Earth Focus - Exposed: The Ugly Side of Food Production

April 04, 2012 from Earth Focus

Food and social justice. Human rights abuses, rape and corrupt practices in the Bangladesh shrimp industry. A report by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation uncovers the human and environmental cost of shrimp farming and shows why buying shrimp from Bangladesh where they are exposed to pesticides and injected with dirty water may be hazardous to your health. UK's The Ecologist investigates the plight of African migrant workers in Italy and looks how financial speculation is threatening the livelihood of Mexican farmers.

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Food security

Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. The USDA estimates the nearly 9 out of 10 U.S households were food secure throughout 2005. It is a mea... Explore this topic

Poverty

Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Relative pove... Explore this topic

Mexico

Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by t... Explore this topic

Hunger

Hunger is the physical sensation of desiring food. When politicians, relief workers and social scientists talk about people suffering from hunger, they usually refer to those who are unable to eat sufficient food to meet their basic nutritional needs for sustained periods of t... Explore this topic

Speculation

Speculation is the practice of engaging in risky financial transactions in an attempt to profit from short or medium term fluctuations in the market value of a tradable good such as a financial instrument, rather than attempting to profit from the underlying financial attribut... Explore this topic

Mexican people

Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity. Mexico became a nation in 1821 when Mexico achieved independence from the Spanish Empire; this began the process of... Explore this topic

Agriculture

Agriculture, also called farming or husbandry, is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel and other products used to sustain human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby fa... Explore this topic

The Ecologist

The Ecologist was a British environmental journal, then magazine, published from 1970-2009. Founded by Edward Goldsmith, it addressed a wide range of environmental subjects and promoted an ecological systems thinking approach through its news stories, investigations and opinio... Explore this topic

Earth Focus

An environmental news magazine that puts a human face on pressing global issues. This essential series features under-publicized stories on how changes to the earth's resources and climate are affecting everyday people all around the world. Earth Focus is funded by grants from... Explore this topic

Also See

Italy

Migrant worker

Overfishing

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