Pepsi takes fight with Coca-Cola into potato fields
PepsiCo, the parent company of Walkers crisps, is Britain's biggest crisp maker, buying more than 350,000 tonnes of potatoes a year
The consumer war waged between Pepsi and Coke takes a new twist in Britain today with PepsiCo pledging to reduce the carbon emissions andwater consumption of its UK operations by an ambitious 50% in five years, in the process leapfrogging Coca Cola's plan to improve its ecological efficiency by a similar amount.
PepsiCo, the $60bn-a-year parent company of Walkers crisps, Quaker Oats, and Tropicana fruit juices, is Britain's biggest crisp maker, buying more than 350,000 tonnes of potatoes a year.
The group says it will now replace the three varieties of potato it grows in Britain with types that need less water in production and which store better.
The 350 farms which cultivate the corporation's potatoes will also switch to low-carbon fertilisers and use more precise irrigation. Instead of applying about 10 tonnes of water in the field, to grow one tonne of potatoes in dry areas, after 2015 the farms will use about 5 tonnes.
"These are ambitious but achievable targets," said David Wilkinson, PepsiCo's agriculture director for Europe, "Britain is a testbed. If it goes well we will be able to use these methods worldwide."
Pepsi and Coke, which sell their products in almost every country in the world and are two of the best known global brands, have long fought each other over taste, price, sugar content and market distribution. Each has been criticised by communities, courts, and developing countries, for depleting water supplies in drought-prone areas and for allegedly poisoning water with pesticides. A massive movement has now emerged in India to hold multinational companies accountable for their water use. The state of Kerala in India banned the sale and production of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta, and other soft drinks made by the firms' local subsidiaries.
The Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva has calculated that it takes nine litres of clean water to manufacture a litre of Coke, thoughCoca-Cola says the correct figure is 3.12 litres on average.
Research has shown both companies that most of the water they consume is used for growing ingredients rather than in the manufacturing process itself.
"The food industry is starting to recognise that a large part of its focus must be on the agricultural supply chain. PepsiCo has taken a leadership role in recognising that it is, at its heart, an agricultural business. The focus of the business on improving its key environmental impacts … is most welcome," said Richard Perkins, commodities adviser at WWF.
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