Soft drinks:

Instead of 3-4% volume growths, unexpected 1 to 5% declines...

Diet Coke grew 4% in 1998 and fell 1% in 1999, while
Diet Pepsi grew 1% in 1998 and fell 5% in 1999.

"US 1999 Top-10 Soft Drink Companies and Brands"

"Total US 1999 soft drink volume grows +0.5% to 9.93 bil 192-oz
cases [16 12-oz cans]... far lower than industry's +3% growth in
1998 and +3.2% in 1997...

Coke Classic [-1.0%; 1998 +3.0%],
Pepsi [-2.0%; 1998 +0.6%],

Diet Coke [-1.0%; 1998 +4.0%],
Diet Pepsi [-5.0%; 1998 +1.0%]
and Caffeine-Free Diet Coke [-2.5%; 1998 +4% ] all experienced
volume declines.

Pepsi One. In first full year of availability, brand sells 83.7 mil
cases. Compare to 33.5 mil cases for mid-October through December
1998 period [10 weeks, so a year would have been 167.5 mil cases,
so the 1999 sales were in effect off 50%.  Pepsi One has both
aspartame and Ace-K.]... Triarc's Royal Crown unit volume drops -
7.5%... Retail sales growth [+3%] far out-paces volume growth as
major CSD [carbonated soft drink] bottlers raised prices in take-
home channels.

***************

Jan 24 2000 In August, 1996 analyst Sebastian Bizzari predicted:

"Demand for aspartame in the United States, Western Europe and
Japan is expected to increase at a 5.5% rate annually to a 1997
level of almost 28 million pounds. Japan will experience the
highest growth rate at 15% annually, followed by Western Europe at
6% and the United States at 5%... Leading the world in consumption
of high-intensity sweeteners with approximately 50% of world
demand, the United States also accounts for 83% of world aspartame
consumption. In 1992, U.S. consumption of aspartame increased to
17.5 million pounds from 8.4 million pounds in 1986, [doubling in 8
years] an average annual increase of 13%. Since its introduction in
1981, aspartame has become the sweetener of choice in virtually all
canned or bottled diet soft drinks in the United States. Soft
drinks account for an estimated 85% of all aspartame consumed in
the United States."

[So 83% of the expected world use of 28 million pounds in 1997
would have been 23.2 million pounds of aspartame use in the USA in
1997.]

Bizzari in 1999 reported that aspartame use in the USA in 1998 was
only 20 million pounds at a now expected annual growth rate of only
3%.

  Gee... aspartame production...

  1986  8.4 million pounds
  1992 17.5 million pounds
  1997 28 million pounds
  1998 20 million pounds ... this is one measure of our effectiveness!

(How much does over 8 million pounds of aspartame cost?  How much
in lost product sales stem from this lack of aspartame sales?)

  1998 13 Oct: American Home Products nixes "Done Deal" merger with
Monsanto (monsantoandahp.txt)
  1999 Monsanto dumps its phenylalanine facilities on GLC
       (monsantoandglc.txt)
  2000 Monsanto dumps the Nutrasweet company on an investment firm
       (nutrasweetsale.txt)

  Two anti-aspartame sites (1996) balloon to over 25,000 (2001)
Monsanto dumps their phenylalanine facilities on GLC (125+ million)
The dead Nutrasweet cash-cow is dumped on an investment firm March,
2000

  Gee... that from only a handful of unhappy

                consumers/citizens/victims/activists!

  Oh, yes... some of this decline might be attributable to the
Dairy folks griping that too many kids drink too many sodas...
BUT... then, not really.

  Why not?

  Seems like the dairy folks have a BIG LOSSES on their side of the
fence, too.

  http://www.notmilk.com and http://hungerstrike.com have helped to
educate the consumer on THAT badnews substance, too.  Milk sales
are way down.

  Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what it will be when the
general PUBLIC becomes better informed... gets active, and
shames/bullies the media into doing its job!  (Oh... and I suspect
that tobacco-like lawsuits will follow on the heels of this public
awakening!  Lawsuits that will make the Tobacco settlements seem
like minor league warmups.)

  Hey, Monsanto... FDA... and minions (AMA, ADA, Children with
Diabetes, Mayo Clinic, MS folks... ad nauseam)

              **** YOUR BRAND OF "TRUTH" IS NOT WINNING! ****