BOLIVIA: Bolivians make pizza and cake out of coca to show the plant can be used for more than cocaine production

Record ID: 735999

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Bolivians make pizza and cake out of coca to show the plant can be used for more than cocaine production
  • Date: 7th August 2006
  • Summary: CUSTOMERS TASTING THE COCA PIZZA COCA PIZZA VARIOUS OF CUSTOMERS TASTING THE COCA PIZZA COCA PIZZA (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JUAN CARLOS PEREZ, CUSTOMER, SAYING: "As for the taste, it definitely is every bit as good as other types of pizzas." VARIOUS OF COOK TAKING COCA PIZZA OUT OF THE OVEN AND SLICING IT
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Industry,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA9MN846LE8LQP5QAL2DSGLKWO2
  • Story Text: Bolivia's peasant farmers have been cultivating coca in the rolling green valleys of the Yungas for centuries. Here, locals grow their coca crops for traditional uses such as chewing or making tea to ward off hunger and altitude sickness.
    But coca is also the raw material for the manufacture of cocaine, and U.S. drug eradication policies have taken their toll on the coca plantations, with joint U.S.-Bolivia eradication campaigns in the 1990s razing huge swathes of the crop.
    The law currently allows 29,650 acres to be grown in the Yungas, although government and U.S. officials have expressed concern that cultivation is rising in the world's third-largest cocaine-producing nation.
    Washington funds coca-eradication programs in Bolivia's other main coca-growing region, Chapare, where current President Evo Morales rose to fame, leading sometimes violent protests against forced crop destruction. U.S. officials claim most Chapare coca is used to make cocaine.
    But under Morales' presidency, new uses are being found for the controversial coca leaf, including incorporating it into food like cookies and cakes through the use of flour made from coca leaves.
    In La Choperia restaurant in La Paz, coca flour is being used to make one of the popular items on the daily menu - coca pizza. And despite its controversial ingredient, customers are keen to sample the novelty item.
    According to diner Juan Carlos Perez, the pizza tastes just as good as its coca-free counterparts. "As for the taste, it definitely is every bit as good as other types of pizzas," he said.
    While some might find the inclusion of coca in baking an unusual idea, anthropologists claim local indigenous people have long used the plant in foodstuffs.
    Silvia Rivera is an anthropologist who has done extensive research into the use of the coca plant. She sees the introduction of coca leaves into foodstuffs as based in a tradition that precedes Morales' presidency.
    "This is an innovative process, but one that is based in tradition. From anthropological investigations it is being discovered, for example, that there are a number of indigenous groups in the Amazon that eat coca. They don't just chew it, they also use it as part of their diet," she explained.
    While Morales has repeatedly claimed he is against drug trafficking, he has clarified that he is not against coca growing, an industry which provides an income for over 90,000 families in Bolivia.
    And according to Rivera, he may have good reason to get behind the coca plant, given its purported health properties.
    "The results of various analyses, among them one by Harvard University, show, for example, the high component of calcium it has. It contains more calcium than milk. And it contains a lot of iron, it contains phosphorous, a lot of vitamin A, D, E. And it contains amino-acids," she said.
    Morales is hoping to create a market for coca products, looking to export items like coca tea to countries around the world.
    The latest coca PR coup was an announcement that Morales would give Cuban President Fidel Castro a cake made from coca for his eightieth birthday, which he celebrates next month.
    Speaking in Argentina, Fidel Castro did his part for Morales' campaign to show that coca leaf can produce more than cocaine. "Evo says he's going to send me a cake made of coca. It's not made of cocaine, he has said clearly," said Castro in Cordoba.
    Rolando Lukana is the baker in charge of the celebrated cake. He has been baking using coca flour for some time, inspired by his president's campaign to legalise the coca leaf.
    "The idea was born from when President Evo campaigned for the legalization of coca. And we were in contact with a number of people who make products from coca flour, and I said, why not in a bakery," said Lukana.
    Morales has consistently said that he wants to fight cocaine production while seeking to legalize coca leaf export for tea, herbal medicines, toothpaste, soft drinks and other licit products. After his election, Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous leader, said the U.S. drug policy was a pretext for militarizing Bolivia and challenged Washington to join him in a new kind of fight against cocaine.
    Bolivians like Lukana say it is upsetting when the U.S. equates coca with cocaine, and believes Morales' plan to mass produce coca products is a sound one.
    "Because the truth is, we get upset when they say that coca is cocaine and really they use us through coca, the put pretexts on any situation. So as a baker I say that yes, you can make things from coca flour and yes it can be industrialized," he said.
    Morales has formed close ties with his fellow leftists, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro, since taking office in January, and Chavez has pledged 1 million U.S. dollars to fund two coca-processing factories. Coca tea bags can be found in any Bolivian supermarket, and health shops already stock a selection of coca-based products ranging from cakes and cookies to syrups and skin creams.
    The government is optimistic about finding markets for the country's legal coca products in Venezuela, Cuba, China and India - which officials say have already expressed interest. ENDS.
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