Whatever You Do, Don't Drink the (Bottled) Water!

At the Slow Food events this past weekend, I noticed that water was being served in these plastic cups. This seemed a bit odd for these earth-friendly folks, but closer examination showed them to be compostable. The woman manning the water stand explained to me that these cups were made out of corn, and were biodegradable.

She was beaming with pride as she filled it with San Francisco's finest tap water. Tap water? What? That's right, thousands of we effete Bay Area foodies were being forced to drink tap water! Something that people from places like Nebraska (where the corn for the cup was probably grown) are forced to endure. The horror.

If Slow Food Nation '08 accomplished one significant thing, it was educating people that tap water is good, and bottled water is bad. Who knew? There was lots of information posted at all the "water stations" that made a great case for giving up that plastic bottle. I won't bore you with the details. You can bore yourself at the Take Back The Tap website. In all seriousness, it's important info to read, and I encourage you to check it out.

Remember how we all laughed and mocked those first bottled water drinkers? What a bunch of idiots - paying for water, when you can get it free from the tap! Now, we all suckle at the teat of big water. What the hell happened? It turns out our original instincts were right - we should have known the first time we saw those net water bottle purses swinging off people's hips.

VIDEO UPDATE: A viewer passed along this clip from YouTube of an episode of Penn and Teller's show "Bullsh*t" - which will serve as further evidence of the bottled water scam. Warning: Adult language sprinkled throughout.