1 00:00:00:00
2 00:00:00:10
3 00:00:05:11 ♪♪♪
4 00:00:18:20 (David Weir) The environment doesn't know any boundaries.
5 00:00:20:12 You know, dust and pollution from China settles in the US.
6 00:00:25:11 You know, nuclear radiation from Chernobyl
7 00:00:28:10 went over Iceland.
8 00:00:30:20 What goes up into the environment
9 00:00:32:19 goes around the world.
10 00:00:34:06 And ultimately, this thin layer of topsoil,
11 00:00:37:22 maybe 6 inches of soil around this hard planet
12 00:00:41:00 spinning in space, represents the dust of our ancestors.
13 00:00:44:21 All human history and all the other creatures
14 00:00:47:08 are in that soil.
15 00:00:48:16 And to contaminate that and the water supply
16 00:00:51:08 and the air is an unforgivable sin.
17 00:00:54:02 It's something that we'll pay for as a species
18 00:00:57:12 in generations to come.
19 00:01:00:14 ♪♪♪
20 00:01:07:10 (female news anchor) First, the news this morning.
21 00:01:09:04 The Senate Agriculture Committee is considering a bill
22 00:01:12:01 that would ban the export of dangerous pesticides.
23 00:01:15:08 Farm workers from abroad told lawmakers yesterday
24 00:01:18:02 of devastating health problems from exposure
25 00:01:20:06 to chemicals made by American companies.
26 00:01:23:12 Wyatt Andrews has that story.
27 00:01:26:11 (Wyatt Andrews) Costa Rican farmer Mario Zumbado
28 00:01:28:16 used to grow bananas for export to America
29 00:01:31:17 until, he believes, the pesticides he sprayed
30 00:01:34:03 on the plants made him and 800 other workers sterile.
31 00:01:38:13 He told a senate committee there were times when he virtually
32 00:01:41:07 bathed in a chemical that US companies
33 00:01:43:22 and officials knew could render men impotent.
34 00:01:48:02 The issue in Congress would seem to be simple.
35 00:01:50:21 If a chemical is banned or unlicensed as too dangerous
36 00:01:53:19 to use in America, should it be morally wrong
37 00:01:56:12 to export it somewhere else?
38 00:01:58:11 Aside from morality, many experts believe Americans
39 00:02:01:20 are eating these pesticides in produce grown overseas,
40 00:02:05:05 the so-called circle of poison.
41 00:02:10:05 (male) Okay, so we can just start with an introduction,
42 00:02:12:04 just your name and--
43 00:02:13:20 Okay, David Weir, journalist.
44 00:02:16:23 (male) And what inspired you to write the "Circle of Poison"?
45 00:02:20:04 Well, you know, "The Circle of Poison"
46 00:02:21:22 really started for me years before,
47 00:02:23:15 when I was in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan.
48 00:02:25:18 And my wife and I were in this little
49 00:02:28:06 remote northern town called Taloqan.
50 00:02:30:18 There's absolutely nothing to do there.
51 00:02:32:22 And we were bored, and one day we picked up some food
52 00:02:38:12 from the American embassy when we were in Kabul.
53 00:02:42:00 And she was reading the ingredients
54 00:02:43:22 on the Kool-Aid packet that she'd gotten,
55 00:02:46:22 which shows there wasn't a lot to read in Taloqan.
56 00:02:49:18 And she said, "Holy cow, there's cyclamates in this."
57 00:02:53:03 I said, "Wait, they're banned by the US government.
58 00:02:55:12 "How could a banned substance
59 00:02:57:17 end up in a poor country like Afghanistan?"
60 00:03:00:01 And so that started the investigation,
61 00:03:02:21 where I started to realize that systematically,
62 00:03:05:14 anything that was banned or heavily regulated
63 00:03:07:20 or restricted or unregistered in the US
64 00:03:11:11 was being allowed by the US government
65 00:03:13:20 and in fact encouraged to be sent overseas,
66 00:03:16:07 almost as compensation for the companies
67 00:03:18:09 for losing the US market.
68 00:03:20:23 ♪♪♪
69 00:03:30:23 ♪♪♪
70 00:03:38:09 (Vandana Shiva) Pesticides are pushed on grounds
71 00:03:40:16 that it's a very modern way to do farming.
72 00:03:43:08 I remember years ago reading a book
73 00:03:47:04 that India is underdeveloped
74 00:03:49:01 because it doesn't use pesticides.
75 00:03:50:23 Now we've made poisons the measure of progress.
76 00:03:54:17 And Kerala did not need this.
