Indian Farmers Turn to Coca-Cola to Kill Pests

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Indian farmers turn to Cola to kill pests

GUNTUR, India (Reuters) - Cotton

farmers in some Indian villages are flocking to buy Coca-Cola and

Pepsi, believing that the sugar in the fizzy drinks kills pests.

Farmers say scientists advised them

to mix pesticides with a sugary syrup to control pests, and they found

the mixture cheaper and more effective than pure chemicals -- although

soft drink makers and scientists dismissed the claims.

N. Hamunayya, who has become a

celebrity in his village in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh,

said his crop survived an attack of pests which had resisted other

remedies.

"We found that all the colas had

uniform effect on pests. The pests became numb and fell to ground," he

said.

He said the drinks had all the

elements they needed: they were cheaper, sticky, fizzy, and attracted

ants, which devoured the larvae of the pests.

But Thirupathi Reddy, assistant

director of the Regional Agri Research station, Guntur, says tests had

refuted such claims.

"We conducted some field trials on

cotton crop at our research station. There was no boosting of

productivity or eradication of pests," he says.

Statements from Pepsi and Coca-Cola

said there was "no scientific basis" for this practice.

But their vendors are enjoying

booming sales.

Mantan Wali, who sells soft drinks in

17 villages in the region, said sales fizzed up, thanks to the farmers.

 

"For the 10 days between August and

September I had booming business. Instead of just 30 cases (each

containing a dozen one-litre bottles) of cola I started selling almost

200 cases," he said.

"We expected the sales to nosedive

after the cacophony over pesticide residues in the cola drinks. Now I

have to keep extra stock for the cotton farmers," he said.

In February, an Indian parliamentary

panel upheld a report by an environment group that said beverages made

by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo contained pesticides and called for tougher

safety standards.

The U.S. firms strongly rejected the

findings of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment and

said their products were safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Largest ever field of impact craters

uncovered

 

 

 

 

 

 

10:00 07 November 04

 

 

 

 

 

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The discovery of the largest field of impact craters ever

uncovered on Earth is the first evidence that the planet suffered

simultaneous meteor impacts in the recent past. The field has gone

unnoticed until now because it is partially buried beneath the sands of

the Sahara desert in south-west Egypt.

Philippe Paillou of Bordeaux University Observatory in

Floirac, France, first noticed circular geological structures in the

Sahara last year, while analysing radar satellite pictures of the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Weblinks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earth Impact Database

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bordeaux (in French)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The structures turned out to be part of a huge field of 100

craters spread over 5000 square kilometres near the Gilf Kebir plateau.

The craters vary in diameter from 20 metres to 2 kilometres across. The

previous largest known crater field covers a mere 60 square kilometres

in Argentina.

In February, Paillou led a joint Egyptian and French mission

to find the site and examined 13 of the craters, confirming that they

were the result of simultaneous impacts. But accurately dating the

field has been tricky. Paillou estimates that it is roughly 50 million

years old, relatively young in geological terms.

The size of the field suggests that it could be the result

of two or more meteors disintegrating as they entered Earth’s

atmosphere, the first evidence of a multiple strike, he says.

“Because the field is so big, it can’t have been made by one

meteor,” says Paillou. But more information is needed to understand the

event and its effects, and Paillou plans to return to the area next

month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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