The Strength of Samson

By Marshall Loeb

Executive View

John Paul Austin. Rowed on the U.S. Olympic crew in 1936. Graduated from Harvard Law. Decorated as a World War II Navy lieutenant commander. Caught the eye of legendary Coca-Cola Chairman Bob Woodruff, who recruited and groomed him. Became chief in 1966. Earns in the high six figures. Is a buddy of fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter. Taught himself passable Japanese. Works in an Atlanta eyrie among Oriental antiques and photos of his handsome wife. Spends more than half his time traveling, largely to the 135 countries where Coke does business. Has a rather radical idea: the whole world can be fed, fairly simply and cheaply. In short, there need be no malnutrition.

Food can be grown in the most hostile environments, Coca-Cola's technicians have discovered. In the deserts of Abu Dhabi, for instance, they are raising quantities of plump tomatoes, cucumbers and beans for 10-c- per Ib. The trick is to grow them under an inflatable plastic dome, which captures the air's available moisture instead of allowing it to evaporate under the searing sun. Also, J. Paul Austin explains, carbon dioxide is pumped in from diesel exhausts, and the gas promotes plant growth.

On the coastline of Mexico, just south of the U.S. border, Coke is cultivating shrimp in narrow, shallow channels of water that are covered by plastic bubbles. "All the shrimp have been just about fished out of the oceans," says Austin. That is largely because in the open seas, 98% of all shrimp eggs are lost; but in Coke's protected patches, 50% grow to maturity. Austin expects fairly soon to be selling a lot of shrimp from this "controlled environment farm." There is a fair chance that when the supply stretches, the price will shrink.

Yet what excites him most is something much simpler. In Brazil and Mexico, Coca-Cola is selling soft drinks that contain up to one-third of an adult's entire daily vitamin and mineral requirements and 10% of the protein needs. The Mexican drink has a long-haired brand name, Samson, and orange or mango flavors, though Coke can give it any color and taste the customer wants, even split pea. It is made from the whey that is left over from cheese manufacturing; using this protein-potent residue has a double benefit because most whey now is dumped into streams, where it pollutes by inducing algae growth.

Samson has been tested in five Atlanta elementary schools and given to ghetto kids who had fallen far behind in learning tests. "But," says Austin, "when we fed the children this drink every school-day morning for four months, their learning curves came right up." The kids stopped sleeping in class. Their attentiveness increased, and truancy declined. Teachers said that at last they could teach--instead of referee fights.

Does this gratify Austin? Yes--and no. He shudders that millions of youngsters in the world, including some in the U.S., are growing up malnourished, and a number of them are suffering irreversible damage to the brain. "So what we have is a closed circle of poverty, malnutrition and brain damage."

Coca-Cola's strategy is to test Samson some more in the Third World, then gradually introduce it into the U.S. Perhaps in five years people may be able to buy it throughout the country, for a penny or so more a bottle than Coke or Tab, because it is costlier to make and the company aims to profit. Moving faster would be hard, Austin points out, because Coca-Cola is already at full production with its regular soft drinks.

Why doesn't Austin bid for a Government subsidy to give Samson away, much as milk is handed out in school lunch programs? Anybody knows that if Coke tried for that, the milk lobby would raise hell. The company also has to be careful about trumpeting the product as a good-for-you drink because consumers--particularly the poor--might be suspicious.

The good news, then, is that a powerful marketer has come up with a cheap and tasty product that can do much to whip malnutrition. The frustrating fact, however, is that Austin & Co. feel constrained to go slow by politics and the realities of the marketplace.

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