77 00:03:56:23 It's called God's own country.
78 00:04:00:17 It is so beautiful.
79 00:04:02:15 It has some of the best health indicators in the world,
80 00:04:07:00 100% literacy, and you go and spray poison on them.
81 00:04:12:20 ♪♪♪
82 00:04:27:20 ♪♪♪
83 00:04:33:22 (male) You're also like Annie--
84 00:04:37:07 She's also in Berkeley.
85 00:04:39:01 She actually brought us into the whole toxic world.
86 00:04:42:21 (Jayakumar C.) The issue of pesticides in Kasaragod
87 00:04:44:14 is a very unique case.
88 00:04:45:22 The first response or the first impact
89 00:04:50:07 of pesticide is on animals.
90 00:04:53:05 We have the bees disappearing,
91 00:04:54:20 we have the dogs dying, the chickens dying,
92 00:04:57:18 snakes dying in the plantation area.
93 00:05:01:12 And initially, the people were really happy
94 00:05:04:05 because the snakes are dying, the jackals are dying.
95 00:05:06:17 So, nobody will--no jackal will come and catch your chickens,
96 00:05:09:13 so you're happy.
97 00:05:11:04 You can walk in the plantation freely
98 00:05:12:17 because all the snakes are gone.
99 00:05:14:12 But in a year's time, they found that their chicken
100 00:05:16:06 is also disappearing.
101 00:05:18:01 In 2 years time,
102 00:05:19:17 they found that they can no longer keep dogs
103 00:05:21:07 because the dogs are dying.
104 00:05:22:23 And suddenly you have the impacts
105 00:05:25:16 visible on human beings.
106 00:05:27:06 And when the impacts became visible on human beings,
107 00:05:29:15 like what we call brain edema and the swollen heads,
108 00:05:34:18 the people born without limbs,
109 00:05:38:02 in certain cases people born with their urethra
110 00:05:40:12 and then their things outside their body,
111 00:05:43:04 you name the human disorder which can happen to a body,
112 00:05:46:17 you see in Kasaragod.
113 00:05:49:01 (Usha S.) When we actually went there and then started to understand
114 00:05:51:11 the issue of the pesticide, endosulfan, the local community,
115 00:05:57:15 generally they were not at all aware of the impact
116 00:06:00:14 which a pesticide can, you know, cause.
117 00:06:03:09 We realized that there is no source of--other source of
118 00:06:06:00 pollution in that area because it's a pristine village.
119 00:06:08:19 So, we were also not very sure whether it was caused
120 00:06:11:01 by the pesticides, so we were--
121 00:06:12:23 but then slowly we started collecting the information
122 00:06:15:15 on pesticide only, we realized that, no,
123 00:06:17:21 these things can happen through pesticides.
124 00:06:21:13 Probably the earlier signs and symptoms was in
125 00:06:25:05 very early '90s, like '91, '92, '93,
126 00:06:27:13 that kind of period.
127 00:06:29:07 By 2000, 2001, it was every day
128 00:06:31:12 there was some child born with something.
129 00:06:34:06 So, but in Kasaragod, we see a lot of new ones
130 00:06:36:23 born with genotoxic effects.
131 00:06:39:18 The child is not exposed, but their parents are exposed,
132 00:06:42:13 and the children are born with deformities.
133 00:06:44:15 That is happening today.
134 00:06:47:14 (female narrator) Deep in the cashew plantations of India,
135 00:06:50:00 Dr. Noushad and his mobile medical team visit survivors
136 00:06:53:20 of one of the worst pesticide disasters in the world.
137 00:07:08:04 (Dr. Noushad) Here's the former place for the plantation.
138 00:07:12:04 Here all full of cashews.
139 00:07:15:00 Here also, itself sprayed by the endosulfan.
140 00:08:00:23 After birth, the parents noticed that she's not having
141 00:08:06:18 all the development milestones, like turning over,
142 00:08:13:00 doing some activities.
143 00:08:14:17 All are delayed.
144 00:08:16:04 So, they consulted doctors and diagnosed her.
145 00:08:19:02 She's having cerebral palsy.
146 00:08:51:12 (Mohammed Asheel) As of now, we have 5,500 enlisted victims,
147 00:08:55:03 of which we are in the process of rehabilitation.
148 00:08:58:22 We are providing health rehabilitation to them,
149 00:09:01:01 which includes mobile medical units, free,
150 00:09:03:06 comprehensive free treatment.
151 00:09:05:04 This may be just the tip of an iceberg.
