Source: IMDb.com
There is more interest in food these days than ever, yet there is very little interest in the hands that pick it. Farmworkers, the foundation of our fresh food industry, are routinely abused and robbed of wages. In extreme cases they can be beaten, sexually harassed or even enslaved – all within the borders of the United States.
Food Chains reveals the human cost in our food supply and the complicity of large buyers of produce like fast food and supermarkets. Fast food is big, but supermarkets are bigger – earning $4 trillion globally. They have tremendous power over the agricultural system. Over the past 3 decades they have drained revenue from their supply chain leaving farmworkers in poverty and forced to work under subhuman conditions. Yet many take no responsibility for this.
The narrative of the film focuses on an intrepid and highly lauded group of tomato pickers from Southern Florida – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers or CIW – who are revolutionizing farm labor. Their story is one of hope and promise for the triumph of morality over corporate greed – to ensure a dignified life for farm workers and a more humane, transparent food chain.
This is the official description from the film’s website or IMDb page.
“Gathering at least three films under one rousing umbrella — the fair-wage struggle of tomato pickers in Florida — this emphatic and empathetic documentary (directed by Sanjay Rawal and narrated by Forest Whitaker) presents the plight of our farm laborers as modern-day slavery.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
“Using Florida farmworkers’ six-day hunger strike as its jumping-off point, the advocacy documentary Food Chains launches its case for how supermarkets, fast-food restaurants and other food services indirectly exploit laborers.” – Martin Tsai, Los Angeles Times
Watch the trailer here:
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