7/31/2019 Down to Earth - 16-30 April 2012 (Preview)

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S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

DownToEarth

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QUICKSANDMININGSThe booming construction sector has a dark side. Sand that fuels itis mostly supplied by mafia at a great ecological cost

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April 16-30, 2012 Down To Earth 3

E D I T O R S P A G E

More to junk food than meets the eye

Junk food is junk by its very definition. But how badis it and what is it that companies do not tell peopleabout this food? This is what the Centre for Scienceand Environment (CSE) laboratory checked. The

results were both predictable and alarming. What wasequally predictable was the response of big food compa-nies and their spokespersonsdenials and dismissals. Butthey are missing the point.

First the study: CSE tested all that is readily available infast food outlets or as branded and packaged items inshops across the country. These ranged from instant noo-dles, chips and Indian bhujiato the ubiquitous colas,

chicken fries and burgers.As I said, the results were partly predictable. Junk food

is defined as food with empty caloriesitprovides fat, sugar and salt, withoutnutrition. The CSE study reconfirmed thisbut with a difference. Labels on packagesdo not explain just how much of our dailysalt, sugar or fat quota this fun food istaking up. We are not told that one pack-et of chips, devoured easily, supplies halfof what we should take daily in terms offat and salt; one bottle of cola has twicethe daily added sugar allowance of adults

and children. It is not in the interest offood companies to advertise this. It is inour interest to know.

The study also found that companieswere not just irresponsible through omis-sion, but also through deliberate misrep-resentation of facts about the quantity oftrans fatty acidstrans fats in shortintheir products. Trans fats, formed duringhydrogenation of oil, are linked to serioushealth problems. But the Indian law does not requirecompanies to declare the quantity of trans fat in their

products. However, it does say that a company can makea health claim that its food item is trans fat-free, provid-ed that each serving has less than 0.2 gm of it.

There are many operative misses in this regulation.Companies can determine their own size of serving andthey do. Indian food giant Haldirams, for instance, takes10 gm, which is less than a mouthful, as the serving size.Thats how it claims to be trans fat-free. Haldirams bhu-jia, Pepsi Lays chips and ITCs Bingo chips had trans fatwhen they claimed otherwise. The rest of the junk food,which was not even pretending to be trans fat-free, wasequally bad or worse. Companies can get away with thisbecause nobody is checking.

Take the case of Pepsi. It went on an advertising spree,saying its potato chips were healthy because they did nothave trans fat and were cooked in rice bran oil. FilmstarSaif Ali Khan was its brand ambassador, urging children

and adults to eat without guilt and care. The chips werebranded snack-smart, implying good. Then Pepsidecided that these chips were heavy on its pocket. So itchanged the medium of cooking and removed the snack-smart logo and the declaration of zero-trans fat from thepackets. But this time it did not launch an advertisingcampaign. Why should it?

The CSE study found the company was adding insult toinjury. First, even what was claimed to be trans fat-freehad 0.9 gm per 100 gm. Secondly, packets of chips manu-factured in February 2012 had dangerously high trans fatlevels of 3.7 gm per 100 gmmuch more than what is

allowed in daily diet. But under the weak Indian food reg-ulations they did not have to tell people what was in the

packet. It is no surprise then thatPepsi, in its official rebuttal to the CSEstudy, said, All products are fullycompliant with regulations, includ-ing those on labeling. Clearly, foodcompanies are not in the business offood, but in the business of profit.

Following the CSE tests two ques-tions were raised. One, why shouldone test junk food when it is alreadyknown to be bad? Two, why test only

packaged food when all Indian snacksare said to be equally bad?

First, as the study shows, we donot know just how bad this food reallyis. We should know more because it iscritical we take informed decisionsabout our health. Non-communicablediseases, from hypertension to cancer,are a global epidemic. Bad food andbad lifestyle are major causes of these

diseases. Indians are especially vulnerable when it comes todiabetes; as compared to Caucasians, they are genetically

disposed to have more fat than muscle and have a greaterpropensity to put fat around the abdomen. They are alsotoo poor to cope with the horrendous health costs of debil-itating diseases like diabetes. Therefore, Indian food regula-tions have to be even more stringent in limiting quantitiesof salt, sugar and fat in food.

Secondly, regarding food other than junk it must bemade clear that traditional and local diets are built on theprinciple of moderation and balance. Indian diet, with itsdiversity of regional cuisines, celebrates good food.Problem arises when one adds new food and makes ituniversalMcDonalise it or supersize it. Therefore,the right thing to do is not to pit junk food against Indian

snacks but to consider how much and what you eat.The choice is yours to make. So eat at your own risk.

Sunita Narain

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S C I E N C E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T F O R T N I G H T L Y

DownToEarth

VO L 20 , NO 23 ; To tal No of pa ge s 60Editorial, subscriptions and advertisements: Society forEnvironmental Communications, 41, TughlakabadInstitutional Area, New Delhi 110 062, Phone: 91-11-

29955124, 29956110, 29956394, 29956399Fax: 91-11-29955879.Email: downtoearth@downtoearth.org.in 2005 Societyfor Environmental Communications. All rights reservedthroughout the world. Reproduction in any manner isprohibited. Printed and published by Sunita Narain on behalfof Society for Environmental Communications. Printed atInternational Print-o-Pac Limited, B-204, 205, OkhlaIndustrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi-110020 INDIA andpublished at 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area,New Delhi 110 062.

