BOTTLED WATER FOOD MILES - FACT AND FICTION

Some UK politicians have accused bottled water of a massive environmental impact, condemning huge amounts that travel thousands of miles. Doh ! For a start, I don't think anyone is suggesting that bottled water contributes more than 0.1% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions. The Times newspaper has highlighted imports from the United States and Fiji. The Government's own trade figures show these were in fact as little as 0.03% and 0.04% of the UK bottled water market in 2006. Fiji Water in The Grocer at the weekend said its water only comes by ship and a full year's UK imports created less carbon than a return flight from London to New York. Yet somehow BBC Panorama couldn't avoid its flight to Fiji to investigate. If Fiji water is wrong, what about the £2 billion of wine imports from Australasia, South America and South Africa. And why not ban beer from Mexico or India, vodka from Russia, cut flowers from Kenya or computers from Japan ? It's not wrong. It's not right. It's a choice. Certainly, we'll all have to wise up environmentally about some of the choices we make and it's perfectly fair to have a debate about them. But let the debate be informed and proportionate … starting with once respected institutions like Parliament and the BBC.