General Motors joined Eva Longoria to screen The Harvest/La Cosecha in DC

General Motors supported Shine Global and the child migrant farm working community by sponsoring a screening of The Harvest/La Cosecha in Washington, DC.  The event was hosted at the Capitol Visitors last Thursday, June 16^th, by Eva Longoria, Shine Global, and GM.  GM’s support of the screening enabled Shine Global to show The Harvest/La Cosecha to members of Congress and their staff and aides as well as key activists and political organizers to illustrate the lives of the child farmworkers in the US who work to feed us all.  Earlier in the day, Eva Longoria joined Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and other activists for children’s rights to introduce the CARE Act , which aims to raise the minimum age for children working in agriculture and offer them more protections than they have under the Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Roybal-Allard joined Eva Longoria at the screening and spoke again about the need to provide greater protection for farmworker children.  “I simply do not believe that our child labor laws reflect how we as Americans value our children,” she said.  Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of United Farm Workers of America and activist for farmworkers’ rights, also attended the screening.  She has worked tirelessly to ensure that all farmworkers have rights and was brought to tears by the film.

General Motors is committed to building a healthy global community. The GM Foundation focuses on four key areas: education, health and human services, environment and energy, and community development. The foundation consistently serves as a leader in educational support within corporate giving programs. In health and human services, they provide support in research, prevention, and treatment of various conditions. In the area of environment and energy, the GM foundation is dedicated to providing support to organizations that aid in the protection of human health, natural resources, and the global environment. Within community development, the GMF supports programs that strengthen community awareness and improvement.

Their combined efforts within these four areas work towards the broader goal of building a healthy global community. The foundation works not just in the US but globally, funding programs in over 200 countries around the world. The diversity of their commitment allows the foundation to do make remarkable gains for humanity in a broad array of issues.

Shine Global would like to thank General Motors for their support of The Harvest/La Cosecha and the rights of child farmworkers.

Directed by the acclaimed director and human rights activist U. Roberto Romano, The Harvest/La Cosecha will be coming to theaters in New York and Los Angeles this summer and 30 other communities for special one-night screenings.  Please contact us if you’d like your community to be on of them!

Visit: www.theharvestfilm.com for more info!

Eva Longoria and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard Introduce CARE act to protect child farmworkers in the US

Eva Longoria, Executive Producer of the documentary THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA, at a press conference with Director U Roberto Romano and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard to introduce the CARE Act to protect child farmworkers

Capitol Hill, Washington- At a press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday, June 16th, Actor and Activist Eva Longoria and Shine Global joined Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) and other child advocates in announcing the introduction of “The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment” (CARE), legislation which ensures adequate protections for children working in our nation’s agricultural fields.

“Agriculture is the only industry governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to work with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours they spend in the fields outside of the school day,” Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard said.  “Tragically, unable to keep up with the competing demands of long work hours in the fields and school, a recent report found that child farmworkers drop out of school at four times the national dropout rate – slamming the door shut on the very pathway that could one day help them escape a lifetime of unrelenting work harvesting our crops.  I simply do not believe that our child labor laws reflect how we as Americans value our children.”

Exposing the hardships of child farmworkers, THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA, a new film by Shine Global, U. Roberto Romano and Executive Producer Eva Longoria, examines the day-to-day lives of child migrant laborers.  The film tells the stories of three adolescents who travel with their families across thousands of miles to pick crops in southern Texas, northern Michigan and northern Florida during the harvest season.  Along the way, they face back breaking labor in 100-degree heat, physical hazards from pesticides, the emotional burden of helping their families through economic crises when work opportunities dry up, separation from their families and peer groups and dwindling hope for their educational and economic advancement. The events surrounding the introduction of CARE also featured a special same-day screening of the documentary on Capitol Hill.  The film will be released theatrically in Los Angeles and in New York in July, along with special screenings in 30 cities nationally, and it will premier on Epix TV October 5th.

