A sip of tap water not only satisfies a basic human need, it also makes a profound political statement. Food & Water Watch is supporting Kindle, the Northern New England Bioneers conference, in the effort to make the three-day conference bottled water-free. Reusable stainless steel canteens with Food & Water Watch‚ Take Back the Tap campaign logo will be provided to the first 200 conference participants so they can quench their thirst with safe, clean Portland tap water. Canteens will be available for sale at the Food & Water Watch booth throughout the conference.
‚The Bioneer Conference seeks to inspire a future balanced by environmental sustainability and social justice. Removing bottled water is not only economically and environmentally beneficial for conference planners and caterers, it also encourages and empowers participants to support local public water systems,” says Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch Executive Director.
‚Water is arguably the biggest natural resource available to us on planet earth, and its value may one day exceed that of oil,” said Ted Regan, president of Kaleidoscope and sponsor of Kindle. ‚We are grateful for the support and good work that comes from FWW, and we are proud to be able to offer these canteens to our conference attendees. Using a canteen is just one of the many small steps that citizens can take to affect positive change for our global environment.”
In kicking the bottle, the Kindle conference joins a growing movement of restaurants, cities and college campuses rejecting bottled water and removing plastic bottles from public functions. Earlier this year, Food & Water Watch helped to facilitate access to tap water for 50,000 fair-goers at the inaugural Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco. Food & Water Watch has developed a how-to guide,
“Free Your Event from Bottled Water,” in response to a growing trend in bottled water-free event planning, including trade shows, conferences, and university events, as well as festivals and specialty events.
The conference’s host city of Portland, ME, joined the Take Back the Tap campaign this summer, encouraging people to drink the city‚ tap water and to support local public water systems. Across the state of Maine, rural communities have received recent media attention sparked by ‚water wars” pitting Nestle-Poland Springs private bottling interests against the concerns of citizen groups and water activists who defend local control of community groundwater.
Bioneers is a nonprofit organization providing education on practical environmental solutions and innovative social strategies for restoring Earth‚ imperiled ecosystems and healing our human communities. 2008 marks the nineteenth year for the Bioneers Conference in California and the seventh year of partnering with local, independent community groups and organizations to produce these satellite conferences. The other venues include Anchorage, AK; Baltimore, MD; Boulder, CO; Bozeman, MT; Carbondale, IL; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Grinnell, IA; Houston, TX; Logan, UT; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN; New Bedford, MA; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle, WA; Spokane, WA; Traverse City, MI; and Turlock, CA.
Alexandra Cousteau
Saving Our Water Planet
Peter Neill
The World Oceans Observatory
Russell Libby
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
(MOFGA)
J. Carl Ganter
Circle of Blue
The conference also features a “Water Rights” workshop led by Tom Linzey, co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and CELDC organizer and water rights warrior Gail Darrell. Gail, founder of Citizens of Barnstead for a Living Democracy, pioneered the passage of the first New Hampshire law banning corporations from withdrawing water within threatened towns.