152 00:09:06:22 There are newborns which are having
153 00:09:09:15 the similar health effects in the area,
154 00:09:11:22 which is found to have more endosulfan contamination.
155 00:09:15:15 ♪♪♪
156 00:09:30:15 ♪♪♪
157 00:10:01:21 She was an absolutely normal child
158 00:10:03:22 before the exposure of the endosulfan.
159 00:10:06:03 (male) How old was she?
160 00:10:07:20 Now, she's 38.
161 00:10:10:16 (male) How old was she when it happened,
162 00:10:12:16 when she collapsed?
163 00:10:18:17 (Dr. Noushad) She was at 6 years.
164 00:10:21:23 She was studying second standard.
165 00:10:24:16 And she was running behind.
166 00:10:26:17 Actually, itself, it shows that she was running.
167 00:10:29:12 She was running behind the helicopter.
168 00:10:32:04 And if she was having this much deformity,
169 00:10:35:01 this much problems in her childhood,
170 00:10:37:05 she was not able to run.
171 00:10:39:22 Actually, it shows that she was normal,
172 00:10:43:21 that at that time, she was absolutely normal.
173 00:10:47:14 She was able to run behind the helicopter.
174 00:10:51:22 Then after spraying, she just collapsed
175 00:10:55:10 and became like this.
176 00:10:58:10 ♪♪♪
177 00:11:09:00 (narrator) Nearly 40% of victims have neurological disorders.
178 00:11:12:21 The government provides free special education
179 00:11:15:11 for affected children, who Dr. Noushad
180 00:11:17:23 checks on at one of the schools.
181 00:11:26:12 (Dr. Noushad) Actually, we have 11 villages, affected villages.
182 00:11:35:19 Seven schools running for these villages.
183 00:11:40:09 ♪♪♪
184 00:12:16:04 (Dr. Noushad) He's saying to sit.
185 00:12:20:01 This is the eldest son of this family.
186 00:12:23:02 His name is Afsel.
187 00:12:24:23 He is suffering from hydrocephalus.
188 00:12:28:14 This is also the continuation of this hydrocephalus
189 00:12:33:02 through the central canal of the spinal cord.
190 00:12:43:17 ♪♪♪
191 00:12:53:17 ♪♪♪
192 00:13:00:05 (Jayakumar) We perceive the US government
193 00:13:02:11 as one which is for the corporates.
194 00:13:04:03 Starting from DDT in 1972, when the US banned it,
195 00:13:06:18 then they still produced it and exported to Africa and Asia.
196 00:13:11:19 Even after 50 years, they are doing the same thing.
197 00:13:14:23 It is very unfortunate.
198 00:13:31:13 (male announcer) More gas is dropped from planes
199 00:13:33:16 either as a spray or in gas bombs.
200 00:13:35:23 But should enemy raiders use gas against your community,
201 00:13:38:22 there is no reason for fear or panic.
202 00:13:45:14 Before World War II,
203 00:13:47:11 there wasn't widespread use of pesticides.
204 00:13:49:07 There was reliance on some individual chemicals.
205 00:13:52:02 But during and after World War II,
206 00:13:55:09 when companies began to develop these chemistries for war,
207 00:14:00:09 they were looking for new markets
208 00:14:02:00 for the same chemicals.
209 00:14:03:15 And so, turned to food and agriculture after war.
210 00:14:06:15 And things like organophosphates,
211 00:14:08:10 which are nerve poisons,
212 00:14:10:16 were then pushed into agriculture.
213 00:14:12:09 And many of them are still used widespread in agriculture.
214 00:14:18:23 Some of the classes that we're most concerned about
215 00:14:21:02 are those in the DDT family that stay around
216 00:14:25:06 for generations and that migrate around the world.
217 00:14:28:07 They migrate on wind and water currents,
218 00:14:30:07 kind of doing this what they call the grasshopper effect,
219 00:14:32:16 where as it heats up, they kind of settle out.
220 00:14:34:23 And as the air heats up, they go in the air.
221 00:14:37:01 They settle out, and they make their way
222 00:14:38:22 to the arctic eventually.
223 00:14:46:23 (David) Without war, we wouldn't have pesticides.
224 00:14:49:07 Maybe that's an irony, maybe not.
225 00:14:52:00 But one way or another way, this is what we ended up with.
226 00:14:54:22 In the early '70s, it was clear we had problems,
227 00:14:58:01 health problems and environmental problems
228 00:14:59:23 we'd never experienced before thanks to pesticides.