FOR ADVERTISEMENT CONTACT:

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Down To Earth April 16-30, 20124

AP RI L 16 -30 , 20 12

DOWN TO EARTH EDITORIAL DOES NOT

ENDORSE THE CONTENT OF ADVERTISEMENTS

PRINTED IN THE MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

20

COVER STORYHead in sandMining of sand means big business. Some states have banned mechanised

mining, but the mafia is not ready to obey. Illegal mining is hollowing the

riverbed putting at risk the stability and ecology of rivers

16Operation red corridor

Ho tribals of Saranda are set to lose their sal forest as it goes

from the clutches of Maoists to the mining industry

FRONTPAGE

SPECIAL REPORT

09Dirty solution

Delhi municipality builds

yet another plant to

derive energy from

waste. The technologyhas been proven a failure

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April 16-30, 2012 Down To Earth 5

3 EDITORS PAGE

6 LETTERS

NEWS

11 Odisha fails to address fly ash

disposal concerns

12 Why is government reluctant to

auction coal blocks

FACTSHEET

14 Wide gap in expenditures of

rural and urban residents

TWENTY YEAR SPECIAL

15 Audit of industrys reluctance

and ignorance

GRASSROOTS

32 Politician-scientist duo scripts

water revolution

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

36 Now plastics that self repair

37 Common pesticides tweak

bees sense of direction

38 How sacred trees act as a

natural nursery

39 Nitrate contamination of

groundwater on the rise

40 Health tablet in the making

LIFE & NATURE

46 Goans lose sleep over snares

laid in inhabited areas

COLUMN

52 Compulsory licence to Natco

will shake up pharma market

CROSSCURRENTS

54 The uncertain science

of conservation

56 MEDIA58 LAST WORD

COVER PHOTO: SAYANTONI PALCHOUDHURI

INTERVIEW

Ground reportson illegal sandmining fromKarnataka,Goa, Punjaband Andhra Pradesh

Nuclear power corporation and

atomic energy department are

losing the war on credibility

even though they have won the

Kudankulam battle

LIFE POST FUKUSHIMAIts been a year since Great Eastern

Japan Earthquake, tsunami andFukushima nuclear disaster ravagedJapan. How is the country coping?

REPORTERS DIARY

twitter.com/down2earthindia

www.facebook.com/down2earthindia

50

Why the Bagmati fails to revive

Anne Rademacher, assistant professor of social and

cultural analysis at New York University, offers an insight

42

Organic farming saves the day

Farmers ditch chemicals for sustainable cultivation to

save Nagpurs oranges

SPECIAL REPORT

ARCHIVE

Read Down To Earth online

18 years of research, articlesMore environmental info at

www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in

WWW.DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

extra

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MOYNA

Waste-to-energy projectsfigured in the electionmanifesto of the Bharati-ya Janata Party during the

recent civic polls in Delhi. BJP hoardings

across the city declared that the citizenswill not be charged to generate power.It seems the Municipal Corporation ofDelhi (MCD) is obsessed with the idea ofgenerating energy from garbage. Desp-ite ample evidence that the technology isa failure and peoples oppositions to theprojects, three waste-to-energy projectsare under way in the capital city. TheOkhla plant has been functioning on atrial basis since January, despite a publicinterest petition against it in the DelhiHigh Court, which is being heard since

2009. Construction work on anotherplant in thickly populated Ghazipur is infull swing. MCD plans to begin work onthe third one in Narela-Bawana shortly.

This is despite the fact that thecountrys first waste-to-energy plantwas set up in Delhis Timarpur area in1984, and was rendered defunct within15 days of its functioning. Incineratingwaste to generate electricity not onlyreleases toxins, such plants are unviable

as the countrys municipal waste hasa low calorific value. As per the Manualon Municipal Solid Waste Managementof the Union urban developmentministry, 44 to 53 per cent of the wastein India comprises materials that do notburn, construction debris for instance.Incineration of such waste producestoxic ash that requires special landfillsfor disposal (see Unfit to burn, DownTo Earth, March 1-15, 2007).

Together, the three plants aim toincinerate some 8,000 tonnes of munic-

ipal waste the city generates daily andproduce 62.2 MW of electricity; Delhiconsumes around 4,800 MW of electric-ity every day. Its like killing two birds

with one stone. We will get a clean cityand additional power, says a BJPspokesperson, explaining why the partysupports the technology.

Residents of Ghazipur say the plantswill bring more trouble than benefit. Afew residents from Kabadi Basti in

Ghazipur on April 7 cornered BJP candi-dates over the waste-to-energy plantduring their campaign to the colony.We let them go only after theypromised to look into the matter andstop the plant once voted to power,says Varun, a Basti resident. KabadiBasti is one of the six slums that lie with-in a kilometre of the plant. The plantalso faces a Delhi Development Autho-rity (DDA) colony and shares its wallswith the citys largest butcher house onone side and a veterinary hospital on the

other. A cluster of dairy farms is locatedbarely 15 metres from the plant.

The area is already contaminatedwith waste like decomposed skin, fur,

F R O N T P A G E

April 16-30, 2012 Down To Earth 9

PATRONISING

DIRTY TECHNOLOGY

Delhi municipality constructs yet another waste-to-energy plant at Ghazipur

PHOTOGRAPHS:SAYANTAONIPALCOUDHURI

/CSE