I love that my roots are in Kerala. Via the Beeb:
The Indian state of Kerala has banned the production and sale of Coca Cola and Pepsi following a report that the drinks contain harmful pesticides.
It said it was taking the step because the drinks pose a health risk. Both soft drinks manufacturers have said their products are safe.
Though other states have decided to ban the soft drinks in schools, hospitals and the like, only a state which possesses that legendary literacy rate, enviable amounts of religious harmony and my marathon-runnin’ 80-year old Aunt could do something so hilarious draconian singular.
The move by the communist government in Kerala in southern India is the most severe reaction to a report released last week by an Indian non-government organisation, the Centre for Science and Environment.
It said tests carried on samples of the drinks across 12 Indian states revealed dangerously high levels of pesticides.
The Indian Soft Drinks Manufacturers Association is taking its sweet yindian standard time:
The Indian Soft Drinks Manufacturers Association issued a statement on Wednesday after the Kerala ban was announced.
“Our products manufactured in India are absolutely safe and meet every safety standard set by food health and regulatory bodies in India and all over the world,” it said.
It said it would only comment on the Kerala ban once it had been told about it by the authorities.
Three years ago, the Center for Science and Environment told the Indian parliament that Coke and Pepsi most certainly weren’t it, if by “it” we mean healthy and pesticide-free; they “recommended that India set purity standards for soft drinks”. Of course, the government is on IST for that, too.
In other news, three out of my 219 cousins have cancelled impending trips home, out of concern for a lack of mixers with which to garnish their Johnny Walker Black. Oh, Kerala…look what thou hast wrought!
…lack of mixers with which to garnish their Johnny Walker Black.
They should switch to Blue Label. Or at least Gold.
and well in time… did anyone else see the news report that the only farmers who like coke and pepsi these days are those who are using it as pesticide… essentially the sugar and the phosphoric acid or whatever is there in the drink attracts red ants that eat the larva that plague the farmers’ crops. the farmers spend about 10% of what they’d use for buying the regular pesticide.
Kerala has had issues with Coca-Cola in particular for a number of years now (particularly re: the environment) and it always struck me as odd that, at the same time, the Asia Society (what i would call a cultural/educational organization based in NYC) quite frequently hosts Coca-Cola sponsored family events for the NY Asian (incl. Indian) community (which includes a large number of S.Indian-Americans) – was this simply preemptive PR on the part of Coca Cola or are the two worlds just blissfully unaware of one another?
an example: http://www.asiasociety.org/pressroom/rel-cc_familyday.html
FYI, god doesn’t exist so that means kerala doesn’t either.
Inqalab Zindabad!
points to ponder: how does the pesticide levels in other local colas and/or other foodstuffs like milk, bottled water compare to that in coke and pepsi? If they in fact turn out to be higher, are we going to ban them also??
First of all, is this really true. Is there a sizeable number of farmers doing this? Why hasn’t it spread?
Second, when one hears “…used as pesticides.” the implication is that the drink kills the bugs (so it probably is really harmful to us too). However, if the mechanism is what hairy_d describes above, then there it is a non sequitur that we would be harmed by drinking these sodas.
mmmm having a nice cold coke cola in a glass bottle in hot kerala weather…NO moRE!!
ban or not .. it wouldn’t sell much anyway.. once the pesticide news is out…Malayalees are very cautious about what they drink ..espically liquids in artifical colours…Everyone was suspisious abt mango fruity.. the moment people heard the rumors about finding worms in it.. that was it.. Pesticides => destroy brain => children who go to school like coke/pepsi => there goes 95% litercy rate/and future doctors & unemployed engineers.. NO WAY
Long live 1 metre chai and mineral water
Did anyone see ‘Corporate?’ It was this same story!
This is a good thing, and not because of the pesticide thing– as I found out on my trip to Kerala in June– Coke and Pepsi in India suck big time. Absolutely no fizz and nasty watery taste. Btw, Anna, don’t be too quick in taking the Kerala government’s side.. I think there is more to this story. On a side note, when I went there.. I saw why I’m embarrassed in Poli Sci courses when the prof says.. “the first freely elected communist government was in Kerala” Malus actually wanted the commies in power, how much worse can it get?
Just as follow up to #2, #8 – i had come across this story when researching the politics behind the drink wars… now that i explicitly look for the story i find that there is no other reference but this one article published by vidal in the guardian in 2004. it’s a good story though, and plausible.
ok… now here’s an a-ha. this whole sub-thread seems ot have been discussed in some detail out … here.
you guys really keep busy dont you
“This so called pesticide cocktail in major colas is a cocktail indeed – a cocktail of politics, psuedo science, posturing and bad economics.” http://indianeconomy.org/2006/08/09/cola-con/
Hey, I’ll stick to my kaLLu when I go back. I hear it’s full of “natural” pesticides
Ah Kerala, land of curious juxtapositions – Mountain and ocean. Literacy and unemployment. Centuries of a kind of inter-religious harmony foreign to much of the world while Communism and capitalism are still duking it out.
Methinks the current Kerala government fears that Mallus will set aside the rat poison, the nooses and jumping in wells in favor of slower, corporately induced methods for maintaining the astoundingly high suicide rate … (yet another Kerala curiosity being the country’s highest suicide rate as well as India’s longest life expectancy). They’re so quick to act on the Coke/Pepsi situation, yet I see little being done to address this other tragedy of tragedies.
The supposed literacy rate is BS- the actual literacy rate is nowhere close and they also can’t count.
