Questionable Ownership
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Film Recommendation
Bottled Life (2012)
The Corporate Take on Water
This admittedly disturbing documentary follows some Nestle corporation’s business practices. As the planet’s largest food and beverage company, Nestle takes a pretty aggressive approach to how it pursues bottled water as a beverage product.
As the documentary unfolds, the viewer gets a glimpse of the manner in which this company exploits local environments, and corresponding governments, in the unquenchable pursuit of greater profits.
While the realization of this corporate behavior can leave the viewer unsettled, it also encourages active involvement, as an informed citizenship (and consumer) can subsequently learn to make better choices. I encourage you to give it a view.
Nestle’s Extensive Reach
If you would like to to know more about Nestle’s water practices specifically, there are a number of really good articles out there that break it down, including Bloomberg‘s “NestlĂ© Makes Billions Bottling Water It Pays Nearly Nothing For” and “The Privatization of Water,” by the Centre for Research on Globalization.
The nature of the debate revolves around the question of ownership when it comes to water rights. While it is undeniably an essential human need, Nestle argues on behalf of corporations. According to Nestle, companies should have the right to access public water and be able to profit from it.
They bring up a very good question. Who actually owns the water? Is it a public good, or rather something than belongs exclusively to citizens and living beings? Who’s need is greater? Watch this doc if you need help deciding.
Protect Water: Boycott Nestle
4 Responses
[…] biggest companies it exerts considerable influence over water access and consumption. See Questionable Ownership for […]
[…] due to the actions of a few bad actors. In fact, many of these same companies are still around (see Questionable Ownership), and continue certain immoral and unethical activities even with different people at the helm. […]
[…] industrial operations put substantial strains on the environment as well as society (see also Bottled Life). It’s a vicious cycle that needs to be broken, and the doc attempts to educate its viewers […]
[…] don’t go for Kit Kat’s or candy bars for other ethical reasons (learn more about Nestle’s Horrible Practices), so it wasn’t so much of a stretch for me to avoid it where I […]