Nestle Gets 10,000 Messages in a Bottle

While Nestle executives put on a good show of the corporation's
green and good neighbor initiatives in Switzerland, communities sent
out an SOS from the corporation's headquarters for its bottling
operations in North America.

Leaders from communities near Nestle bottling sites, and the
national Think Outside the Bottle campaign that works with them,
delivered 10,000 messages in a bottle calling on Nestle to stop
undermining local control of water.

Nestle is currently involved in water bottling disputes with
communities in six states and Canada. From outside the shareholders'
meeting the picture is an unpleasant one for the bottling giant:

Bottled water sales down. In the last year
Nestle's global bottled water sales declined by 1.6 percent thanks to
the economy and mounting grassroots pressure for bottlers to change
their practices.

New Colorado expansion meets resistance.
Just this month, new plans to tap aquifers that feed the Arkansas River
surfaced in Colorado, provoking determined community opposition.

Another run at McCloud. Nestle recently
announced plans to make another run at bottling water near Mt. Shasta
in California, despite years of local resistance.

New England, new challenges. This year,
New England municipalities have countered Nestle's aggressive expansion
by passing moratoriums on water bottling. Still, Nestle continues to
seek new bottling sites in the region.

In Florida, flexing its muscle. The corporation is fighting a Florida state proposal to tax bottlers to more fairly compensate the public for withdrawals.

"With Nestle the story is always the same, the only difference is
the address," said Terry Swier of Michigan Citizens for Water
Conservation.

Swier's organization is involved in a protracted legal battle with
Nestle over the bottling of water from a protected area in Northern
Michigan. An early ruling determined that Nestle's pumps were likely to
narrow streams, expose mud flats and reduce flow levels.

"Nestle is determined to run us dry in more ways than one and no
amount of talk about being a 'good neighbor' will change that fact,"
said Swier.

Nestle's tactics for undermining local control of water goes well
beyond the courts. It has done everything from engineering backroom
deals to running manipulative PR campaigns to put a green veneer on its
brands.

"When one tactic fails, Nestle changes things up and tries another,"
said Shelly Gobeille, of Protect Our Water and Wildlife Resources in
Shapleigh, Maine. "What doesn't change is the resolve of our
communities to keep water under local control. We know all too well
what happens when that changes."

Downstream from its bottling sites, Nestle's green public relations
machine is also a force. This leaves Think Outside the Bottle and
allies wondering whether the corporation will follow through on other
environmental commitments it has made on paper.

Grassroots pressure has forced Nestle to commit, in word, to full source labeling and improved water testing disclosure.

"'Green is as green does,' which may be a hard lesson for Nestle to
learn given the corporation's history has been, 'green is as green
says,'" said Deborah Lapidus, national organizer for Think Outside the
Bottle. "If Nestle gets the message in the bottle, it'll change course
and start honoring communities' right to protect their local water
resources and follow through on its promises to consumers."