229 00:15:02:19 That's when the US government enacted FIFRA,
230 00:15:05:16 one provision of which allowed the continual production
231 00:15:10:03 and manufacturing of pesticides that were not permitted
232 00:15:13:03 for use here to be exported overseas.
233 00:15:15:20 That set up the whole regulatory loophole
234 00:15:18:10 that created this--
235 00:15:20:00 allowed the circle of poison to come true.
236 00:15:26:18 (Monique Harden) A lot of us think that, you know,
237 00:15:28:17 pesticides like endosulfan are banned,
238 00:15:31:21 that we no longer produce them because we realize
239 00:15:34:09 that it's too toxic for our health,
240 00:15:36:15 it's too toxic for our environment,
241 00:15:38:09 and so, therefore, we put an end to them.
242 00:15:40:21 It's now illegal to use those kinds of chemicals
243 00:15:43:13 and other pesticides in the United States.
244 00:15:47:00 Well, the job's not over,
245 00:15:48:18 because there's been an exit created,
246 00:15:52:18 or an escape hatch, for the pesticide producers.
247 00:15:56:21 They continue to produce these banned,
248 00:15:59:10 restricted pesticides in our communities,
249 00:16:02:06 inside the United States.
250 00:16:04:11 And they do this for foreign export.
251 00:16:08:18 (narrator) Limited data from EPA in 2013 revealed that banned,
252 00:16:13:06 restricted, and unregistered pesticides
253 00:16:16:01 are manufactured in 23 states for export only.
254 00:16:20:13 EPA doesn't track the volume or final destination
255 00:16:23:09 of these pesticides, which are then
256 00:16:25:12 applied to crops like coffee, tea, cotton,
257 00:16:28:19 fruit and vegetables, and may indeed be imported
258 00:16:31:21 back to the US as pesticide residues on these foods.
259 00:16:37:01 The FDA only inspects 2% of imported produce,
260 00:16:40:18 so the true risk
261 00:16:42:09 to the United States consumer is unknown.
262 00:16:46:20 (Jay Feldman) There's a contradiction here, because I think when you look
263 00:16:49:14 at nuclear technology, we're very careful
264 00:16:52:17 in how we export that technology.
265 00:16:55:07 But, you know, I think one of the major concerns
266 00:16:57:12 we've got to admit is that we worry that an abuse
267 00:17:01:11 of that technology, or misuse of that technology,
268 00:17:04:09 will come back to hurt the United States
269 00:17:07:08 in some way or another.
270 00:17:09:12 We need to have that same attitude with pesticides.
271 00:17:14:03 (David) You know, when I step back and really think about
272 00:17:17:00 the scope of what we've done,
273 00:17:19:06 it's been a giant, terrible, tragic experiment.
274 00:17:22:18 It goes way beyond pesticides to asbestos, lead paint,
275 00:17:26:23 flame retardants, to all kinds of products, drugs,
276 00:17:30:13 pharmaceuticals that were not properly studied
277 00:17:35:03 and cleared for safety before we turned them into products.
278 00:17:39:14 All those products and all that export
279 00:17:41:12 and all the damage that's been done for decades,
280 00:17:44:11 the first politician that really took notice of this
281 00:17:47:16 was President Jimmy Carter.
282 00:17:50:06 (Jimmy Carter) When I was getting ready to leave office,
283 00:17:52:10 I had exhausted my effort to get Congress to pass it,
284 00:17:55:22 but we had all the materials to show that we were doing
285 00:17:58:04 something that was basically unscrupulous or illegal
286 00:18:02:11 as far as international law goes.
287 00:18:04:17 But the manufacturers of these dangerous materials and items
288 00:18:08:07 were so powerful that they obstructed what I did,
289 00:18:12:22 so the only thing I could do was to issue an executive order
290 00:18:15:05 as a last resort.
291 00:18:16:21 And it precluded the distribution
292 00:18:19:19 or sale of any material, basically, overseas
293 00:18:24:01 that we couldn't safely present to consumers in America.
294 00:18:30:02 I wanted the brand "Made in America"
295 00:18:32:07 to really mean something.
296 00:18:34:08 ♪♪♪
297 00:18:41:09 (Jimmy Carter) As soon as I left office, they descended
298 00:18:43:05 on President Reagan, Ronald Reagan,
299 00:18:45:21 and he agreed to protect their right
300 00:18:49:20 to continue selling pesticides and flammable clothing
301 00:18:55:02 and unproved or disproved drugs,
302 00:18:58:12 or condemned items to people overseas
303 00:19:01:09 just so that manufacturers could get rid of them
304 00:19:03:12 and not take a big loss.
