On: What Coke Contains (2013)

[TazeTSchnitzel]

> The number of individual nations that could produce a can of Coke is zero.

While this is true in that no individual nation could produce Coke with the exact same formula, an individual nation could surely produce a soft drink.

[hencq → TazeTSchnitzel]

But not too many of those countries also have bauxite mines, coca plants and kola nuts.

[saalweachter → hencq]

Ehhh.

The globalization is more about economics and cost minimization than capability. The Australian bauxite mines are the richest and cheapest mines to operate, which makes other sources of aluminum not worth exploiting, but aluminum is still the third most common element on Earth. The plant ingredients could presumably be grown -- albeit far more expensively and perhaps not in large enough quality for full-scale production -- in greenhouses or under grow lights anywhere.

So it's not so much that many nations couldn't produce a can of Coke by themselves as it doesn't make economic sense for them to produce a can of Coke by themselves when the raw ingredients can be had much more cheaply as an import.

[TazeTSchnitzel → hencq]

I mean, the entire thing, including the aluminium from a bauxite mine.

Just perhaps not the coca plants and kola nuts, unless they want to make a greenhouse.