COKE HAS PESTICIDES

DO NOT FEAR

DRINK BEER i am not very articulate but i hope my suggestion solves this problem.

Today there are two very helpful articles in the news:

1) shows that the left government of Bengal tested the drinks again and did not find anything of the high pesticides levels!

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=137539

2) gives a good background about the whole controversy, showing how politically motivated the attack against the two corporates were:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HH17Df01.html

and when Tom speaks abou the added sweeteners (sugar), he should try to drink tea or coffee in India without lots of sugar

Sunita Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi-based NGO that conducted the research, says the hullabaloo misses the point. “This wasn’t supposed to be about Coke and Pepsi,” she says. “Our fight is with the government.” In 2003 the CSE published a similar report to agitate for quality standards for soft drinks to match those for milk, baby food and bottled water. Rules have since been drawn up by the Indian Bureau of Standards, but Narain says the government is dragging its feet on their implementation. Last week’s study was meant as a reminder that the industry remains unregulated. Instead, it has launched a national debate on everything from pesticide-polluted groundwater (the source of the residues in bottled soda, which the CSE says are up to 140 times above safety levels) to middle-class India’s addiction to unhealthy, processed foods. “It’s wonderful,” Narain says. “Pepsi and Coke are doing our work for us. Now the whole nation knows that there is a pesticide problem.”

Propaganda against the soft-drink manufacturers led to public fury and cola bans in many states. Many of us didn’t know what to believe. Now this from Sunita Narain of CSE:

The soft-drink giants are less delighted. Coca-Cola says its drinks have been rigorously tested by independent laboratories and conform to strict quality standards, and both companies have taken out newspaper ads challenging the CSE’s research methods and findings. Unconcerned, Narain counters: “We are not in this to prove Pepsi and Coke wrong—and as long as we get those standards, I don’t give a damn if they prove me wrong.“

TIME

WHAT???

• it is good that the Indian government set up a commission to set standards fro future testing (because then a strange laboratory like CSE cannot mess up Indias reputation so easily any more), and with the pressure of the situation they have good chances to succeed

• I agree with Prasanna (even if I don’t like softdrinks so much!) that it must be safer to drink Pepsi than Tea, because I don’t think that anybody tries to poison India on purpose and since 2003 Pepsi and Coke were pressured to betterise their standards (and nobody else was pressured then!)

So I did some research on the net, and was I found was closer to what the Financial Times wrote at the end of their article of yesterday: “Almost any product in India, from tap water to milk, contains traces of toxins due to overuse of pesticides by farmers. This seeps into local ground water, which is used in more than 80 per cent of soft drinks.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/72b72162-241f-11db-ae89-0000779e2340.html and this many of you already posted about.

There are two studies of Government research institutions (the Central Food technology Research Institute http://www.cftri.com/ and the Central Food Laboratory http://mohfw.nic.in/kk/95/ia/95ia0201.htm) of 2004 that are quoted by an ad of Pepsi, which gave one simple message: 1) Trusted Laboratories (under democratic control, other than the CSE) have proved two years ago, that the pesticide residues in Pepsi brand beverages are way lower than limits set by the Health Ministry 2) The Tolerance of government standarts for comparable products like tea are 28000 times higher! http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=3976

In this moment nobody knows who to believe, but when you see at the same time how angry and loud some politicians and the CSE are screaming at the “evil US-corporates” Pepsi and Coca Cola, I think the basic conclusions to be drawn are:

1) Yes there are pesticides in all our products and the drinking water in India, which should worry us 2) Yes the government limits for pesticide residues in our products are way to low (and havenÂ’t developed much in the last years since the last scandal) 3) Blaming Pepsi and Coca Cola is an anti-western populist agenda that has nothing to do with the problem. Even the study of CSE does no comparison to our traditional drinks as Tea (because normal Water in Tea or Coffee is less filtered than the one in Pepsi!) 4) There should be a new independent study that compares comparable products! 5) It seems to me way safer to drink Pepsi than to get a tea in India

I am happy for any comments and conclusions of other people who did deeper research in the topic! Best wishes, Prasanna

Read the link: “See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality“. I loved the explanation. However, I must say that I did not understand it completely as I am not a trained economist. I will have to chew on it for some time. Thanks for the information.

“There is more to this issue than kneejerk blind anti-corporatism/anti-coke/anti-LPG.” I think, the people, who are lending their voice to this issue and raising the shrilness of the debate, belong to the category of “anti-corporatism/anti-coke”. There might be some genuine activists but I doubt whether they will have any say in this issue in the final scheme of the things. I trust the “Pinkos” completely to use their power play to hijack this issue in the future if they have not done so already. For example: your link from Asha shows Nandlal as the main point man in UP. But we all know that this movement has Sandeep Pandey’s red/pink beard prints written all over it.

“You cannot go to the courts, if what you do is not crime in first place. CSE has brought to light the lack of clear guidelines in the first place.” I do think that courts have a role to play. I find it unbelievable that lawyers can not find anything that suggests violation of consumer or environmental laws in India by Coke/Pepsi. Is the first statement in the quotes somehow trying to justify this movement against the companies on the streets – trial by the public in the courts of conscience? I have nothing but contempt for that.

I do not know whether CSE has an agenda. If you notice from my posts earlier, I never objected to the eligibility or the intentions of CSE. Quizman has shed more light on that. If Coke and Pepsi are found guilty, they should pay the price for their negligence. Similarly, if the government is found guilty for being lazy in coming up with suitable environmental guidelines, they should be held accountable. But what I foresee is a witch hunt of Coke/Pepsi based on the economic ideologies of the activists who are spearheading this movement. It has happened in the past in India and it has the potential to happen in the future too.

Your link on externalities does talk about negotiations between the parties and government intervention to take account of the social costs. It does not talk about banning the companies and making them close down based on political rhetoric to take care of unpleasant social costs.

“The issue here is environment, it is not about leftists vs markets. You are using the economic views of some people who support the campaign to discredit the facts of issue.” I agree that the issue is about environment. But protection of the environment has to be seen in the context of people and economics. Otherwise, it is bound to fail. “Economic views of some people who support the campaign to discredit the facts of issue” are important. We are not playing a game here. The choices made by these people affect the life of thousands of real people and their families just as much as the environmental pollution.

Saurav, I say this in colloquial Bengali in jest – “Choto ekta khocha ditei, phete haathe eshe galo! Tahole, ki kore joi korbe sara sanshar?” Translation: Just a small prick by me managed to destroy your composure. If this is so, how will your ilk run the world?

Unlike you, who has spent his childhood in the comforts of capitalist countries exploiting the rest of the world and subsequently developed a contempt for them, I have spent a decent part of my childhood and adolescence in the red bastion of India. Needless to say, I did not find it much palatable for my taste and much prefer the comforts of capitalism.

Btw, just for clarity, are you associated with CSE in any way?