Coca-Cola's 'toxic' India fertiliser

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3096893.stm

Waste product from a Coca-Cola plant in India which the company provides as fertiliser for local farmers contains toxic chemicals, a BBC study has found.

Dangerous levels of the known carcinogen cadmium have been found in the sludge produced from the plant in the southern state of Kerala.

The chemicals were traced in an investigation by BBC Radio 4's Face The Facts programme and prompted scientists to call for the practice to be halted immediately.

However, Vice-President of Coca-Cola in India, Sunil Gupta, denied the fertiliser posed any risk.

"We have scientific evidence to prove it is absolutely safe and we have never had any complaints," Mr Gupta said.

moew

[nuxvomica]

1. Coke is awfully dimwitted about this

So the sludge doesn't act as a fertilizer, it's full of toxic chemicals and they are going to continue to supply it to the farmers? Does the word "Bhopal" mean anything to them?

[baffie]

2. Why do people even drink Coca Cola????

The drink itself is so toxic you can use it instead of Drano (no kidding - my sister swears by it) - now I know why the day after I drink it my mouth tastes metallic and my stomach does indeed feel like I drank Drano.

[reorg]

5. some Indians, unfortunately seem to like it ... :-(

I never drink it and never did, but in Kerala these American soft drinks are considered luxuries, mostly by upwardly mobile and prestige prone youngsters.

In many places you cannot get any other bottled drinks except for juices of minor quality. And even bottled water comes from Coke and Pepsi!

Coke does not have to pay for the water they extract from the ground. For the customer, one liter bottled water costs about 20 rupies (same price as low priced menu), the same bottle with Coke is 40 rupies (about 1US$). Lower wages start at about 1200 Rupies per month, above 8000 Rupies you are doing quite well.

A top job of a senior official may pay 20000 Rupies (500$).

Which makes Coke and even bottled water a luxury, providing a lot of prestige.

The empty plastic bottles are then clogging the open sewers EVERYWHERE.


Sane people in Kerala drink fruit fresh juices, hm, the best I ever had, they are much cheaper than bottled drinks and taste better, real good pineapple and red grapes.

[DeathvadeR]

6. Question is......

Why and How is there a biproduct from the process? It seems that you would just add some corn syrup,color and flavoring to some water?
Is it a biproduct from the special flavoring? Cadium and Lead, metals?
There is no way..... Maybe that the pipes that they run the stuff through somehow is collected in the sludge?? or the trucks they transport it in? I don't know but why is ther a biproduct??? This is insane?

[ChillEB]

13. Thats an easy one...

Because it fucking RULES...

Not the company (obviously), but the beverage. It is the nectar of the Gods. If I do not drink at least one Coca-Cola a day, my day is just not complete. Coke is Life, man.

Back before I swore off the hard liquor, every concert I ever went to was proceeded by a minimum of 4 Captain Morgan and Cokes. Talk about a sugar-rush! The three food groups: Refined Sugar, Caffeine, and Alcohol are very well represented in this ambrosia.

Do not diss my lifeblood, man!

;)

[wheresthemind]

24. dude... I'm with you...

I am so hopelessly addicted to Coke... I used to be a Pepsi man until the whole boycott Pepsi thing, and now I wouldn't go back if you paid me.

I know its horrible... but i just, can't, stop!

[reorg]

3. Same plant: it's not only the toxic waste, they also steal water

Farmers Fighting to Stop Drinks Giant 'Destroying Livelihoods'

By Paul Vallely, Jon Clarke and Liz Stuart
Independent
July 25, 2003


Three years ago, the little patch of land in the green, picturesque rolling hills of Palakkad in the Indian state of Kerala yielded 50 sacks of rice and 1,500 coconuts a year. It provided work for dozens of labourers. Then Coca-Cola arrived and built a 40-acre bottling plant next door.

In his last harvest, Shahul Hameed, the farmer who owns the modest smallholding, could coax only five sacks of rice from the land, and a meagre 200 coconuts. His irrigation wells have run dry. Meanwhile, the huge factory extracts up to 1.5 million litres of water a day from the deep wells it has drilled into the aquifer to produce Coke, Fanta, Sprite and the drink the locals call, without irony, Thumbs-Up.

