In an effort to continue our commitment to sustainability and lessening our negative impact on the environment, the City of Santa Monica and the Farmers Market Program have partnered with Food & Water Watch, a national consumer organization, to “Take Back the Tap” and will be providing all farmers, vendors, and consumers with free local filtered tap water as part of “We Love Santa Monica Water” campaign!
Starting Wednesday, August 26, 2009, the downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market will kick off the “We Love Santa Monica Water” campaign, which highlights the benefits of drinking Santa Monica tap water over bottled water and will provide a free filtered tap water station to the public. Reusable stainless steel water bottles will also be available for purchase for $10. Farmers and customers alike are also encouraged to bring their own reusable containers. The “We Love Santa Monica Water” campaign hopes to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of single-use plastic water bottles at the weekly Santa Monica Farmers Markets and will extend the campaign to the Saturday Pico and Sunday Main Street markets.
Why choose tap water over bottled water?
• Bottled water costs hundreds or thousands times more than tap water
• Santa Monica tap water is just as clean and safe as bottled water
• Plastic water bottles can leach chemicals into the water inside of plastic bottles
• Each year, U.S. plastic bottle production requires more than 17 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel one million cars
• About 86% of empty plastic water bottles in the US land in the garbage instead of being recycled, some of which end up in our ocean
Unless there is a readily available source of clean, non-bottled water, the convenience of drinking and disposing of overpriced water in non-compostable plastic bottles will continue. Therefore, by providing free local tap water and reusable water containers, the “We Love Santa Monica Water” campaign will help farmers market customers make the transition from disposable to reusable water bottles. Do the math: one reusable water bottle will pay for itself in three to eight refills! Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you at the water station!
For more information go to www.foodandwaterwatch.org.
SPECIAL EVENT: Santa Monica Farmers Market Library Panel presents FARMING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION. This free event will take place at the Santa Monica Main Library in the MLK Jr. Auditorium on Thursday August 27 from 7-9 pm. The Santa Monica Farmers Markets are famous for farmers who grow delicious produce, as well as producing second and even third generation farmers to carry on the family farming tradition. Meet some of the farmers and their children who will discuss how the family tradition will be carried on in the future and their outlook on farming for tomorrow. Panelists include farmers Molly and Kris Gean of Harry’s Berries, Gloria and Jason Tamai of Tamai Farms, and Chris and Clara Cadwell of Tutti Frutti Farms. The panel will be moderated by Russ Parsons of the LA Times. Stay afterwards for treats from Chef Sassan Rostamian from Sauce on Hampton.