Lab tests done by The Centre for Science and Environment in India have found large amounts of pesticides in various soft drinks.
The 2006 CSE study tests 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands, from 25 different manufacturing plants of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, spread over 12 states. The study finds pesticide residues in all samples; it finds a cocktail of 3-5 different pesticides in all samples
It was funny reading Claude’s mention about the French ship in his article in Rediff. I’m just wondering if he would let his neighbour dump their waste into Claude’s courtyard because he also have waste to dump.
Instead of saying “we should control the use of pesticides along with Colas”, he mentions “why ban Colas when our agri sector also use many pesticides”. That proves where he stands.
Also the government has some responsibility on the issues like providing clean drinking water etc. They should take care of that while driving-off the multi-national Colas.
NGOs (including Sunita Narain) have a tendency to confuse issues. One of the main reasons for targetting American multinationals ought to be their exploitation of ground water resources. That seems to be the main issue to me. If I ever support a ban on coca-cola it will be for that reason.
Although I do not agree that the pesticide content in colas is a matter
that can be ignored, I agree that the major concern is of exploiting
the
ground water. The anti-cola movement in Plaachimada (in Palakkad
district,
Kerala) is based on that accusation. The communist involvement in this
movement has made the common man suspicious that this is just another
anti-US leftist movement. But it is not.
Actually the communist-lead Panchayat and the government has not done
much
to help the people in that domain.