Negative Impacts
Let us highlight some of the negative impacts in
"The Attack of the Killer Tomato".
- Two big powerful companies get together to
overthrow a publically owned cooperative farm. The result is that
a few people become a lot richer and a lot of people become a lot
poorer.
- One big company will profit from the sale of
pesticides. Mexican people will suffer from their use on their
land, and Americans in Alabama will suffer from the world's
largest hazardous landfill where their waste is dumped.
- Methyl bromide fumigates the land, harming the
farmers in direct contact with it. As our air has no boundaries,
it also spreads into our atmosphere to work on depleting our ozone
layer.
- What is methyl bromide?
(Click tomato to find
out).
- Not only are Mexican farmers exposed to
harmful conditions without protection, but they also do not have
access to health care. With a mere income of $2.50 per day, they
do not have the option to travel away to a better life. They are
stuck in a situation of poverty and danger, for their lives and
their children's.
- Much packaging is used - and if not reused or
recycled, will end up in a landfill. American workers in Texas are
exposed to the risl of cancer by manufacturing the plastic
packaging the tomatoes are put into.
- Canada's forests and fish are affected. The
cardboard boxes are made from B.C. trees which are milled near the
Great Lakes which are hence polluted.
- Imagine all of the fossil fuels that are
burned during the trucking of materials from one place to another!
And finally, the tomatoes from Mexico to our grocery
stores.
Return to Attack of
the Killer Tomato page.