But the cruellest twist is that the plant bottles a brand of mineral water while local people - who could never afford it - have to walk up to six miles twice a day to fetch water. The turbid, brackish water which remains at the bottom of their wells is now too high in dissolved salts to be healthy to drink, cook with or even wash in. Some claim it made them ill.

As the summer and the water crisis intensifies, the hardship of the local people is worsening. So is the row between them and the company whose name is for many a synonym for the global power of transnational capitalism. For the past 459 days, there has been a daily picket of the factory. There have been street demonstrations and rallies, and spontaneous blackening of Coca-Cola hoardings. More than 300 people have been arrested.

...

http://www.corpwatchindia.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=4683

[mmm]

4. no more coke for me

i am taking it out of the shop... NOW!

[DeathvadeR]

7. I agree

Fuck Coke, Never again.

[InkAddict]

8. No sympathy from this DUer

You want our jobs - then go thirsty! Gee, I thought the Indians liked the idea of globilization - heck, it will only kill off those that can't afford to come and get "deglee" in America anyway.

[sujan]

9. what utter bullshit

heck, it will only kill off those that can't afford to come and get "deglee" in America anyway.

Would you care to elaborate on that? Punk

[InkAddict]

16. Read on bovine flop top!

eom

[sujan]

17. thought so

post your xenophobic bullshit somewhere else.

[buddhamama]

10. it's the poor that are suffering from this

not those that are employed in the hi-tech sector.

the farmers in India have no recourse and there are no subsidies like here in the U.S.

India has the third largest rate of starvation in the world.
And child labor has reached staggering numbers.

Does this sound like a country swimming in hi-tech jobs?

[InkAddict]

14. No, it sounds like people

who can't control their lust and breed too many kids they can't afford, so the American admin thinks they've got to level the playing field by sending our tech jobs there and by bringin' their rich (everything being relative) kids here for American "opportunities."

I'm not heartless - there will always be poor people in all countries of the world and you just can't save all of them all the time. But,
if Indians have developed a "taste" for Coke's products, then they'll have to figure out how to domesticate the beasts who don't care to conserve/share the resources their governments have allowed them to heist. If foreign nations don't investigate how companies will exploit their citizens/resources before being allowed to set up shop, whose fault is it? I agree that Coca Cola's not being a good world citizen, but how do you propose to legislate love over the "bottom line" or a brand new market to exploit.

And by the way, didn't their brilliant engineers who are so much smarter, enthusiastic, and who work for so much less than Americans foresee this company sucking their precious Indian wells dry??? Hmmmm...

[buddhamama]

18. check the WTO & IMF

Free Trade agreements,etc.,etc.

learn before you spout off,seriously.

and watch your back because there is nothing stopping them from selling your land, your resources off to the highest bidder.

then where will you be...not counting on the government(not as it currently stands anyhow) to fix the problem are you??? that would be funny.

but duh, what am i thinking, it's already happening, most of don't recognize it yet though.

[Forkboy]

19. the only "hmmmm" on this thread

is how your xenophobic ass hasn't been tombstoned yet.

[reorg]

20. more about the conflict

>... they'll have to figure out how to domesticate the beasts who don't care to conserve/share the resources their governments have allowed them to heist.<

Sure, that's exactly what they do and what the boycott is all about!


>... didn't their brilliant engineers who are so much smarter, enthusiastic, and who work for so much less than Americans foresee this company sucking their precious Indian wells dry?<

Draw your own conclusions from the article below - it may give you pause for thinking about that cheap shot of yours:


By R. Krishnakumar
Frontline
June 7, 2003

Coca-Cola and Pepsi, arch-rivals and thirst-busters for millions worldwide, have found common cause in Kerala against protest groups and Left organisations agitating against the way the bottling units of the two multinationals are depleting and polluting groundwater resources to the detriment of people in the drought-prone district of Palakkad. Coca-Cola has described its critics as a "handful of extremist protesters" unjustly targeting its business. Pepsi feels they are politically motivated. (...)

On April 9, the Opposition Left Democratic Front-ruled Perumatty grama panchayat (the only panchayat in the State ruled by the Janata Dal, one of the constituents of the LDF) decided to cancel the licence of the Coca-Cola company's bottling unit. Over a month later, on May 16, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led administration of Pudusseri panchayat too announced a similar decision regarding the Pepsi unit situated in WISE Park, within the Kanjikode Industrial Development Area. (...)

