Oh, Nestlé.
There are few companies more sinister, and in our books Nestlé is up there with other corporate giants such as Monsanto, BP, and Philip Morris.
What makes an organization evil isn’t so much its clever marketing, it’s the profit-thirsty minds behind it; Meet Peter Brabeck, former CEO and now Chairman of Nestlé.
Peter gets his water for free, and sells it back to people in every country on the planet at a premium.
Peter also believes water is not a human right, and at around 2:10 in the video above, you can hear it in his own words, and in his own language (with subtitles).
Peter unfortunately does his part to run the largest distributor of food and water the world has ever seen.
How does Nestlé get its water for free?
The short answer: Lawyers and outdated laws.
By example, in British Columbia and other provinces and states Nestlé does pay, but only about $3.71 per million litres. That means it can turn one tanker load of water which costs Nestlé approximately $10 into $50,000.
Laws in North America from the west to the east loosely relate water sources to land property ownership. In Maine, which is an Absolute Dominion state, allows the owner of a parcel of land to extract as much water as he or is physically able. Back in the day, they used buckets. Today, they use pipelines and trucks, just like they do for oil. The rule was adopted in the late 1800s and reaffirmed in 1999 by the Maine Law Court. The basis for this common law rule is that owners have an unlimited right to resources under their property. This law is echoed in similar verbiage throughout our continent, in Canada and the United States alike, and due to collusion with the company, governments are often powerless.
What’s legal and ethically moral are two different things – Bottled Life
Join the fight
Of course, where there is a shadow, there is light. Concerned citizens from all over the globe are beginning to wake up and take action; We live in an era where if one wants to have a life of meaning, one not look too far for a cause worth fighting.
Canada is leading the charge against Nestlé, and they’ve racked up several wins against the bully recently. Archaic laws surrounding water extraction are being reviewed, but more needs to be done. We need more heads in the game.
In the news;
Updated B.C. water act means large-scale users like Nestlé will have to pay
Nestlé’s Digital Acceleration Team
Nestlé too, has its army fighting for the hearts and minds of those trying to decide what is right, before the fight gets too loud and others take notice.
The video below comes from Nestlé directly; Using social media intelligence methods (and plenty of marketing doublespeak), they are trying to change the discussion and take the focus off their deception.
Take it to school, take it to heart
We encourage teachers, students, alumni, and all faculty to embrace the use of modern bottle refilling stations in Canadian schools and abroad.
Through education, we can cut Nestle’s prime income source at the root by appealing to the younger generations who Nestlé preys on. If this post got you fired up, please go back to your local school and share the downloadable and editable presentation below.
Although Nestlé is not the focus of School the Bottle, it need not be.
The practical point here is not to make you angry at one company or another, but merely to illuminate the truth; Canada has the worlds largest supply of fresh water and drinking from bottles is not only unnecessary, but ignorant.
Surely there is a way we can make canteens fashionable again.
[slideshare id=24818426&doc=bottle-filling-station-school-130731170445-phpapp02]
Please support our swing at the cause; You can find School the Bottle on Facebook, Twitter, and on Slideshare.
Thoughts? Please share them in the comments!