Killer Coke: My soft-drink journey
By: Sam Holley-Kline
Issue date: 3/5/10 Section: Opinion
I love Coca-Cola. As far as soft drinks go, it's certainly my favorite. Pepsi aficionados say it's too sweet, or too syrupy for their tastes. Nonsense, I say.
There's nothing quite like a cold Coke on a summer day, or a can of Coke with a slice of pepperoni pizza. I especially enjoy any Kosher or Mexican Coke made with real sugar. It's certainly not healthy, but I figure I have the rest of my life to eat and drink healthily. I may as well drink Coke to my heart's content while my metabolism is still relatively fast.
Imagine my confusion, then, when at an off-campus event, I saw a big sheet sign reading "STOP KILLER COKE." Stop Coke? Why? It's delicious. Aren't most soft drinks equally unhealthy? Why not stop Pepsi? It doesn't taste that good, anyway.
The campaign was about something much more serious: human rights violations. How could a soft drink company be involved in human rights violations?
As it turns out, a lawsuit filed in 2001 against Coca-Cola and a Colombian bottling plant alleges that the two "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilize extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders."
Coca-Cola was dropped from the lawsuit when the court found it did not have subject matter jurisdiction.
Even though the case against the bottling plant was similarly dropped, other allegations have cropped up. A lawsuit filed in February of this year, for instance, says that Coca-Cola knew about and did nothing to prevent anti-union violence at a bottling plant in Guatemala. For example, one union member had his home invaded and his family threatened. Another member's son and nephew were killed and his teenage daughter was raped.
If that isn't enough, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been implicated in some serious environmental contamination incidents.
For example, the New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment reported that local Coca-Cola and Pepsi products contained between 11 and 70 times the maximum pesticide levels set by the European Union. The companies disagree with the findings, of course, but the Indian Parliament doesn't. A committee upheld the findings, and another committee was appointed to examine pesticide standards for soft drinks.
The Indian state of Kerala even banned the production and sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in 2006.
It's no wonder why numerous colleges, including Oberlin, Bard, Carleton and Lake Forest have ended the sale of Coca-Cola on their campuses.
After all, if an institution contracts with Coca-Cola, it becomes complicit in all sorts of human rights and environmental abuses. Then, if you buy Coca-Cola from that institution you become complicit in those abuses through your financial support.
It's a shame. I still like Coke's taste. I really do. But I know that if I continue to drink it, I'll be complicit in all sorts of things in which I'd really rather not be complicit. Because of the environmental abuses, Pepsi's not much of an alternative.
Maybe I'll stick to chocolate milk for now.
- Sam Holley-Kline is a sophomore honor scholar from Anchorage, Ala., majoring in Spanish.
There's nothing quite like a cold Coke on a summer day, or a can of Coke with a slice of pepperoni pizza. I especially enjoy any Kosher or Mexican Coke made with real sugar. It's certainly not healthy, but I figure I have the rest of my life to eat and drink healthily. I may as well drink Coke to my heart's content while my metabolism is still relatively fast.
Imagine my confusion, then, when at an off-campus event, I saw a big sheet sign reading "STOP KILLER COKE." Stop Coke? Why? It's delicious. Aren't most soft drinks equally unhealthy? Why not stop Pepsi? It doesn't taste that good, anyway.
The campaign was about something much more serious: human rights violations. How could a soft drink company be involved in human rights violations?
As it turns out, a lawsuit filed in 2001 against Coca-Cola and a Colombian bottling plant alleges that the two "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilize extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders."
Coca-Cola was dropped from the lawsuit when the court found it did not have subject matter jurisdiction.
Even though the case against the bottling plant was similarly dropped, other allegations have cropped up. A lawsuit filed in February of this year, for instance, says that Coca-Cola knew about and did nothing to prevent anti-union violence at a bottling plant in Guatemala. For example, one union member had his home invaded and his family threatened. Another member's son and nephew were killed and his teenage daughter was raped.
If that isn't enough, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been implicated in some serious environmental contamination incidents.
For example, the New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment reported that local Coca-Cola and Pepsi products contained between 11 and 70 times the maximum pesticide levels set by the European Union. The companies disagree with the findings, of course, but the Indian Parliament doesn't. A committee upheld the findings, and another committee was appointed to examine pesticide standards for soft drinks.
The Indian state of Kerala even banned the production and sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in 2006.
It's no wonder why numerous colleges, including Oberlin, Bard, Carleton and Lake Forest have ended the sale of Coca-Cola on their campuses.
After all, if an institution contracts with Coca-Cola, it becomes complicit in all sorts of human rights and environmental abuses. Then, if you buy Coca-Cola from that institution you become complicit in those abuses through your financial support.
It's a shame. I still like Coke's taste. I really do. But I know that if I continue to drink it, I'll be complicit in all sorts of things in which I'd really rather not be complicit. Because of the environmental abuses, Pepsi's not much of an alternative.
Maybe I'll stick to chocolate milk for now.
- Sam Holley-Kline is a sophomore honor scholar from Anchorage, Ala., majoring in Spanish.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
roy
posted 3/05/10 @ 3:19 PM EST
it is a good book out about coca cola & union call. what coca cola did to stop the union from coming in
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