Share and Voice: Drinking Orange Juice Might Be Worse Than Bottled Water

Hey guys! So I found this really cool website that has a lot of really good articles about the environment. It is an entirely “Green” website! I was searching for articles and I found the one below really interesting, it caught my eye right away. I admit I drink bottled water, even though I know that it is bad for the environment from the production that goes into it. I didn’t realize it was this bad, and to find out that orange juice is even worse by quite a bit was shocking. I’m assuming that orange juice isn’t the only juice that is this bad either! I just thought maybe some of you would find it kind of interesting to realize that things we do everyday, such as drinking a glass of orange juice, can have such a big effect on our environment. If you multiply the 1.98 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per glass of orange juice it makes by the amt of people who drink at least 1 glass a day is just crazy to think about! Hope you like the article!

P.S. The website that I found is
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/





Drinking Orange Juice Might be Worse than Bottled Water
How to pick out the greener beverages.
By Brian MerchantBrooklyn, NY, USA Thu Feb 05 10:00:00 EST 2009
Boris Grdanoski/AP
In a recent rumble match between bottled water and orange juice over at TreeHugger, the beverage revealed to be the worst eco-offender surprised and upset lovers of classic breakfast drinks and screwdrivers everywhere. Yes, it turned out that while drinking bottled water is bad, but orange juice was even worse.





Bad News for Orange Juice Fans

Hit the link above for the full report, but the gist is this. Considering everything factors into the production of both drinks (bottle production, fertilizer, processing, transportation, etc), it was determined that every liter of Fiji water that makes it to your local convenience store creates a total of .55 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, while every liter of Tropicana orange juice you pour into your breakfast glass generates 1.98 pounds.
So what does this mean for those of us trying to minimize our ecological footprints? It means it's time to start looking at orange juice in a whole new light.
In most parts of the world, it really should be considered a sort of luxury: as is pointed out in the piece, there's really no way to get orange juice without causing carbon chaos. Even fresh-squeezing is out, as the packaging is often more intensive for oranges than for orange juice.
So unless you're fresh squeezing local, organically (fertilizer-free) grown oranges, we have to accept the fact that OJ is tough on the environment. So what can we do?
Orange Juice Alternatives

We can look for OJ alternatives, of course. Anything that's mass-processed and fertilized is out, so check those drinks off your list—that's where most of the harmful emissions come from. Anything locally made and fertilizer-free are safe bets for low-emission drinks.
A good idea is to find out what grows locally in your area—fresh fruits and vegetables from your local farmers markets and CSA would make the ideal low-impact drink.
I doubt I'll be able to convince anyone to entirely give up orange juice, and maybe giving up oj isn't so essential in the scheme of things anyway. But we do need to think about it—so when do pour yourself a glass, savor it. Just think of the emissions it cost to refresh you.
And next time you're in Florida, stock up on organically grown oranges.