Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle?

Just a few days into her reporting trip to Fiji to check out the source of America's No. 1 imported bottled water, MoJo freelancer Anna Lenzer was arrested, hauled to police headquarters, and threatened with imprisonment... or worse. She stuck it out, and the results of her investigation cast a sharp light on a celebrity-beloved brand. Fiji Water, her MoJo cover story points out, is produced under a military dictatorship, processed in a diesel-fueled plant and shipped across thousands of miles of ocean in bottles that use twice as much plastic as many competitors (yes, our intrepid factcheckers weighed them--and calculated how far some other brands travel to US store shelves. And then they sacrificed themselves and did a bottled water taste test.). Yet it's focused its marketing on winning huge credibility with eco-conscious consumers, even claiming that to drink Fiji Water is to fight global warming. Lenzer's story, Spin the Bottle captures the contradictions and dilemmas of a "green" business. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments.
Speaking of comments, we suspect this piece will kick off plenty of discussion, so we're pulling together bottled water experts, industry reps, and critics, together for a live discussion/online forum, likely August 17. Stay tuned for the details--we'll promote it on the home page and also post the info here in the blog.

Follow Clara Jeffery and Monika Bauerlein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/motherjones

Comments

[hughfree]

I'm an American married to an Indo-Fijian and I think that discrediting Fiji Water is a really shameful thing to do. Sure in my world all bottled waters are silly unless I'm in a location with suspected water contamination. Who are Americans to trump up useless consumer products. Our landfills are full of them.

As for the Fiji Gov't. I have spent a fair amount of time in Fiji and I believe that Banimarama is doing the right thing in Fiji. Every time there has been a coup in Fiji the outside world puts on the pressure to hold elections and the results have been a disaster. Good for Banimarama. Decide what is best for Fiji and do it the Fijian way which is at your own pace.

[lemekid]

The question for the writers of the article is, why target Fiji Water only? There are about 10 water companies in Fiji.

I am an indigenous Fijian and live in Fiji. Fiji Water has done their fair share of community obligations and contribution to the local economy.

In Fiji, Fiji Water sets the benchmark for export market breakthrough which other Fiji export businesses are learning from.

With Fijian politics, you can't expect to understand these political turmoils just by spending a few days here. A majority of the people in Fiji supports the military takeover and that says a lot about the governing nature of the last democratic government.

I suppose for you Americans, your last presidency echoes the situation I've just explained above where a leader was elected through a democratic system yet conducted itseld undemocratically.

What happens when your leader or government misuse its power lying to the people in order to justify invading a sovereign country?

Look at Iraq. The country lies in ruins with death beyond the millions at the hands of America. What does that say about your democracy?

Fiji soldiers are in Iraq and Afghanistan helping America and Britain clean up its leaders messes. They have died for this cause in the name of propping up American and British capitalism and empires.

If you would really like to know what life in Fiji is really like, take a trip down here and experience firsthand if Fiji is really in a military dictatorship.

[ehmkec]

Mother Nature says, "It's the bottle, stupid!"

[pomegrante]

fiji has a higher silica and magnesium content than any bottled water that I know of.

[ModernTimes1]

Here's the actual original article posted on Mother Jones. Looking at the pics easy to see why the link is not provided here.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/fiji-spin-bottle

[MikeDu]

This reminds me of a certain aging *BEATLE* who reporedly flew a specially-made hybrid car to his home from a factory in Japan. Oh sir X, you do realize, don't you, that cargo plane of yours burned more hydrocarbons in its transport flight than your hybrid is going to save in a couple hundred YEARS of driving! Some people just don't get the concept.

[Georgianne Nienaber - Huffpost Blogger]

The bummer is, Fiji water really does taste better!

[MikeDu]

Bottled water may taste better *if* you live in some place with horrendous tap water like Phoenix AZ. But if your local tap water tastes at all like 'water' may I suggest you try filling a few fancy glass carafes and let them chill in the fridge. ANY water tastes better chilled and poured from a fancy glass bottle - preferrably over ice. And the good thing about glass is in 10 thousand years it will be indistinguishable from beach sand. Besides, fancy bottled water taste is usually an added 'flavor' concocted at a lab somewhere.

[RoloTomassi]

Pure self-delusional nonsense....

[ModernTimes1]

Fiji most definitely tastes better than other brands. A little expensive. But adistinct improvement over others.

[greatscot]

Do what Australia just did. BAN bottled water! Get it from the tap.

