The soft drinks giant is looking at extending its supply chain audits and facilitating talks on ensuring better standards after Ecologist investigation uncovers squalid conditions and low pay for some migrant workers in Calabria. Gianluca Martelliano & Andrew Wasley report Coca Cola is examining how the company can help facilitate ‘fair’ conditions and wages for […]
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Coca Cola challenged over orange harvest linked to ‘exploitation and squalor’
The manufacturer of Fanta is being urged to help address the poor conditions and low wages endured by some African migrant workers harvesting oranges in southern Italy. Andrew Wasley reports from Rosarno It is perhaps the worst address in Western Europe. A ramshackle slum with a noisy road on one side, a railway on another, […]
Bitter harvest: exploitation ‘rife’ on UK farms
Migrant workers are vital for meeting the UK’s demand for year-round fruit and vegetables. But despite improvements since the Morecambe Bay tragedy, allegations of poor conditions and abuse in the horticulture sector persist. Andrew Wasley reports ‘There’s no justice, there’s discrimination… people are treated like cattle, not human beings, I never expected it could be […]
Scandal of Europe’s tomato slaves
Across Italy an invisible army of migrant workers harvests tomatoes destined for our dinner plates. Paid poverty wages and living in squalor, medical charities have described conditions as ‘hell’. Andrew Wasley reports from Basilicata, southern Italy In the parched countryside outside the town of Venosa, in Basilicata, southern Italy, along a rough track fifteen minutes’ […]
How food speculation fuels tortilla crisis
A surge in financial speculation on maize is causing vastly inflated prices for corn tortillas – a sacred staple in Mexico – and threatening the health and livelihoods of the country’s poor.As part of a special report examining food speculation the Ecologist Film Unit travelled to Mexico to investigate. The Ecologist Film Unit (EFU) is jointly […]
Revealed: popular antibiotics linked to UK deaths
Millions of us are successfully treated with ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolone antibiotics each year. But for some patients the drugs are linked to severe adverse reactions involving terrifying physical and mental health impacts. Andrew Wasley reports Patients who say they’ve suffered severe adverse reactions to a common antibiotic are calling for action to prevent others […]
Fracking Hell: the untold story
Plans by UK companies to extract gas through a controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ could contaminate local water supplies, according to a new report by the Tyndall Centre. The report echoes the findings of a major Ecologist Film Unit investigation and film released late last year which raised the alarm about the process – […]
US fracking boom linked to pollution and social strife
The gas stored in the Marcellus Shale formation is the subject of desperate drilling to secure US domestic energy supplies. But the process involved – hydraulic fracturing – is the focus of a bitter dispute over environmental damage and community rights. Jim Wickens reports It is a timeless patchwork of small dairy farms and endless […]
Clydesdale Bank under fire over finance for Nocton ‘super dairy’
Campaigners claim the bank has refused to state what environmental assessments were carried out before supplying a mortgage – part of a £13-million land deal – to company behind controversial Nocton proposal. Andrew Wasley reports A leading high street bank has come under fire for part-financing the controversial Nocton ‘super dairy’ project which will – […]
Sour milk: undercover inside the US ‘super dairy’ industry
With planning permission for Britain’s biggest dairy at Nocton about to be re-submitted later this month, Jim Wickens travelled to California to examine intensive milk production US-style and found factory farms, conflict, intimidation, pesticides, pollution and small-scale farmers driven out of business… ‘You better get out of here or your gonna get your ass kicked […]
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