This issue is probably moot because according to Biota's site, the company is out of business, having been "stomped To Death By UPS Capital, A Division of United Parcel Service, one of the World’s Largest contributors to Global Warming." However, a note at the bottom of this announcement suggests that Biota water may be granted a second life, and if not Biota, surely another company will takes its place. So I think it's important for me to explain why I would not buy this "planet friendly" beverage which was all the rage at the 79th ACADEMY AWARDSand was even chosen as a sponsor for the Hollywood Premiere of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."
According to the company, what makes Biota so green is its bottle. It's made from NatureWorks PLA, a plastic derived from corn. It's compostable at high temperatures. And according to Biota, "The containers are made from corn, the contents are used by the consumer, then the container is turned into compost, to feed the corn."
While it may be true that the container can be turned into compost, I doubt it's feeding much of the corn. NatureWorks PLA is a joint venture between Cargill (one of the world's largest processors of corn into such lovelies as high fructose corn syrup and other food additives that kill humans slowly, as well as corn-based feed for cattle, that kills cattle slowly since their stomachs did not evolve to process corn) and Dow Chemical (producer of fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, soil fumigants, genetically-modified seeds, and a host of other agricultural chemicals.) According to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, in this NY Times opinion piece about corn-based ethanol:
The way we grow corn in this country consumes tremendous quantities of fossil fuel. Corn receives more synthetic fertilizer than any other crop, and that fertilizer is made from fossil fuels — mostly natural gas. Corn also receives more pesticide than any other crop, and most of that pesticide is made from petroleum. To plow or disc the cornfields, plant the seed, spray the corn and harvest it takes large amounts of diesel fuel, and to dry the corn after harvest requires natural gas.
Beth Terry writes about finding alternatives to plastic and tracks her own plastic consumption and plastic waste at www.FakePlasticFish.com. Why Fake Plastic Fish? "Because if we don't solve our plastic problem, they could be the only kind of fish we have left." Please stop by and leave a comment!
