Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, And The Battle Over America's Drinking Water
by Elizabeth Royte /
2009 / English / EPUB
1.8 MB Download
Second only to soda, bottled water is on the verge of becoming
the most popular beverage in the country. The brands have become
so ubiquitous that we're hardly conscious that Poland Spring and
Evian were once real springs, bubbling in remote corners of Maine
and France. Only now, with the water industry trading in the
billions of dollars, have we begun to question what it is we're
drinking.
Second only to soda, bottled water is on the verge of becoming
the most popular beverage in the country. The brands have become
so ubiquitous that we're hardly conscious that Poland Spring and
Evian were once real springs, bubbling in remote corners of Maine
and France. Only now, with the water industry trading in the
billions of dollars, have we begun to question what it is we're
drinking.
In this intelligent, accomplished work of narrative journalism,
Elizabeth Royte does for water what Michael Pollan did for food:
she finds the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends
that bring it from distant aquifers to our supermarkets. Along
the way, she investigates the questions we must inevitably
answer. Who owns our water? How much should we drink? Should we
have to pay for it? Is tap safe water safe to drink? And if so,
how many chemicals are dumped in to make it potable? What happens
to all those plastic bottles we carry around as predictably as
cell phones? And of course, what's better: tap water or bottled?
In this intelligent, accomplished work of narrative journalism,
Elizabeth Royte does for water what Michael Pollan did for food:
she finds the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends
that bring it from distant aquifers to our supermarkets. Along
the way, she investigates the questions we must inevitably
answer. Who owns our water? How much should we drink? Should we
have to pay for it? Is tap safe water safe to drink? And if so,
how many chemicals are dumped in to make it potable? What happens
to all those plastic bottles we carry around as predictably as
cell phones? And of course, what's better: tap water or bottled?
