Pesticides are bad, activists may be worst!

Ms Nooyi is absolutely right. Its a pity that both Pepsi and Coca Cola took a wrong route to counter Sunita Narain. It is good to have these activists but at times they cause more damage then good. I was once involved in a similar controversy when we launched a grain based whisky in India. The whole story was twisted beyond recognition and we were blamed that we were converting poor man's food into rich man's drink.

The fact was that we were helping marginal farmers get much better price for their grain which had no other use. I am gald the Pepsico chief finally spoke about it. Every time I used to see an article related to this story, I used to feel bad and felt that simple facts could have resolved the issue. Firstly, people consume the same underground water with out purification whereas in case of Pepsi it was purified. Secondly, per capita consumption of Pepsi is negligible compared to water.

So if there are pesticide residue in water, these cause much more harm to public with or without Pepsi. Therefore, focus should be in reducing the pesticide residues in the underground water, milk etc rather than blaming a soft drink company. Let Ms Narain work with agriculture departments of central and state govt for controlled and safe usage of pesticide than wasting her time fighting against a company like Pepsi or Coke.

Virender Sheorain (Jamaica)