Water needs-Food industry Vs Agriculture, opposing pressures!

Soda which is the international name given to sweetened fizz drinks like Coke and Pepsi is gain in troubled 'waters"; literally! These beverages are focus of attention from health critics as well as conservationists who blame the bottlers for over utilization of water and environmental pollution through the sludge they let out. Farmers are agitating wherever the soda plants are located because of their fear that such massive extraction of ground water causes water shortage affecting their livelihood. Interestingly the two soda giants are also courting controversy in their own country, USA because of the widely held perception that their products sweetened with sugar cause many health disorders including obesity. Because of their vice-like grip on the political class that rule the country, they are never restrained from hawking their "potion", especially to young kids. In India the Delhi Government has laid red carpet for foreign investors in the hope that their investments will generate significant employment in the country. Unfortunately the impact of this open arm policy on the common man is never kept in mind when such FDI proposals are cleared. The Coke bottling plant to be set up in Gujarat is in the news recently because of the reckless policy of the state government in allotting huge volume of water from Narmada river which is supposed to be meant for agriculture sector. Here are the details of the drama unfolding in that state and the common man is just a mute spectator on the sidelines unable to do any thing to stop this loot of public water resources.

"Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola is finding itself in troubled waters, again. After rows over water usage at its plants in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, it is now the turn of its Gujarat factory.Congress leader Ahmed Patel has questioned the Gujarat government's decision to allot to a Coca-Cola plant over three million litres of water a day from the Sardar Sarovar Dam, even as many villages in Sanand go without water.In a letter to Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on October 10, Patel expressed concern over her government's September decision and noted that the dam had been built to provide water to drought-prone parts of North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch. Patel highlighted concerns raised by non-government organisations and citizens' groups over the alleged daily effluent discharge of 450 kilolitres by the plant, which executives of the multinational beverage company said were baseless because the unit was located in a no-effluent industrial cluster. Coca-Cola India executives did not want to get drawn into the controversy. They said the company had taken all approvals for the plant and any response to Patel's letter should come from the Gujarat chief minister, to whom it was addressed. The plant, being set up by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, the largest bottling partner of Coca-Cola India, will be the company's second unit in Gujarat. Coca-Cola has a plant in Goblej in Kheda district, its second-largest in the country after the Dasna unit in Uttar Pradesh. The Gujarat government has allotted 185,000 square metres to the company to make sweetened aerated drinks like Coke, Sprite, Fanta and Thums Up".

Governments never seem to learn any lesson from past experiences as evidenced by the attitude of the Gujarat Government in allocating precious natural resources especially after the humiliating retreat of this soft rink giant from Kerala a few years ago because of the same problem. Politician-industry nexus is not new in India and diversion of water from dams built for irrigation to sugar mills and breweries in Maharashtra is another example of this nebulous practice. A moot question that the country faces is whether a health debilitating beverage industry can be given priority over food production when half the population in the country does not have adequate food to satisfy their hunger? No body is denying the fact that food industry is invariably water guzzlers because huge quantity of water is absolutely necessary to maintain safety and quality of the end products. But locating them in proximity to irrigated agricultural lands cannot be condoned. It is not understandable why these synthetic beverage manufacturers are forced to make nutritionally better products rather than easily salable junk foods like potato chips and sugar sweetened drinks. If this trend continues India may be following the foot steps of America where one in three citizens are obese with bloated bodies spending billions of dollars for treating their diseases!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE "GO VEGETARIAN" BUG-FOOD MNCs BEING "INFECTED"!

Who ever has ever imagined that the transnational companies like Pizza Hut and others will ever identify themselves with the vegetarian eating culture so predominant in India! McDonald is a company with a reputation of slaughtering 67000 cows every day of the year to satisfy the insatiable palates of American consumers for Beef! Yet these food peddlers are vying with each other to set up exclusive vegetarian vending outlets in some parts of the country, especially in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Gujarat. It is another matter that they might not even know who Gandhi was and might not care also since their focus is improve their business at any cost. They know many Indian vegetarians are cash rich and they will not brook even preparing and serving meat based food preparations in the same place. Here is a report about this new emerging trend which provides interesting reading.

In Gujarat, global restaurant chains like Subway, KFC and McDonalds are not just experimenting with vegetarian food but also offering Jain food. In a first, American restaurant franchise Subway has opened a Jain counter at its first all-veg outlet in Ahmedabad at a location with a high density of Jain population. "We carried out a survey in Gujarat and sent a proposal to the US HQ to open an all-veg outlet with a pure Jain counter in Ahmedabad. We will now add more vegetarian items on the menu in Gujarat, which is the only state that contributes 60% of the total sales from vegetarian food," said Durlabh Singh, Subway's development agent for Gujarat and Daman-Diu. The company's first all vegetarian counter was opened at a private university in Punjab recently, after which the restaurant chain decided to experiment with the Jain cuisine for Gujarat. "We plan to open similar outlets in Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Anand, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar soon," said Singh. McDonalds too is working out the logistics of setting up all-vegetarian outlets in the state in a few years. When KFC entered Gujarat in November 2011 with its first restaurant, it changed its menu to include vegetarian cuisine as well. KFC plans to add five more stores in the state this year with increased vegetarian options. Pizza Hut made its Gujarat foray with its first vegetarian restaurant in the world in Ahmedabad, offering Jain food. Pizza outlet Domino's Pizza also has four restaurants in Gujarat, which offer completely vegetarian menu.

Another way of looking at this new trend is that world over there is a definite shift among consumers to go for non-meat foods on which there is a trust deficit, all making of the meat industry itself there. Repeated food contamination episodes, frequent hospitalization, periodic mortality and decreasing antibiotic sensitivity among the population do play a role in such change in consumer preference. The new development in India is indeed a welcome one and millions of vegetarians in India will look forward to taste some of the reputed products from the stables of these MNCs though questions will still remain how healthy are these products steeped in salt, sugar and saturated fat! On any given day the Udupi restaurants and Dhabhas offer more healthy and tasty alternatives to Indians. Occasional eating at these MNC joints, however will do no harm and even such irregular visits can spell significant business to the new avatars of fast foods. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

AGRI-LAND FOR INDUSTRY-IS IT JUSTIFIED?

Agitations and protests by farmers whose land holdings are being usurped by the government in the name industrial development are on the increase in India lately. Forcing Tata Motors to shift their Nano car production facilities from West Bengal to Gujarat is an example of the virulence of such farmer organized agitations. With massive investments being made in SEZs, Technology Parks, Food Parks etc, more and more land will be required and state governments take up the responsibility in providing land to investors while inviting them to their regions. Why agricultural land is being taken over, that too paying meager compensation to the poor farmers is some thing that defies logic. Gujarat is an example where only land not suitable for economic farming is being given for industrial development.

'"n analysis of Gujarat's industrial areas will clearly show the approach of the Government of Gujarat has been to facilitate industrial development in areas that are not productive for agriculture. Industrialization in double-crop areas has been avoided and industrial areas have been located in coastal saline areas and other less fertile land".

In a country where food availability is progressively shrinking while the population is increasing, such diversion of land to non-agricultural purpose is bound to compromise the food security of the country. Governments, both at the state as well as the central level, are in possession of millions of hectares of land which could be easily utilized, in stead of allowing land mafias to grab them under the benign policy that exists to day.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com