We were thirsty the other day and wandered into a cute organic foods store on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn. As we went to pick out something to drink, we saw that only Fiji brand water was chilled. We decided to buy some tea, but for a moment we considered buying water from Fiji. After all, we were thirsty.

Then we thought about how stupid it was to buy water from Fiji . Not that there’s anything wrong with Fiji, but we don’t need their water. We have water. So when we saw the following quote, we were glad we didn’t buy water that had to be transported from Fiji.

And in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.

Consumerist is all for consuming, don’t get us wrong, but that’s just messed up. You might be a dumbass for drinking Evian (and we’ve done it) but at least the people in France appear to have enough water. If you read the rest of the article the quote comes from, it doesn’t get any better. It does, however, make us feel a little more willing to suffer the inevitable eye roll one gets from many New York servers when one says, “No, bottled water, thanks. Tap water is fine.”

Message in a Bottle [Fast Company via BoingBoing]
(Photo: rickabbo)

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