A few weeks ago in my rant about bottled water, I mentioned that access to potable drinking water will become one of the key national security issues in the coming decades. This week an article in the Utne Reader has really gotten me thinking about the issue from a different point of view. The article tells the story of Midwestern dairy farmers who are turning cow manure into drinking water.

What? That’s right – the farmers use a filtration process that turns manure into fertilizer and drinking water. The farmers claim that the filtration process is up to the same standards as all bottled water, and that the process could increase the supply of potable drinking water. The biggest downside, according to the farmer, is that the filtration process consumes a lot of fossil fuels, which makes it very expensive. If an alternative source of fuel were discovered, I suppose this could make the product cost effective. But is manure water marketable?

I’ve gotta be honest. The idea of drinking cow poop is absolutely revolting to me. I don’t care how “clean” it is – I’ll always know where the water came from. I could be dying of thirst and I still wouldn’t drink it. But that’s easy for me to say. I can turn on my tap and clean water comes out. What would my opinion be if I didn’t take my drinking water for granted?

Feminist author bell hooks has an interesting argument about drinking water in her book Teaching to Trangress. hooks is specifically addressing feminist criticisms of the Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire. Many feminists have rejected Freire’s theories about liberatory education because he is unapologetically sexist. hooks argues that it is easy for First World feminists to reject Freire because they have access to education. However, Freire’s model of education is meant to liberate the economically oppressed, who don’t have the luxury of education.

hooks then makes the comparison to drinking water. In hooks’ view, it would be unlikely for someone with economic privilege to drink water that had even the tiniest bit of silt or dirt in it. Those of us who are used to carrying bottled water around like a pacifier don’t know what it’s like to haul water from a community well or a river. We go to the tap and water comes out – or we buy designer water in bottles so that our water is “pure.” hooks argues that for people who live on the economic margins, the idea of purity is a luxury.

We are quickly approaching a world where the luxury of bottled water, and even tap water, is going to vanish, even in the world’s wealthiest nations. Water rights and access to clean drinking water will be one of the fundamental issues that people have to face. So I wonder – how will I feel about manure water then?

What about you? Do you feel grossed out by the idea of “purified” manure water? Or do you think that you could get beyond the “ick factor” and chug it like it’s . . . well, water? I’d love to get your take on the subject.