Coke In Your Faucet? - Douglas Daft, executive - Interview

On a recent trip to Central America, I found Coke available at every corner bodega at one-quarter the price of bottled water, even in areas where the local water was not potable.

In places such as the United States and Europe, where foods are relatively abundant, drinking colas not only contributes to tooth decay and obesity, it fills the stomachs of people who may otherwise eat or drink something better for them.

But in places where vast majorities lack nutritious calories and clean water, it seems a double cruelty to siphon off whatever little clean water is available and adulterate it with brown syrup. Coke ships syrup to its local bottlers, who must find clean water to mix with it on site. Coke has entered into partnerships with municipalities in India, for instance, to build water filtration systems so their bottlers can get clean water to make soda.

But then again, Coca-Cola has had "many, many years of experience selling products to people who don't need them," says Marion Nestle, chair of the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University. The introduction of processed foods into Third World diets has resulted in "staggering" and "instantaneous" change in people's health status, says Nestle. Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are now an "absolutely worldwide phenomenon, even in the poorest countries," she says.

The conventional wisdom is that people need eight glasses of water a day, and sodas are significantly less hydrating than plain water, according to an article in the July 1998 issue of Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter. Professor Nestle confirmed the diminished hydration effect of sodas. So a thirsty person would be far more wired than hydrated by eight or more caffeinated sodas a day.

"I've seen small kids in different Third World countries with their teeth rotting out" from drinking so much soda, says Barlow.

To add insult to injury, mass-produced soft drinks threaten to replace culturally diverse, homemade, and medicinal drinks in the Third World as they already have in the West. "No longer are homemade snacks and lime juice or buttermilk offered to guests. Instead, chips and aerated soft drinks are,"writes Indian food activist Vandana Shiva in Stolen Harvest (South End, 2000).

As access to water shrinks, Coke will be poised to jump into the thirst gap. Coke's global ubiquity is staggering. According to a 1990 study cited by Pendergrast, more than 80 percent of teenagers around the world recognize the Coke logo. Seventeen billion cases of Coke drinks are available in nearly 200 countries, according to the company.

Coke is willing to invest in places where it won't see a profit for many years, said company spokesperson Baskin, because it is confident that as economies develop, people will want to drink Coke. The company sent the beverage to starving North Koreans last June. Coke, which, with its bottlers, is the largest private employer on the African continent, has recently reintroduced itself to war-ravaged Angola, bringing its bubbly concoction to a place where more than a million people are fed by the World Food Program of the United Nations. While the Angolan government has provided less than half of its population with an adequate water supply, its partnership with Coke (the government owns a 45 percent stake in the company) will likely mean plenty of clean water for sodas.