“Green” water for Ag?
The Department of Agriculture has selected Green Bottle Spring Water to be served in its D.C. headquarter’s “food service locations.” The water itself is pumped in Alton, Virginia, and the bottles, made of corn plastic, are made in Nebraska by Cargill’s* NatureWorks. Green Bottle Spring Water is the only water served in the House cafeteria, which actually collects food waste for recycling (that’s good, because these bottles biodegrade only in an industrial compost operation; you can read more about corn plastic in this piece I wrote for Smithsonian).
Making resin from corn, says Cargill, requires less energy than making resin from petroleum. But growing that corn uses enormous fossil-fuel inputs and also consumes large quantites of water (and pollutes it). (See this Grist story for details.) If the Dept. of Ag wants to provide a healthful beverage to its 112,000 employees, why not filter tap water for dispensing into reusable glasses and bottles? (Yes, D.C. has had problems with chloramines and lead, but a good filter can make the water safe.) The switch would cut Ag’s beverage footprint, help erode our destructive obsession with single-use packaging, and save employees money.
*Update 2/5/09: Cargill was just named, by the Multinational Monitor, one of the 10 Worst Corporations of 2008.
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