September/October 2009 Issue

How Far Did Voss and San Pellegrino Travel to My Whole Foods?

We charted the miles per bottle for nine top water brands.

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NAME SOURCE MILES TO SF BOTTLE WEIGHT (IN OZ.) CO2 (TRAVEL ONLY; LBS./1 L. BOTTLE) SELLING POINT

Evian (Danone)

Evian-les-Bains, France

6,265

3.35

.61

“French Alps”

Volvic (Danone)

Volvic, Auvergne, France

6,255

2.34

.59

drawn from “deep inside the lush, green ancient volcanoes”

San Pellegrino (Nestlé)

San Pellegrino Terme, Italy

6,135

17.74 (glass)

.80

“preferred by top restaurants”

Perrier (Nestlé)

Vergeze, France

5,900

17.61 (glass)

.63

“50 million bubbles”

Fiji Water

Yaqara Valley, Viti Levu, Fiji

5,470

4.15

.49

“untouched by man”

Voss

Hordaland County, southern Norway

5,100

18.93 (glass)

.57

“pure water unlike any other”

365 (Whole Foods)

Shasta, California

223

1.5

.07

“replenish*refresh*rehydrate”

Balance

Baxter, California

149

2.14

.06

“Australian flower essences”

Dasani (Coca-Cola)

San Leandro, California

22

1.94

.01

“live positively”

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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