Within months of the establishment of the unit , local people had started complaining about the quality of water in the surrounding areas. Independent scientific studies conducted by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) too had suggested a deterioration of water quality, possibly as a result of rapid extraction of water from the aquifers. (...)

Explaining the background to the Pudusseri panchayat's decision to cancel the licence of the Pepsi unit, president K.G. Jayanthi said that the people of the village and surrounding areas had experienced one of the worst instances of water scarcity this year. Jayanthi told Frontline: "There was a severe shortage of drinking water. While earlier there was enough water to operate the pumps for four to five hours a day, this year the pumping had to stop in less than an hour. The panchayat had examined these factors in detail and found that the Pepsi unit was indulging in over-exploitation of groundwater sources, given the general drought situation prevailing in the area. Hence the decision to cancel the licence." (...)

the State government, (...) looks the other way as allegations are levelled against U.S. corporate giants such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. But given its enthusiasm to welcome ever-elusive industrial investments into Kerala, a State that is struggling to wish away its investor-unfriendly image, no one expects the government to go against the interests of the two multi-national market leaders. (...) As the issue gets embroiled in political games and court dramas, it is the rural communities that are rapidly losing their access to water. As the refrain goes, for such communities, "there's nothing political about an empty well".


http://www.corpwatchindia.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=4523

[InkAddict]

26. Not a Cheap Shot at All

The link you've provided has provided a more thorough and more rational picture of the problem. It does appear that the locals are desperately trying to preserve their environment to the extent they can continue to farm the land in this area that has apparently been chosen by the State for other uses...(at that point, this dilema becomes an Indian versus Indian problem - corp. VP/rep versus farmer/rep).

I've also been reading about the pollution generated by the refining of sugars and subsequent aftermarket byproducts, specifically sludges turned into phosphate fertilizers and cadmium contaminants.

http://www.cadmium.org/

There seems to be a number of other "industrial" uses for this substance unless it's just indigenous to the soil in that area. Note how rivers may carry it many kilometers from the source. It also appears that education/farming techniques might need improvement as well.

Several points are in order: Short-sighted planning strictly for "profit" by multi-nationals is a decidedly "evil" behavior whether perpetrated by the American corporations or their "partners" against the native peoples, and not planning on effective recycling of waste products is detrimental to "healthy" natural resources anywhere. All the more reason for Indian brainpower not to be blackmailed into a few hundred jobs versus longer term benefits that better planning would provide, and killing and crippling the population is NOT an acceptable option!

The VX recycling situation involving the Perma-fix Corp. in Indiana/Ohio has a very few similarities looking at possible short-term mishaps that bring long-term consequences. How interesting that the charge/objections are "class/racial." Seems as though the Indiana property was "valuable" enough to make and store the shit at the Newport, IN facility. (BTW, those chemical WMDs are above-ground in tornado alley--brilliant!) Don't know why the government can't drop a few less bombs on other countries and assist that company in building a facility to recyle it just as "safely" on-site. At least the military (Army Corp of Engineers)are going about the scam of asking for community consensus, which BTW, they're not getting!

That said, crops under the stress of a 60% reduction in rainfall would be less productive in any case. My gripe is that the Indian State doesn't seem at all concerned; likewise our lame-brain war-mongers in DC evidently won't get a clue about their sabatoge of the average American worker until it backs up enough and bites them back.

In any case, thanks for the link - I drink herbal sun-tea - is that bad too?

[Forkboy]

27. So your use of the word "deglee" would be what then

A homage to Indian people? :eyes:

[L.A.dweller]

25. Gosh, what a way to perpetuate

the stereotype about overpopulation and third world countries.
What a load of crap. :argh:

[reorg]

28. whose fault is it?

Since another interesting opening of a thread "Coke accused of putting thousands out of work" was locked, I put my answer here.

This ongoing conflict is not so much about the taste for Coke's products which some Indians may have developed, to the detriment of thousands of poor farmers.

It is rather a very laudable effort to raise public awareness about a looming water crisis - not only in India, BTW, but large parts of the "Third World".

Even the current war in Iraq may be part of that, as LEAH C. WELLS explains "In Iraq, Water and Oil Do Mix"

http://www.counterpunch.com/wells05162003.html



"India will be on the list of water-stressed countries by the year 2025 when nearly half the world population will experience water shortage."

