I enjoy the LA Film Fest each year. This year was no exception (I saw 35 Shots of Rum and really enjoyed it), but as an added bonus, I saw attention being paid to the real environmental and social costs of conventional (non-organic) agricultural production. Cool!
It’s well document that soil quality, water quality, and air quality are all impacted negatively by pesticide and chemical use. It’s also well understood that significant traces of those chemicals end up in our bodies after consuming non-organic fruit and has been linked to particular types of cancers and diseases. (Hat tip whatsnmyfood.org, new website launched to showcase exactly which pesticides end up in which foods!)
Equally important although not often mentioned, is the impact of these pesticides on the people who actually grow our food and have first-rate exposure, that is farm-workers. This group represents one of the most vulnerable populations to toxic exposure, in terms of access to public health services, financial means to pay for those services, and literacy and language skills to express and understand health-related concerns.
Premiering at the LA Film Fest is the movie, Bananas*, a documentary about banana workers in Nicaragua and the effects these chemicals have had on the development of this poor farm-working community and the quiet battle going on against it. Facinating, controversial stuff, considering that Dole is the biggest tropical fruit player in the industry.
In true Hollywood style (and sad international agricultural reality), there’s significant noise being made on both sides. Allegations that some of the claims in the film are dramatized at best, outright lies at worse (as stated by Dole’s lawyers in this memo).
I won’t get a chance to see it at this years festival- did anyone see it? The exposure about the topic is important, and I’m always glad to see folks start thinking and arguing about this important worker-justice issue. On the flip side, inaccurate reporting and bad fact checking can do wonders to discredit an important topic and allow folks to throw it on the back burner with all the other “junk” they absorb throughout the day. (Think Michael Moore and gun control).
Say it!