“Ethical Markets, based in this same North Florida ecosystem is appalled at this grab of our precious water supply by Nestle, to bottle it and sell it back to us!
Thanks to Independent Media for this alert!
~Hazel Henderson, Editor“
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| Nestlé’s Water Bottling Plan Threatens Florida Ecosystem | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife |
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Water wars: Young ibises perch on a fallen log along Florida’s Santa Fe River, which supports a myriad of plants and animals—species that would be threatened by Nestlé’s water bottling plan. (Photo credit: anoldent/Flickr)
CREDO Action: Florida’s rivers and the plants and animals that rely on them are already facing multi-pronged threats from land development, pollution and climate change. Now the state’s Santa Fe River is facing a new threat. Nestlé is seeking to extract more than 1.1 million gallons of water a day from the river’s natural springs to sell as bottled water. The Santa Fe is home to the Suwannee moccasinshell, a freshwater mussel that is protected under the Endangered Species Act, and imperiled sturgeon have been found swimming its waters. Turtles, birds and other plant and animal species have called this river home for centuries. Allowing Nestlé to jeopardize the health of this already threatened river is ill-advised and irresponsible. The Humane League: McDonald’s is a global giant, but when it comes to the treatment of chickens raised for its menu items, it is lagging behind. McDonald’s has released an inadequate animal welfare policy that fails to address several important welfare issues. Under current conditions, chickens in the company’s supply chain suffer from unnatural growth due to selective breeding and genetical manipulations, ammonia burns from toxic waste fumes, and debilitating injuries from being crippled by the weight of their own oversized bodies. As one of the world’s most influential companies, McDonald’s has the power to impact the entire food industry—as well as the lives of millions of suffering chickens. Instead, McDonald’s has chosen to mislead consumers with hollow promises that lack meaningful change. Animal Legal Defense Fund: Special Memories Zoo, a roadside zoo in Greenville, Wisconsin, has a well-documented history of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations. Endangered tigers, Tanya and Teagan, are just two of the more than 200 animals kept in horrible conditions at Special Memories Zoo. These tigers are confined in small, rusty cages, where they are not provided the basic necessities of clean water, food or straw. Witnesses observed the tigers’ water tanks full of algae, their food buckets infested with maggots and rancid meat, and the tigers’ straw left soiled and unchanged for months. The Animal Legal Defense Fund sent notice to Special Memories Zoo declaring an intent to sue the facility for keeping the tigers and other animals in squalid conditions that violate the Endangered Species Act, as well as state laws covering captive wild animals, animal cruelty and public nuisance. Cause for concern… Danger lurking: A new study has found that pregnant women exposed to higher levels of the common chemical bisphenol A (BPA), used in the manufacturing of plastics, are more likely to bear children who suffer from wheezing and reduced lung capacity, challenging the U.S. Food & Drug administration’s position that it’s “safe at the current levels occurring in foods.” One of the most produced chemicals worldwide, the global BPA market is projected to reach 7.3 million tons by the end of 2023. (Photo credit: mali maeder/Pexels)
Round of applause… Plastic pickup: A floating device designed by Dutch scientists for the non-profit Ocean Cleanup has successfully retrieved plastic trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous collection of marine debris in the north central Pacific Ocean estimated to be at least the size of Texas. Nearly 13 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every year. (Photo credit: Ocean Cleanup)
Parting thought… “The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it.” —Barry Commoner |