How Coca Leaf Became Colombia’s New Superfood
How Coca Leaf Became Colombia’s New Superfood
May 19, 2016 / 2:00 pm
By Ocean Malandra
No other plant in human history has been as demonized as coca.
In 1961, it was placed on the Schedule I list at the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which stated that “The Parties shall so far as possible enforce the uprooting of all coca bushes which grow wild. They shall destroy the coca bushes if illegally cultivated.” The plant has been public enemy number one in the worldwide War on Drugs for decades.
While countries like Peru and Bolivia have fought back against the culturally myopic and violently neo-colonial enforcement of these laws, eventually legalizing the plant in their respective countries and even petitioning the UN to change its views worldwide, Colombia has historically played along. Although it has always honored the rights of indigenous groups to grow and use coca, for decades Colombia has allowed the US to aerially spray pesticides on its crops and fund violent military maneuvers in many of its prime coca-growing regions.
But when the World Health Organization announced last year that the Monsanto-made pesticide, glyphosate, was actually highly carcinogenic, Colombia’s days of kissing America’s ass came to a screeching halt. In an abrupt turnaround, Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos is now challenging the War on Drugs in its entirety; this a reflection of the national psyche of a country that has borne the brunt of failed policies for far too long and is ready for real change.
Nowhere is that change more evident than on the streets of Bogotá, the country’s hip, two-mile-high capital. At new businesses like the Embajada de la Coca (The Coca Embassy) the green leaf is being restored to its rightful place as a powerful medicinal plant and super-nutrient that should be revered instead of reviled.
More:
https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/how-coca-leaf-became-colombias-new-superfood