[rob six]

Below please find our response to this article as posted on our blog at: http://blog.fijigreen.com/2009/08/fiji-water-responds-to-mother-jones-article/

We strongly disagree with the author’s premise that because we are in business in Fiji somehow that legitimizes a military dictatorship. We bought FIJI Water in November 2004 when Fiji was governed by a democratic­ally-elect­ed government. We cannot and will not speak for the government, but we will not back down from our commitment to the people, development, and communities of Fiji.

We consider Fiji our home and as such, we have dramatically increased our investment and resources over the past five years to play a valuable role in the advancement of Fiji.

[Clara Jeffery and Monika Bauerlein - Huffpost Blogger]

Six’s key points are the same he and other Fiji executives have repeatedly made, and which are reflected in detail in my story: Donating money for water access projects or kindergartens is laudable, and I discuss Fiji’s charitable projects in Fiji (despite numerous requests, Fiji wouldn’t disclose how much it spends on most of these projects). The piece also makes it clear that Fiji Water accounts for significant economic activity in Fiji, and company executives are quoted to that effect.

Six doesn't address the key questions raised in my Mother Jones story, from the polluting background of Fiji Water’s owners past and present, to the company’s decision to funnel assets through tax havens, to its silence on the human rights abuses of the Fijian government. My piece doesn’t argue that Fiji Water actively props up the regime, but that its silence amounts to acquiescence.

"We cannot and will not speak for the government," Six writes. I didn't ask them to speak for the government, I asked them to comment on it. Though Fiji Water casts itself as a progressive, outspoken company in the US, it has a policy of not discussing Fiji’s regime “unless something really affects us,” as Six was quoted in the story.

The regime clearly benefits from the company's global branding campaign characterizing Fiji as a "paradise" where there is "no word for stress." Fiji's tourism agencies use Fiji Water as props in their promotional campaigns, and the company itself has publicized pictures of President Obama drinking Fiji Water. This is a point repeatedly made by international observers, including a UN official who in a recent commentary (titled "Why Obama should stop drinking Fiji water”) called for sanctions on Fiji, and singled out Fiji Water as the one company with enough leverage to force the junta to budge. Yet the most pointed criticism the company has made of the regime was when it opposed a tax as "draconian;" it has never used language like that to refer to the junta's human rights abuses.

It’s worth remembering that there aren’t very many countries ruled by military juntas today, and Americans prefer not to do business with those that are. We don't import Burma Water or Libya Water.

As to Six’ point that the company didn’t know I was in Fiji: I did contact Fiji Water before my trip, and Six mentioned that the company "takes journalists to Fiji"; I didn't follow up about joining such a junket. Despite news reports showing that Fiji wouldn’t cooperate with journalists who went there independently, I chose to do so and visited the factory on a public tour. I had planned to speak to Fiji Water’s local representatives, and to visit the surrounding villages, afterward. But it was at that point that I was arrested by Fijian police, interrogated about my plans to write about Fiji Water, and threatened with imprisonment and rape. After that incident, personnel at the US embassy strongly encouraged me not to visit the villages. I did discuss my trip to the islands with Six after I returned, and had extensive correspondence with him on numerous questions, many of which he has not addressed to this day, including:

- Why won't the company disclose the total amount of money that Fiji Water spends on its charity work? Do its charitable contributions come close to matching the 30 percent corporate tax rate it would be paying had it not been granted a tax holiday in Fiji since 1995?

- Will Fiji Water owners Lynda and Stewart Resnick, who in the company’s PR materials contrast our tap water supply with the “living water” found in their bottles, disclose the full volume of pesticides that their farming and flower companies use every year? Could limiting those inputs create better water here at home?

- Fiji touts its commitments to lighten its plastic bottle (which is twice as heavy as many competitors’) by 20 percent next year, to offset its carbon emissions by 120 percent, and to restore environmentally sensitive areas in Fiji, but its public statements never acknowledge that these projects are, in many cases, still on the drawing board or in the negotiating stages. Why?

[condor101]

There will always be dumb people who believe in buying bottled water.

At least a majority of people are being educated about the negative effects of bottled water and the Fact that most of it is filtered Tap Water anyway.

I filter my tap water and use several glass or stanless steel bottles wherever I go. It tastes great, is free, and I feel wonderful about saving the environment and my wallet.

[RightWingMarine]

I like Fiji water the best, I like the idea that it comes from so far away from a pristine ecosystem and I like the square bottle that stands out from all the others.

[LinLin16]

thanks for destroying the world with pride. is there a medal of honor for that?

[RightWingMarine]

you should see what I do with my used motor oil.

[lemekid]

Is bottling water really destroying the world? Traveling by car destroys the world more than bottling water.