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/05/17/stories/2003051700811300.htm


"It's God's Own Land, the Immodest Green of Arundhati Roy. The palm-fringed emerald islets are surrounded with vast expanses of waters. The picture perfect beauty makes Kuttanad the very essence of Kerala's backwater experience. It is a waterlogged stretch of about 110,000 hectares; and 50,000 ha of the region are even 60-220 centimetres below sea level. For the better part of the year, most of the land is submerged in water." ... " The environmental and ecological crisis that Kerala faces is so acute that about two-thirds of the state's population does not have access to safe drinking water. Kerala, one of the wettest regions in India, gets an average rainfall of about 300 millimetres of rain spread over a six- or seven-month period. Despite this heavy rainfall, an acute drinking water shortage is felt even in the lower areas."

http://www.indiatogether.org/environment/articles/kuttanad.htm





I found another interesting article on the ongoing conflict in Kerala, "No water? Drink Coke!" here:

http://www.indiatogether.org/environment/water/drinkcoke.htm

Some quotes:

"Coca Cola's bottling plant was set up three years ago in the middle of fertile agricultural land. 'Coca Cola's plant is illegal because they haven't even obtained clearance for putting agricultural land to non-agricultural uses,' says M. Swaminathan, a tribal leader from Velloor, one of the tribal villages affected by Coke's activities. Kerala states Land Utilization Act requires prior approval for conducting non-agricultural activities on designated agricultural land."

...

"'The trouble with Coke cannot be seen in isolation,' says Dr. S. Janakarajan, an economist working on groundwater issues with the Madras Institute of Development Studies. 'In this case, a community may have lost its access to water for drinking or agricultural purposes for the sake of supplying Coca Cola. The same has happened in other places where industries have privatized common groundwater resources or polluted them,' he says. In the absence of any law to regulate the extraction of groundwater, people or companies with resources can privatize entire aquifers just by virtue of owning a small piece of land. 'In this race, those who have the resources are the winners; the poor are the losers,' Janakarajan explains."

...

"The profitability of this business is beyond question. Coke's Indian operations took a beating in the first few years of operation after fizzy drinks failed to perform to company expectations. But after Kinley, Coke's water brand, was launched in mid-2000, the multinationals revenues nosed up. In fact, Coca Cola Indias third quarter 2001 results mention that 'its growth of 11 percent had been led by the successful expansion of Kinley water.'

Unfortunately, despite acute, and sometimes perennial water scarcity in many parts of India, the government is yet to legislate effectively to conserve groundwater resources. Soft drink and bottled water companies pay next to nothing for the water they extract. Given that the primary raw material comes free of cost, wastage in the industry is ridiculously high. At Coca-Cola's bottling unit in Nemam village of Tamilnadu, more than 2.5 million liters of water are extracted. Of this, 1.2 million liters is used for washing bottles, crates, equipment and the floors. Only 692,000--less than 30 percent--is used for actually manufacturing the soft drinks."

[Forkboy]

12. DU seems to have had a big influx

of heartless assholes.

[InkAddict]

15. Takes one to know one!

Same thing is goin' on right in your own back yard, but will you stand up for Americans who've been exploited and their livihoods, once billed as the "careers of the future," ruptured by corporate greed and government corruption - SHAME ON YOU!

[NickB79]

21. Quote: "Takes one to know one!"

Holy crap, I just had flashbacks to 3rd grade! Damn, with that stunning comeback, I'm just waiting for the infamous "I'm rubber and you're glue..." defense.

[DeathvadeR]

22. roger that n/t

[Slomoe]

11. Another reason to boycot Coke

A few years back I was employed for a trucking outfit that hauled a lot of Coke products and I found them to be complete ass-holes. It was very likely that the load would fall down and scatter all over the trailer. When I backed into a loading dock the Coke people would direct me to pull away from the dock and straighten out the mess. It takes a lot of time to pick up seventy thousand pounds of Coke bottles and I did not get paid for the time it took.

We also hauled for Pepsi with the same type of load. When I backed into a Pepsi dock some one would holler "load down" and every one came runing to pick up the load.

We don't use any Coca Cola in our house.

[DeathvadeR]

23. Did you ever hear about or see...

The biproduct that they generate for fertilizer?