Speedy
Spot on; mostly, Kerala yexists;)
From what I understand Coke relies on local ground-water as raw material. Safely assuming that they do not add pesticides as part of their manufacturing process, doesn’t this mean that the ground-water itself contains high levels of pesticides? If this is true then
the government should ban ground-waterwe have a whole new, and larger, problem in our hands.Another genuine issue is Coke’s abuse of the ground-water resources in Plachimada, Kerala (their largest bottling plant in India, I think). Coke’s profits shouldn’t be at the expense of poor folks struggling for drinking water. Does anyone know if companies elsewhere are required to pay or compensate for ground-water used for commercial purposes? A very well written article on the issue can be found here: http://www.countercurrents.org/gl-cockburn180405.htm
Nice post Anna, The usage of the term Soda in the title is very inclusive and essentially Americanese;) Thus I have to point out that Mallus have always been fond of Soda, meaning, soda water; especially the ones with dark blue marbles acting as bottle-tops:) To this day, mallu Bus Conductors en masse consume two poovan pazhams (the king of bananas) and a soda at precisely 10 a.m.; their secret source of energy. Members of the St. Berchman’s College basketball team drink soda-lime juice everyday after practice. Also, I have heard that hung-over mallus wash their faces in soda to rejuvenate themselves;) Well, IÂ’m thirsty now; whereÂ’s my bottle of Toddy? Peace
INQUILAB ZINDABAD COKE UM PESPSIM VENDA VENDA
vs.
INQUILAB ZINDABAD ARRADA ENTE COKE EDUTHAY?
I’m waiting for the official strike organized by the student wing of the INC(hi 5) to protest the ban by the CPI(M). If the largest bottling plant is in Kerala, doesn’t that affect the rest of the country? Will coke prices go up? Will there be hoarding? How will this affect Coke and Pepsi stock? Will people drink soda to protest Government decisions instead of going on hunger strikes? Are they going to check lorry shipments at the border?
Dear Friends, in a way I think we are fooled by people, who try to play with our country. When I first read of the study of the Centre for Science and Environment (of 02 August 2006), I was shocked. I wanted to know whether “These companies are playing with the lives of millions”
And I wanted to know why the political reaction was so strong and fast. Especially in beautiful Kerala.
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 07 August 2006 and was UberMetroMallu said: “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
According to other sources (pointed out by Pepsi editorial) 1) 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
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 Kerala and the rest of 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), but the ban in Kerala has nothing to do with a rational reaction 3) Blaming Pepsi and Coca Cola in any region of India 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 6) I will miss the black to mix with my whiskey!
I am happy for any comments and conclusions of other people who did deeper research in the topic! Best wishes, Prasanna
Well, “God’s Own Country Hates Pepsi and Coke” was too long!
Geez, how hard is it to filter the water?
A note on “soda”. Depending on where you are in the US, you either hear ‘soda’ to refer to carbonated drinks or ‘pop’–a contraction of a much earlier ‘soda-pop’. Anybody on the East coast of the US won’t hear pop. If you do, the person saying it is from the Midwest US, more than likely.
Just switch to Coconut Water…
Why would you bother with anything else in Kerala??
or Chicago, for that matter. Yum.
Great… Now we have a new plot for a Suresh Gopi firebreathing thriller . I’m already picturing Kerala’s political janitor spewing chemical jargon in his fierry one liners and ending with a showdown between him and the manager of Coca Cola in India.
Comments on the comments so far:
1) I don’t think that the concern about pesticide residues stems from the trace amounts in water. India has been dealing with the pesticide issue from the time of the Green Revolution and they have a handle on that now. The source of the pesticides in question is the sugar which goes into making the soft drinks, which I believe the soft drink manufacturers produce in India. There’s also the added concern of how the large-scale manufacture of soft drinks affects ground water levels that are being sucked dry.
2) The debate about standards and sound scientific methodology around this case really speaks volumes about the political (and not scientific) nature of the issue. This makes it a little more difficult for the non-expert to unpack the rhetoric emerging from both camps — I’d be interested to see a scientist’s views on the issue (Abhi, Brimful, Razib?).
3) Exactly – the banning of Coke/Pepsi in Kerala is purely a political act. It’s a slap in the face of big multinational business and I think a timely reminder that globalization will happen in this state, but on its own terms. If this means less FDI from companies like these well then boo-friggin-hoo! The longer Kerala stays off the Big Mac Index, the better.
4) I don’t know how concerned people in the state are about the loss of jobs. Any idea now many workers these factories employed?
anyone have any intel on why it was called “Lehar Pepsi” in the beginning? Was Lehar some kind of bottling company?
In other news, three out of my 219 cousins have cancelled impending trips home, out of concern for a lack of mixers with which to garnish their Johnny Walker Black. Oh, KeralaÂ…look what thou hast wrought!
Johnny Walker Black goes best with sparkling water or club soda ( ask any Desi Punjabi- they’ll swear by it) Cola typically, is a good mixer for Rum.
Sacrilege… Johnny Walker should be drank either on the rocks or neat. Dilution is the devil.
You think the strikethrough tag is
cleverlikable, but it’s not.Speaking of not likableopinions are like assholesThanks!A fantastic find, A K K A.
I think we should chop the haters up and put them in a jute bag.
And of course, half the dialogue would have to be in heavily accented english for emphasis… “Exchuse me, Mr. Menon!!!”
Amen, brother… I say if you’re going to mix with cola, you might as well use Red Label, you won’t taste the difference. I think the upgrade to Black Label is just a side effect of keeping up with the Thambys. I can’t stand the overload of flavors in a blend like JW. If I’m drinking my scotch straight, I try to stick with the single malts.