“I applaud Eva Longoria, Robin Romano and Shine Global for using the power of film to expose the plight of child farmworkers in The Harvest/La Cosecha.  As this film documents, children in agriculture too often work in dangerous and exploitive conditions, which are illegal in every other industry,” Congresswoman Roybal-Allard said.  “I commend them for their work to shed light on the lives of these children and for their dedication to passing the CARE Act, which would end this unacceptable double standard in our nation’s child labor laws.”

Actor, activist, and philanthropist Eva Longoria said, “I want to commend Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard for her leadership in Congress on the CARE Act.  Using my voice to help Shine Global and U. Roberto (Robin) Romano raise awareness about the plight of farmworker children in agriculture has been an incredible honor. This has been one of the most important issues I have had the opportunity to work on.”

“Very few of us understand the true cost of the produce that we buy in grocery stores every day,” said Susan MacLaury, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Shine Global.  “While we only pay 80 cents a pound for tomatoes, the child who may have picked them has paid with his or her future.”

Albie Hecht, Co-Founder of Shine Global and Chairman of the Shine Global Board of Directors, said, “Kids who work all day in fields, and have to move every six months to follow the harvest, don’t focus on school.  Their friendships suffer. Their physical health suffers.  It is very hard for them to grow and develop, and many give up on life dreams or career ambitions.  All they see is the harvest.”

While retaining current exemptions for family farms, the CARE Act would bring age and work hour standards for children in agriculture up to the standards for children working in all other industries.  That would mean, under CARE, that teenagers would be required to be at least 14 years of age to work in agriculture and at least 18 years of age to perform particularly hazardous work.

In addition to addressing the age and hour requirements for child farmworkers, CARE addresses several other problem areas:

•    To serve as a stronger deterrent for employers who violate child labor laws, the bill establishes a minimum penalty for child labor violations and increases the maximum civil monetary penalties from $11,000 to $15,000.  The bill also imposes a criminal penalty of up to 5 years imprisonment for willful or repeat violations that lead to the death or serious injury of a child worker.

•    To provide children with greater protections, CARE raises the labor standards for pesticide exposure to the levels currently enforced by the EPA.

In addition to Eva Longoria and Congresswoman Roybal-Allard, speakers at the press conference included: Thomas A. Saenz, President & General Counsel, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF); Antonia Cortese, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers and co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition; Reid Maki, Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition who released the National Consumers League’s results of a consumer survey on attitudes about child labor in agriculture; and Norma Flores López, Director of the Children in the Fields Campaign at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP), and a former child migrant farmworker.
Visit http://roybal-allard.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=247090 to learn more about the press conference

Visit: http://www.theharvestfilm.com to learn more about child labor in agriculture, about screenings in your area, or how to bring the film to your community

Follow us on twitter: @theharvestdoc

And Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-HarvestLa-Cosecha/113753142021299

The Harvest/La Cosecha wins Outstanding Filmmaker Award at San Antonio Film Festival!

The Harvest/La Cosecha won the Outstanding Filmmaker Award at the San Antonio Film Festival last night.  The documentary follows 3 of the estimated 400,000 children who leave behind their homes, friends, and schools to migrate from state to state and crop to crop picking the food we all eat–all without the protection of child labor laws.

Director U. Roberto Romano began filming The Harvest/La Cosecha in 2007 and spent the ensuing years traveling over 75,000 miles through 24 states filming and meeting farmworkers families.  His commitment to the cause of helping migrant child farmworkers, who lack the protections all other American children enjoy,  shine brightly in this film about their lives and their struggle to help their families survive.

Shine Global would like to thank everyone who made this film possible including our many supporters.

