nestle ceo believes water is not a human right

[InRareForm]

http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/05/nestle-ceo-water-is-not-a-human-right-should-be-privatized.html?m=1#sthash.dxLMnraN.uxfs

[boutons_deux]

file under: Corporate takeover/privatization world-wide of everything, like water, electricity, genes, etc. everything will be shittier and more expensive, usually much more so in both aspects.

[Spurminator]

This may sound nit-picky but he's the former CEO of Nestle. It even says so in the article, despite the fact that the article's headline calls him the CEO. Basically they invite skepticism immediately, and the rest of the article doesn't help matters.

While I'm skeptical of his motives, other sources quote him as saying that the water we drink and use for hygiene IS a basic human right, but that his concern is the water we are using for other things, which he claims we are overusing and causing a global water shortage. So at the very least we should be arguing the merits of that claim, and not the selective and exaggerated position this article assigns to him.

I will say, though, he sounds god damned evil in the video.

[boutons_deux]

"we are using for other things"

like what?

corporate agriculture?

all industrial uses?

watering 10Ks of golf courses so the richies can amuse themselves?

[Blake]

"we are using for other things"

like what?

corporate agriculture?

all industrial uses?

watering 10Ks of golf courses so the richies can amuse themselves?




fwiw, golf courses in SA are using recycled, non-potable water

[TSA]

fwiw, golf courses in SA are using recycled, non-potable waterAs are most courses, along with drought resistant grasses. Won't be long before you don't see many lush green golf courses anymore, too damn expensive to keep up. Anyone guess the cost to maintain Augusta National on a yearly basis?

[RandomGuy]

This may sound nit-picky but he's the former CEO of Nestle. It even says so in the article, despite the fact that the article's headline calls him the CEO. Basically they invite skepticism immediately, and the rest of the article doesn't help matters.

While I'm skeptical of his motives, other sources quote him as saying that the water we drink and use for hygiene IS a basic human right, but that his concern is the water we are using for other things, which he claims we are overusing and causing a global water shortage. So at the very least we should be arguing the merits of that claim, and not the selective and exaggerated position this article assigns to him.

I will say, though, he sounds god damned evil in the video.

Water is becoming more and more important.

Interesting technologies though, promise to derail any corporation stupid enough to think that they can make money selling the water:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cheap-nanotech-filter-water


Thalappil Pradeep and his colleagues at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras developed a $16 nanoparticle water filtration system that promises potable water for even the poorest communities in India and, in the future, for those in other countries sharing the same plight.
...
In a report published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Pradeep and his collaborators explain that the microbe filter relies on silver nanoparticles embedded in a cage made of aluminum and chitosan, a carbohydrate derived from the chitin in crustacean shells. The cage blocks macroscale water contaminants as well as protects the nanoparticles from sediments that would otherwise accumulate on their surfaces, thereby preventing them from releasing microbe-zapping ions.


The above link is already here and almost in producton.

A slightly different technology, in the pipeline (heh);


"It's 500 times thinner than the best filter on the market today and a thousand times stronger," Stetson explained to Reuters. "The energy that's required and the pressure that's required to filter salt is approximately 100 times less."
Lockheed is reportedly already ramping up production efforts for the filters—and trying to find a way to keep them from tearing—though there are no announced plans on when they'd hit the market. Tomorrow isn't soon enough.
http://gizmodo.com/5990876/lockheeds-new-carbon-filter-takes-all-the-effort-out-of-desalinization

Even if the energy of the final product end up only being 1/3 or 1/4 instead of 1/100, that is a game changer.

Desalinization

[Drachen]

"we are using for other things"

like what?

corporate agriculture?

all industrial uses?

watering 10Ks of golf courses so the richies can amuse themselves?




That and watering your front lawn.

[TeyshaBlue]

That and watering your front lawn.

I just filled my swimming pool for the season. Then I grilled steak and had a goblet of chilled peasant's blood./greypoupon

[Drachen]

I just filled my swimming pool for the season. Then I grilled steak and had a goblet of chilled peasant's blood./greypoupon

I like to change the water in my pool every three days because I have heard that waterborne organisms need three days to become chlorine resistant.

THANKS OBAMA

[coyotes_geek]

Before I can form an opinion one way or another I need to know what someone thinks a human right to water would look like? What does that even mean?

And no, I did not watch the 6 minute youtube spoken in a foreign language.

[boutons_deux]

One poor, little town told Nestle to fuck off, blocking Nestle's attempt to suck out the town's water and ship it elsewhere.

