We are demanding a dignified life for ourselves...”

It comes as no surprise how bleak the livelihoods of agricultural labourers around the world have always been, as the vast majority live below the poverty line and are working all hours just to ensure the survival of their families. Tonight’s documentary by director Sanjay Rawal, FOOD CHAINS looks deeper into how dismal the situation in America has become with the rise of increasingly powerful supermarket corporations whose influence beggars belief. 

Executive produced by ex-Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria and narrated by Forest Whitaker, FOOD CHAINS is predominantly set in southern Florida, where a group of farm workers battles the global supermarket industry and reveals the abuse of farm labourers in the United States. These people work long days, full-time, and they lift about 4,000 pounds of tomatoes per day. For this, they take home about USD $40 a day, tops.

We are demanding a dignified life for ourselves...”

It comes as no surprise how bleak the livelihoods of agricultural labourers around the world have always been, as the vast majority live below the poverty line and are working all hours just to ensure the survival of their families. Tonight’s documentary by director Sanjay Rawal, FOOD CHAINS looks deeper into how dismal the situation in America has become with the rise of increasingly powerful supermarket corporations whose influence beggars belief. 

Executive produced by ex-Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria and narrated by Forest Whitaker, FOOD CHAINS is predominantly set in southern Florida, where a group of farm workers battles the global supermarket industry and reveals the abuse of farm labourers in the United States. These people work long days, full-time, and they lift about 4,000 pounds of tomatoes per day. For this, they take home about USD $40 a day, tops.

The issue here however is both human rights and corporate greed, and that is where things get even more hopeless. It’s not the fault of farmers that production costs have increased but prices haven’t; and they certainly can’t pay the people they hire to pick crops any more. Billion-dollar US supermarket chains such as Publix (who reportedly make more than Apple and Microsoft) dominate the marketplace but really don’t seem to give a rat’s that some of their suppliers aren’t treated anywhere near as well as the customers. The buying power of these big corporations has kept wages pitifully low and has created a scenario where desperately poor people are willing to put up with anything to keep their jobs.

At the centre of FOOD CHAINS is a March 2012 event in which farm workers in Immokalee, Florida, go on a six-day hunger strike in hopes of getting a meeting with a Publix representative. It gives a human face – and real stories – to the issue at hand, and Rawal also incorporates the situations of underpaid workers in Napa Valley, Bangladeshi garment workers or Chinese migrants in the United Kingdom, as examples of the many who have traveled from poor countries to create better lives for their families and been exploited.

It’s not a new problem either, and yet history repeats itself unless people speak up and hold companies accountable. The film illuminates the effects of living below the poverty line despite working practically nonstop, and serves as a good reminder to the end user. Will it make big companies who never cared suddenly grow a conscience? Probably not, but it reinforces why we should care, and put pressure on them as a result.

There is so much interest in food these days yet there is almost no interest in the hands that pick that food, and that is what this documentary bought home to me most. As a lover of good wine, the scenes in the vineyards of Napa Valley were a particular eye opener. As some of the wines from the area fetch hundreds - or thousands - of dollars per bottle, the workers in the fields are still paid only meagre wages. These scenes expose immense ignorance on the part of the monied yet well-intentioned vineyard owners, as they throw cheesy charity benefits in order to raise money for their poverty-stricken workers. As author Eric Schlosser observes, the problem couldn't be resolved this way, as it's not a question of charity; the simple solution lies in just raising one's income. Is it really that hard?