To learn when the film will be showing near you or how to bring The Harvest/La Cosecha to your community please visit: http://www.theharvestfilm.com/

Follow us on Twitter: @theharvestdoc

And Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-HarvestLa-Cosecha/113753142021299

Refusing to Bend – Threatened by pesticides near their homes, the children of CA farmworkers launch a battle

Threatened by pesticides in the fields outside their homes, the children of Central California farmworkers have launched a ground-level battle against agribusiness

Text by Rosie J. Spinks | Photos by Rowan Byers

It’s a short walk—about five or six steps—from the neat and cozy kitchen of Carolina Rios’s family home to the edge of the strawberry fields that serve as her backyard. On a calm Monday evening in April, Carolina’s father, Sabino, stands between two rows, his crisp white sweatshirt blending with the mist hanging over the farm.

Bending down, he places a ripe berry between two fingers and, with a flick of the wrist and a firm yank, plucks it from the plant. That’s the best way to pick a strawberry, he says. Sabino would know. He and his wife have been piscadores, or strawberry pickers, for 20 years, since emigrating here to Watsonville, California, from Mexico.

The berry that Sabino has picked in his demonstration is of a certain type: fresas chiquititas, he calls them. Small strawberries. They’re small because the fields in which they grow are too close to the family’s home to be treated with certain pesticides.

Sabino points to other fields visible from where he stands.

“Fresas más grande pero más peligroso,” he says. “Bigger strawberries, but more dangerous.”

Sabino and his wife have long known that the pesticides routinely sprayed where they live and work are potentially toxic. It’s why they wash their work clothes separately from their children’s clothes. However, they recently learned that a new fumigant approved for use in California may present an even greater threat to their family’s health. They have their daughter to thank for that.

“When I came home from school and told them about it, it was the first time they had heard of methyl iodide,” 17-year-old Carolina explains. Her parents nod in agreement.

In December 2010, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) approved methyl iodide for use in the state. This despite fierce and ongoing opposition from scientists, environmental advocacy groups, and agricultural communities, who say methyl iodide poses a danger to farmworkers and residents—though not to consumers, since this particular fumigant degrades long before it can leave residue on a crop. Meanwhile, the manufacturer, Arysta LifeScience, insists it’s safe.

For Carolina and her peers, there’s no debate. They believe that if methyl iodide is used in their community, it will end up in the groundwater they drink, in the air that dries their laundry, and on the boots that their parents wear home from the fields.

In the months since methyl iodide’s approval, no growers in the Watsonville or neighboring Salinas area have applied for the permit to use the pesticide. These young activists have had something to do with that. And they intend to keep it that way.

“My house is literally surrounded by the fields,” Carolina says frankly. “We’re doing this to protect our homes and our families.”

To read the full article please visit: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201107/pesticides-farmworkers.aspx?sms_ss=f

To learn more about farmworkers and see the dangerous daily exposure to pesticides endured by child farmworkers and their parents see THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA coming this summer to theaters.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-HarvestLa-Cosecha/113753142021299
Twitter: @theharvestdoc

The Harvest/La Cosecha to screen at San Antonio Film Festival 6/22

Shine Global is very pleased to announce that THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA will be screening on the evening of Wednesday, June 22nd at the San Antonio Film Festival.  Now in its 16th year, the San Antonio Film Festival — formerly The San Antonio Underground Film Festival — is held annually in June at the Instituto Cultural de Mexico in San Antonio with the mission to serve as an accessible and inclusive platform for artists in the category of cinema and provide cinematic culture to a diverse audience. The San Antonio Film Festival  showcases film from around the world while nurturing, fostering, and developing filmmakers of all ages.

THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA tells the story of 3 of the estimated 400,000 children who leave behind their homes, friends, and schools to travel from state to state and crop to crop picking the food we all eat. They work in brutally hot temperatures and are exposed to pesticides in order to help their families survive — all without the protection of child labor laws.