305 00:19:11:17 More than 30 years after I left the White House,
306 00:19:14:15 the issue is still unresolved.
307 00:19:17:04 And I would say that at this point,
308 00:19:20:10 the power and influence of unscrupulous companies
309 00:19:26:07 and their lobbyists is even more powerful
310 00:19:30:12 than it was when I was in the White House.
311 00:19:40:12 When we speak of the circle of poison,
312 00:19:42:10 we most often think of the danger
313 00:19:44:01 to American consumers.
314 00:19:46:02 We think of foreign-grown food, some scarcely inspected
315 00:19:50:05 by the FDA at US borders,
316 00:19:53:13 food tainted with US-made pesticides
317 00:19:56:04 that EPA considers cancer-causing
318 00:19:58:12 and too dangerous for domestic farm use.
319 00:20:01:12 Today, chemical companies still export tons of pesticides
320 00:20:04:22 the EPA considered too dangerous for our farmers to use.
321 00:20:08:17 Yet, EPA cannot tell us how many of these
322 00:20:10:21 made in the US unregistered pesticides
323 00:20:13:06 are currently being exported.
324 00:20:21:21 (narrator) Senator Leahy was the first elected official
325 00:20:24:11 after President Carter who tried to stop the circle of poison
326 00:20:28:08 by introducing three bills in the 1990s.
327 00:20:35:10 (Patrick Leahy) Well, when I first introduced it,
328 00:20:38:04 we had a lot of pushback by lobbyists in the Senate.
329 00:20:44:19 We had enough people in the Senate who realized
330 00:20:47:18 that it was important to stop the circle of poison,
331 00:20:50:15 and we passed it.
332 00:20:52:14 But once it got to the House of Representatives,
333 00:20:55:13 the lobbyists were able to work a lot harder.
334 00:20:58:05 And they were able to stop it from being in the final bill.
335 00:21:02:08 We tried mightily.
336 00:21:03:23 We worked on Saturdays and weekends, everything else,
337 00:21:08:09 on the bill, but could not get that part through.
338 00:21:12:02 There are very powerful interests
339 00:21:14:22 that make a lot of money by selling things
340 00:21:17:11 they know are contaminated.
341 00:21:19:21 And the fact that we might be able to make money
342 00:21:22:02 and create a few jobs here
343 00:21:24:00 and poison people in other countries,
344 00:21:26:02 whether it's asbestos or lead paint or something,
345 00:21:30:03 we shouldn't do that.
346 00:21:37:06 (Patrick) Mr. Vroom, are you--
347 00:21:38:19 (Jay Vroom) Yes, senator.
348 00:21:40:13 (Patrick) You're the lead op that allows all your members to say
349 00:21:44:17 either they fully agree with you
350 00:21:46:18 or, "My God, what's he talking about?"
351 00:21:49:01 That's correct.
352 00:21:50:15 (Patrick) Go ahead.
353 00:21:52:04 Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator Leahy.
354 00:21:54:04 I would like to welcome the other six senior executives
355 00:21:58:10 of NACA member companies that join me on this panel today.
356 00:22:02:05 (narrator) One of Senator Leahy's main opponents to the bill
357 00:22:04:14 was Jay Vroom.
358 00:22:06:15 Mr. Vroom has represented the pesticide industry
359 00:22:09:03 in Washington for nearly 3 decades.
360 00:22:13:19 (Jay) In our argument in 1990 with Senator Leahy and others,
361 00:22:18:02 as it is today, is that we would rather that the United States
362 00:22:23:03 be a principal source of providing crop protection tools
363 00:22:27:06 for farmers around the world,
364 00:22:29:07 and the incubator, if you will, for innovation
365 00:22:32:02 for that kind of product development,
366 00:22:34:11 and the follow-on stewardship that companies like those
367 00:22:37:18 that are based here in the United States
368 00:22:40:00 can and do provide over the years,
369 00:22:42:21 rather than having those needs served by product producers
370 00:22:47:09 of pesticide compounds from places
371 00:22:51:00 other than the United States.
372 00:22:53:16 (Patrick) Do you think you would find everything safe,
373 00:22:55:17 or do you think you would find a whole lot more violations?
374 00:22:59:08 (Linda Fisher) Perhaps a little of both.
375 00:23:01:01 I will tell you when the agency undertook its investigation
376 00:23:03:00 last year, we did find a number of violations
377 00:23:06:09 and filed a number of cases against companies.
