New film documents pesticide posioning of child farmworkers

The good folks at Toxic Free NC have a new, short (about six minutes) film out about two inexcusable phenomena that continue to plague the modern food industry in North Carolina: 1) the continued use of young children in one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations, and 2) the ongoing failure of state officials to enforce laws designed to protect farmworkers and their families from pesticide exposure.

The film is called “Overworked & Under Spray” and it’s worth a few minutes out of your day. There are no sensational revelations or tragic, tear-jerking moments; it’s just a group of average North Carolina kids talking about something that our state continues to allow to happen so that we can all save a few pennies on our sweet potatoes, cucumbers and cigarettes.    

Would that the state’s do-nothing Commissioner of Elevators would get off of her behind and maybe, for the first time in anyone’s memory, do something meaningful about a worker safety issue.