We hope you can join Director U Roberto Romano and Executive Producer Susan MacLaury for the screening and a post-screening Q&A.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22nd
7-10pm
El Instituto Cultural de México
San Antonio Film Festival
600 Hemisfair Park
San Antonio, Texas 78205

Dir. U Roberto Romano at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2011

Interview with Roberto Romano,
Human Rights Educator, Filmmaker,
Photographer and speaker on
the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2011

Roberto Romano: “The Dark Side of Chocolate”

Investigative photographer and filmmaker U. Roberto Romano is one of today’s foremost creative minds when it comes to capturing images of wrongdoings which words cannot describe. He’s also a committed and well-versed advocate for human rights, particularly with regard to labor and production conditions in various countries around the world. A widely respected expert, his impressing and profound documentaries focus predominantly on issues such as child labor and the contemporary slave trade.

“The Dark Side of Chocolate” is the name of a documentary which Romano jointly produced with Danish journalist Miki Mistrati about human trafficking, child and slave labor in connection with the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast. Romano’s perspective always digs below the surface. His pictures tell stories that leave no one unmoved.

Interview

DW: You began with your activities on the issue of child labor in Pakistan as early as 1995. Since then you have documented cases of child slavery. Have the new media since then helped you to bring about a change for the better?

RR: Martin Luther King said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”. For many of us seeking social justice, this long arc usually feels too long and change comes too slowly and at great expenses in terms of lives lost, potentials unrealized and dreams unfulfilled.

The media only seems capable of focusing meaningfully on a handful important issues at a time. When I was growing up it was civil rights and women’s rights. Today, we are still fighting for women’s rights around the world and the rights of children and the enslaved. But these are just the current manifestations of the twin demons of poverty and powerlessness that have plagued us all through history. And although there are new media out there that are raising awareness about many issues, much of it often lacks the ‘density’ to create significant change. That said; it is our responsibility to show the world as it is and to focus on issues of importance, always.

The media does bring change by raising awareness and by that awareness being channeled into robust and well-organized movements but that is a difficult combination.

DW: What action would the world have to take in order to confront the problem? Take the example of the South Asian carpet industry where thousands of child laborers are currently being exploited. Can a new label like GoodWeave contribute to increase consciousness, not only in the wider public but especially in the actual industry itself?

RR: GoodWeave served as part of a broader campaign against child labor and slavery that reduced the number of children in the looms by hundreds of thousands. This is what I meant by media being channeled into robust and well-organized movements. It is a great example about how a label evolves to fit the needs of the laborers, the manufacturers, the communities and the consumers by connecting the consumer to the carpet in ways that were unheard of before. At their best, labels create both change and consciousness and GoodWeave is one of the best examples of how to do this.

DW: You are a filmmaker and photographer, a man of visual impressions. Can the power of pictures attract the attention of policymakers and businesspeople? What was their reaction to your documentary “The Dark Side of Chocolate”?

RR: Pictures show us the world as it really is, especially when what you are trying to show is ‘unimaginable’.  We know the words child, slave and coca but the power of images can distill them into an undeniable and powerful moment that cannot be ignored. The abandoned boy who has been trafficked from Mali to the north of the Ivory Coast who sits alone crying and desperate with fear, the young girl, Mariam, whose open sores speak to the total lack of care she has gotten while she was being smuggled, the empty stare of the boy with a machete in one hand and a cocoa pod in the other, the life in his eyes all but sucked out of him all convey what words and studies and conventions and laws cannot: the unmitigated horror that is visited daily on much of the world. How can anyone not react when confronted by that reality?

DW: Would you say that this is the objective behind your documentaries, to confront decision makers with reality? What are the main tasks you want your movies to fulfill?

RR: All of the films that I have been involved with have an effect.  However important it is to gain access to government, gaining access to the consciousness of the public is important as well. To this end, I have always made portions of the films I have been involved in available to the international press. Since the release of “The Dark Side of Chocolate” there has been a huge boost in the demand for imports that are Fair Trade certified. I do believe that the film played a part in this increased demand.

The bottom line is: whatever model we adopt needs to be top down as well as bottom up. It needs to speak to those who make the rules and those who have to live under them.

www.urobertoromano.com

To Learn more about the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum please follow this link: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,14143,00.html