378 00:23:10:17 It was the first time that we had really enforced--
379 00:23:13:05 (narrator) Jay Vroom had allies within the government as well.
380 00:23:16:05 Linda Fisher of the EPA also opposed
381 00:23:19:03 the Circle of Poison bill.
382 00:23:21:20 (David) So, take the case of Linda Fisher.
383 00:23:24:02 She was an EPA official who argued against
384 00:23:26:13 the Circle of Poison Bill during the first Bush administration.
385 00:23:30:01 After that, she went to work for Monsanto, actually,
386 00:23:33:16 as a lobbyist.
387 00:23:35:08 After that, she went back into government,
388 00:23:37:11 back as a high official of the EPA
389 00:23:39:21 in the second Bush administration.
390 00:23:42:07 And since then she's become a high official at DuPont.
391 00:23:46:03 It's a perfect example of how the revolving door
392 00:23:49:02 of officials moving in and out government
393 00:23:51:02 regulating pesticides and other toxics,
394 00:23:53:11 and then going to work for the people that produce them.
395 00:23:56:06 ♪♪♪
396 00:24:04:08 (Andrew Kimbrell) In 2012, the top six pesticide companies
397 00:24:07:13 hired 116 lobbyists; 112 of them were either
398 00:24:11:12 former members of Congress
399 00:24:13:07 or former members of a major government agency
400 00:24:15:11 like the EPA, the FDA, or the USDA.
401 00:24:18:01 A hundred and sixteen lobbyists.
402 00:24:19:19 A hundred and twelve either former members of Congress
403 00:24:22:08 or people that used to work at our federal agencies.
404 00:24:24:20 And so, since 2004, the big six pesticide companies
405 00:24:30:01 have spent almost $220 million in lobbying
406 00:24:33:21 just the federal government.
407 00:24:35:15 Just the federal government.
408 00:24:37:08 That doesn't even include the states.
409 00:24:39:05 And what makes that so much more effective, of course,
410 00:24:41:00 is that they are using former members of Congress,
411 00:24:43:16 former chairs of the Ag committees,
412 00:24:46:07 former major players at the EPA, the UDSA, as their lobbyists.
413 00:24:51:04 And what makes it ironic is that many of these people,
414 00:24:53:10 before they became congressmen
415 00:24:55:08 or before they came to the government,
416 00:24:57:03 actually worked for these very same companies.
417 00:25:00:04 (Kathryn Gilje) So, the big six are the six agrochemical companies
418 00:25:04:05 that control upwards of 75% of the global pesticide trade.
419 00:25:08:21 And the big six by name are Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta,
420 00:25:14:20 DuPont, and BASF.
421 00:25:17:23 And those six global corporations
422 00:25:20:01 really control the terms of food and farming.
423 00:25:27:16 (narrator) While a handful of Western companies
424 00:25:29:18 continue to make record profits, they do so at the expense
425 00:25:33:08 of farm workers around the world.
426 00:25:35:16 According to a recent report, developing countries
427 00:25:38:11 tend to use more pounds per acre
428 00:25:41:03 and more toxic chemicals than the United States and Europe,
429 00:25:44:21 yet they have few resources to protect their communities
430 00:25:47:22 from pesticide exposure.
431 00:27:01:19 (Kathryn Carmen) He was born on June 28th, and he's 2 now.
432 00:27:18:11 (Kathryn) His mom worked her whole life in the fields.
433 00:27:20:19 And so, before the pregnancy, she was working in the fields
434 00:27:23:17 and for the first few months of the pregnancy.
435 00:27:33:07 (Kathryn) So, he's been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.
436 00:27:49:08 (Kathryn) So, he started out when he was born
437 00:27:51:15 a little bit swollen, but it's gotten much worse.
438 00:27:54:09 And you can see they did an operation,
439 00:27:57:15 and they took a look at his liver.
440 00:28:00:10 And in June, they said that he just has about 3 years to live,
441 00:28:03:17 and that there's nothing they can do now.
442 00:28:08:07 ♪♪♪
443 00:28:23:18 It really is something that, of course, deeply affects me
444 00:28:27:08 as a human, like all of us.
445 00:28:29:16 You know, but especially as a nurse, you know, I feel,
446 00:28:32:17 you know, a deep need to stop this.
447 00:28:35:03 And you know, stop this effect that it's having
448 00:28:38:07 on the children, you know, and all of the people here.
449 00:29:31:00 (David) Probably the most dramatic way to understand
450 00:29:34:13 the difference between domestic regulation
451 00:29:38:10 and the lack of regulation once you cross the border,
452 00:29:41:07 as it affects pesticide use in people,
453 00:29:43:19 is just south of the border in Mexico.
