Cola beverages used as a pesticide in Eastern India farming

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Farmers in the eastern Indian state of Chhattisgarh have found that is is cheaper Pepsi or Coca-Cola than pesticides and it gets the job done just as well.

Agricultural scientists give them some backing too. They say that the high sugar content of the drinks can make them effective in combating pests.

Farmers in the Durg, Rajnandgaon and Dhamtari districts of Chhattisgarh say they have successfully used Pepsi and Coke to protect their rice plantations against pests.

"All that is happening is that plants get a direct supply of carbohydrates and sugar which in turn boosts the plants' immunity", says Sanket Thakur, agricultural scientist, but there could be more to it then just that says I.

It is a trend that has been seen in other parts of India, with farmers also using Indian brands of colas.

The practice of using soft drinks in lieu of pesticides, which are 10 times more expensive, is gaining so much popularity that sales of the drinks have increased drastically in remote villages.

Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have a pH below 3 and a positive ORP running around +250mV, making these so-called beverages a strong acid and toxic to humans, animals and insects.

One of the main ingredients of cola, whether Coca Cola or Pepsi, and also in Dr Pepper, is phosphoric acid, which is used as a cleaning agent for metals and in commercial lavatory cleaning.

No surprise then that pests run a mile. They seem to be clever on that score than we humans are.

There was a time when the main ingredient for Coca Cola was, in fact, cocaine and not phosphoric acid. But then cocaine was removed and replaced with that said acid. Not a good choice, methinks, as far as humans are concerned and no surprise that obesity has rocketed ever since and even more so since the arrival of Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi.

The phosphoric acid is what makes cola turn tarnished pennies and other tarnished metals back into shiny things and I hate to wonder what that stuff does to people's insides.

In addition to that mixing cola with chlorine bleach is a very inadvisable thing to do as the result is phosgene, a chemical weapon used in World War I.

For more on colas a pesticides see this BBC piece: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3977351.stm

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