely thoughtless about handing out $1 for this bottle of water, when there are virtually identical alternatives for free. It's a level of affluence that we just take for granted. What could you do? Put that dollar in a jar on the counter instead, carry a water bottle, and at the end of the month, send all the money to Oxfam or CARE and help someone who has real needs. And you're no worse off."
Water goes out; money comes in
In Fiji, the irony of shipping a precious product from a country without reliable water service is hard to avoid. Last spring, typhoid from contaminated drinking water sickened dozens of villagers and killed at least one. Fiji Water often quietly supplies emergency drinking water in such cases.The reality is, if Fiji Water weren't tapping its aquifer, the underground water would slide into the Pacific Ocean, somewhere just off the coast. But the corresponding reality is, someone else -- the Fijian government, a nongovernmental organization -- could be tapping that supply and sending it through a pipe to villagers who need it.
Fiji Water has, in fact, done just that, to some degree -- 20 water projects in five nearby villages. Indeed, Fiji Water's parent company, Roll International, has reinvested every dollar of profit since 2004 back into the business and the country.
Jim Siplon, an American who manages Fiji Water's 10-year-old bottling plant in Fiji, acknowledges the risk of slipping into capitalistic neocolonialism.
"Does the world need Fiji Water?" he asks. "I'm not sure I agree with the critics on that. This company has the potential of delivering great value -- or the results a cynic might have expected."
Water is, in fact, often the perfect beverage -- healthy, refreshing and satisfying in a way soda or juice aren't.
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Worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water.
Nestlé Waters' Jeffery may be defending his industry when he calls bottled water "a force of nature," but he's also not wrong. Consumption of bottled water has outstripped any marketer's dreams or talent: If you break out the single-serve plastic bottle as its own category, Americans' consumption of bottled water grew a thousandfold between 1984 and 2005.
In the array of styles, choices, moods and messages available today, water has come to signify how we think of ourselves. We want to brand ourselves -- as Madonna did -- even with something as ordinary as a drink of water. We imagine there is a difference between showing up at the weekly staff meeting with Aquafina or Fiji or a small glass bottle of Pellegrino. Which is, of course, a little silly.
Bottled water is not a sin. But it is a choice.
Packing bottled water in lunchboxes, grabbing a half-liter from the fridge as we dash out the door, piling up half-finished bottles in the car cup holders -- that happens because of a fundamental thoughtlessness. It's only marginally more trouble to have reusable water bottles, cleaned and filled and tucked in the lunchbox or the fridge. We just can't be bothered. And in a world in which 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water and 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water, that conspicuous consumption of bottled water that we don't need seems wasteful and perhaps cavalier.
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Tap water versus bottled water'Today' show host Katie Couric talks with Ronni Sandroff of Consumer Reports about whether water that you buy is better than what you can get free from the tap.
That is the sense in which Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, and Singer, the Princeton philosopher, are both right. Mackey is right that buying bottled water is a choice, and Singer is right that given the impact it has, the easy substitutes and the thoughtless spending involved, it's fair to ask whether it's always a good choice.
Once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it's reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just "Does the value to me equal the 99 cents I'm about to spend?" but "Does the value equal the impact I'm about to leave behind?"
This article was reported and written by Charles Fishman for Fast Company.
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