454 00:29:45:18 Take the Sonora Desert, split down the middle
455 00:29:48:15 by an arbitrary border between countries.
456 00:29:51:22 So, on one side, pesticides that can't be used aren't being used.
457 00:29:56:19 On the other side, they are used.
458 00:29:59:14 And there's evidence of the effects.
459 00:30:06:10 (narrator) In 1998 Dr. Guillette conducted
460 00:30:09:09 a study of pesticide exposure in Mexico.
461 00:30:13:01 She compared the children living in the pesticide-intensive
462 00:30:16:00 Yaqui valley to those in the non-exposed foothills.
463 00:30:20:04 After playing catch with the children
464 00:30:22:02 and observing them dropping raisins into a bottle cap,
465 00:30:24:23 Guillette found disturbing differences
466 00:30:27:02 in hand-eye coordination between the groups of children.
467 00:30:31:01 (Andrew Carmen) She looked at 4 and 5 year olds,
468 00:30:34:17 and 5 and 6 year olds.
469 00:30:36:13 And one of the things she asked them to do is draw
470 00:30:38:15 a picture of a person
471 00:30:40:09 and found that the children in the non-exposed areas
472 00:30:44:16 drew people just like I think any kids anywhere.
473 00:30:49:10 You could tell they were people drawn by very young children.
474 00:30:53:17 Many of the children in the highly exposed areas
475 00:30:57:21 to pesticides just drew scribbles
476 00:30:59:23 that you couldn't even tell that they were people.
477 00:31:03:23 ♪♪♪
478 00:33:30:04 (David) One of the best examples of a place where people
479 00:33:32:07 are chronically exposed to chemical pollution
480 00:33:35:04 is in Louisiana between Baton Rouge and New Orleans,
481 00:33:38:21 along the Mississippi,
482 00:33:40:12 where there's 150 industrial facilities
483 00:33:44:00 all along that corridor.
484 00:33:47:02 In fact, the industry calls it the chemical corridor.
485 00:33:50:00 Residents, they have a different name for it.
486 00:33:51:21 What do they call it?
487 00:33:53:11 Cancer Alley.
488 00:33:59:13 (Monique) In many communities, especially here in Louisiana,
489 00:34:01:20 you can look out of your bedroom window
490 00:34:03:11 and you're looking at a smokestack.
491 00:34:05:15 And you smell the toxic fumes on a daily basis.
492 00:34:09:20 We have lost historic African-American communities
493 00:34:12:16 because of the toxic exposures from those companies
494 00:34:17:04 warranting the relocation of those communities,
495 00:34:19:16 so the entire towns of these historic communities
496 00:34:21:19 have been razed.
497 00:34:23:15 And the only thing you now see, if there's any sign
498 00:34:25:14 that they once existed,
499 00:34:27:02 might be their old cemetery grounds,
500 00:34:28:19 while the facilities have gotten larger
501 00:34:30:13 and expanded into those historic communities
502 00:34:32:14 that once lived and thrived in this area.
503 00:34:39:00 There's a culture in this state that really gives
504 00:34:44:01 the industrial corporations running these facilities
505 00:34:46:16 a blank check.
506 00:34:49:05 They pay nothing in property taxes.
507 00:34:51:16 They get to, through their campaign contributions,
508 00:34:55:01 basically elect whoever's going to be in legislative control
509 00:34:58:08 of lawmaking in this state.
510 00:35:00:07 They have a lobby that denies
511 00:35:02:19 and takes away rights of citizens in this state
512 00:35:06:00 for healthcare, for health monitoring
513 00:35:08:12 in the event of a toxic exposure.
514 00:35:12:04 So, we're in a real sad situation
515 00:35:15:22 in terms of the power that these industrial corporations have
516 00:35:19:16 in Louisiana, and companies like Monsanto along with them.
517 00:35:24:11 (David) Monsanto is, like all big agrochemical companies,
518 00:35:28:21 highly profitable and highly influential
519 00:35:32:05 in political circles.
520 00:35:33:21 A few years ago, they completed
521 00:35:35:16 a multi-hundred million dollar expansion of the RoundUp plant,
522 00:35:39:06 for instance, in Cancer Alley.
523 00:35:41:09 (male) Please welcome our governor, Bobby Jindal,
524 00:35:43:23 and our first lady, Supriya Jindal.