In 2006 Nestle began a negotiations process with the town of McCloud, CA to build one of the nation's largest bottled water plants and use a portion of the water flowing from the springs of Mt. Shasta. The contract process was protested by local special interest groups[13] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCloud,_California#cite_note-13) whose claims include that Nestle neglected to study the impact on the region's ground water and have overstated the potential economic benefits of the proposed plant. On May 13, 2008 AP Press reported that Nestle announced plans to reduce the size of the proposed McCloud Bottled Water plant to 350,000 sq ft (33,000 m2) from the originally-planned 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m2) proposal. Nestle also agreed to monitor the impact of the plant on the local watershed for two years.[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCloud,_California#cite_note-14) Nestle opened a different bottling plant in Sacramento (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento,_California), CA, in July 2009, and then in September 2009 Nestle announced they would no longer pursue any bottling operation in McCloud.[15] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCloud,_California#cite_note-15) Nestle plans to sell the property they had acquired for the bottling site, which was the site of the defunct McCloud lumber mill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCloud,_California#Nestle_plant

[DMC]

I leave my hose on just for the fuck of it. It runs constantly. Do I give a fuck? No.

[RandomGuy]

That and watering your front lawn.

Agriculture uses about three times more water than cities do.

If one wants to address water shortages, find ways of reducing waste on farms for the biggest bang for the buck.

Oddly enough, hydroponics offers a really good solution for that, albeit a capital-intensive one.

Hydroponic greenhouses offer the ability of fresh out of season foods to be grown at any time, anywhere.

[RandomGuy]

http://kbia.org/post/hydroponic-farming

Interesting bit on how hydroponics uses 90% less water.


Soon Brooklyn residents will be able to look up to see the source of their locally-grown organic vegetables.

The Manhattan-based BrightFarms, Inc. is building a 100,000-square foot greenhouse on the roof of a 1.1 million-square foot warehouse in Sunset Park.

BrightFarms CEO Paul Lightfoot said he will grow the crops in a hydroponic system that uses minerals dissolved in water, instead of in soil.

"We're limited to products that grow well in that style, so that's why you hear me talk about lettuces and tomatoes," he said. "We'll also be growing herbs."

He said cucumbers and bell peppers could also be grown there.

BrightFarms is currently looking for a grocery store to handle an exclusive distribution contract.

The greenhouse is expected to be completed early next year and will be capable of producing about 1 million pounds of food per year.

The redevelopment of the Sunset Park warehouse is part of the Bloomberg administration’s plan to revitalize Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront.

http://www.wnyc.org/articles/features/2012/apr/06/100000-square-foot-aquaponic-farm-planned-brooklyn-rooftop/

[RandomGuy]

It may sound like an oxymoron: a delicious local, winter tomato — especially if you happen to live in a cold climate.
But increasingly, farmers from West Virginia to Maine and through the Midwest are going indoors to produce tomatoes and other veggies in demand during the winter months. "There's a huge increase in greenhouse operations," Harry Klee of the University of Florida tells us

And surprisingly, according to skeptical foodies like chef Todd Wiss, the best greenhouse tomatoes come incredibly close to reproducing that taste of a perfectly ripe, summer garden tomato. "It's amazing," Wiss says after trying a greenhouse-grown Gary Ibsen's Gold heirloom tomato.
These are a far cry from the flavorless supermarket tomatoes typically found this time of year. When tomatoes are shipped long distances, they're usually harvested before they're ripe, which compromises taste. Plus, as we've reported before, some of the flavor of those supermarket varieties has been accidentally bred out.
The advantage of the new greenhouse model is that the tomatoes are grown not far from the cities where they're sold and eaten. And it's the locavore ethos that's driving this trend. "What's harvested today will be delivered to stores tomorrow," says Paul Mock of Mock's Greenhous and Farm in Berkeley Springs, W.Va.

Mock's business has boomed in the last few years, as retailers such as Wegmans and Whole Foods in the D.C., metro area snap up his heirloom and cherry tomatoes, as well as cucumbers and lettuces.
"There were times I had to pound the pavement" to sell produce, Mock says. Now he's being paid a premium, since "locally grown" produce is in high demand. "I'm finally having fun."

Now even New Englanders can get summertime-tasting, fresh tomatoes grown not too far from home. In Maine, Backyard Farms is leading the way. And vertical greenhouses are changing the landscape, too, from the new garden spot at Chicago's O'Hare Airport to Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole, Wyo., which is just getting started.
So how do they grow? Many of these operations are turning to hydroponic farming, which means the plants are not grown in soil.
As we've reported before, soil is one key component of tomato flavor, but it's not the only one. The hydroponic tomatoes get their nutrients (and fertilizer) from liquid solutions fed directly via irrigation hoses. This typically requires less water and less land than traditional farming.
In fact, it uses up to 10 times less land and seven times less water per pound, according to Kate Siskel of BrightFarms, a company that's scaling up local produce by building greenhouses at or near supermarkets
Mock says there's another advantage of indoor growing: "We've had very little damage from bugs." And he's been able to avoid using chemicals on the leaves or fruit of his plants.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/11/29/166154083/tastier-winter-tomatoes-thanks-to-a-boom-in-greenhouse-growing

[boutons_deux]

"What's harvested today will be delivered to stores tomorrow,"

but they will still be goosed, pumped, genetically tweaked, bred to grow fast, absent nutrition and flavor.

[Drachen]

Shut up hippy and move to Colorado with that talk.