525 00:35:47:03 (narrator) Governor Jindal, whose wife is a former Monsanto employee,
526 00:35:50:23 praised the expansion of the RoundUp plant in 2010.
527 00:35:55:09 Every year since then, this plant in Cancer Alley
528 00:35:58:15 has had the most toxic releases in the entire state.
529 00:36:07:19 (Andrew) It's really important to remember
530 00:36:09:11 there's a real difference in any pesticide
531 00:36:11:08 between its active ingredient, which in the case of RoundUp,
532 00:36:14:00 for example, is glyphosate, versus all of the surfactants
533 00:36:17:06 and inerts that go into that full pesticide
534 00:36:19:12 when it's sprayed.
535 00:36:21:07 And to demonstrate this, a researcher,
536 00:36:23:18 he had two ponds with frogs in them.
537 00:36:25:20 And in one pond, he just put the active ingredient
538 00:36:28:19 of RoundUp, glyphosate.
539 00:36:30:21 Had very little impact on the frogs.
540 00:36:33:06 In the next pond, he put the whole formula.
541 00:36:36:06 Devastation, 80%, 90% depending on the developmental stage
542 00:36:40:03 of the frog, of death in those frogs.
543 00:36:43:00 So, that shows you the difference between
544 00:36:44:21 just an active ingredient and the whole formula.
545 00:36:46:22 It turned out there that surfactant,
546 00:36:48:18 the part of RoundUp that makes it stick to the crop
547 00:36:51:16 was what was so fatal, working with the other ingredients
548 00:36:54:13 in RoundUp, so fatal to those frogs.
549 00:36:57:05 (David) So, RoundUp is legal, by the way.
550 00:36:58:20 RoundUp isn't a banned chemical.
551 00:37:00:13 So, one thing that's important to consider is, on some levels,
552 00:37:05:03 it doesn't matter whether an agricultural chemical
553 00:37:08:01 has been banned or restricted very much yet
554 00:37:10:11 because we simply don't know what the negative effects
555 00:37:15:03 of most of these chemicals will be over time.
556 00:37:17:12 They're not studied as complete compounds.
557 00:37:19:22 There are isolated, narrow chemical tests
558 00:37:22:11 that are performed on them.
559 00:37:24:04 Of course, they're not studied on human beings.
560 00:37:25:21 That would be unethical.
561 00:37:27:10 So, essentially, it's a big experiment,
562 00:37:29:03 and we just don't know.
563 00:37:31:00 Whether it's regulated or not shouldn't prevent us
564 00:37:34:19 from speculating and also investigating
565 00:37:37:07 what are the effects of these legal chemicals.
566 00:37:39:12 Some of them may be as bad as the banned ones.
567 00:37:55:04 ♪♪♪
568 00:38:01:20 (Noam Chomsky) The standard argument against health, environment,
569 00:38:07:12 and other regulations in the country, or for export,
570 00:38:11:22 is that it's harmful to business,
571 00:38:13:18 which of course it is.
572 00:38:15:12 If business can kill people freely,
573 00:38:17:17 it's a lot more profitable than if you have to pay attention
574 00:38:20:15 to what you're producing
575 00:38:22:08 and look at the effects on people and so on.
576 00:38:24:19 On the other hand, if you do care about harming people,
577 00:38:27:02 profits just don't matter.
578 00:38:29:07 In fact, it's kind of interesting in this country
579 00:38:32:08 that major industries like lead, asbestos, tobacco,
580 00:38:39:11 chemical, the industries have often succeeded
581 00:38:43:11 for decades poisoning people quite consciously.
582 00:38:48:18 You know, they knew perfectly well that children
583 00:38:50:15 are going to die of lead poisoning,
584 00:38:52:17 but you got to make profit.
585 00:38:54:08 And they're right.
586 00:38:56:02 It's a system in which you're supposed to make profit.
587 00:38:58:09 Like a CEO of a corporation is required,
588 00:39:02:18 actually required by law to increase profit.
589 00:39:07:05 So, they're doing exactly what they have to do.
590 00:39:10:21 And if the population suffers, well, you know,
591 00:39:13:10 it's the cost of doing business.
592 00:39:15:23 Of course, by the time you get to export,
593 00:39:19:10 it's a little more vicious because here what's happening,
594 00:39:22:16 of course, is the domestic population has become
595 00:39:27:12 organized enough and active enough so they're saying,
596 00:39:30:09 "You can't kill us."
597 00:39:32:09 So then the idea is,
598 00:39:33:23 "Okay, we'll kill people who are more vulnerable."
599 00:39:36:02 That's what the export is,
600 00:39:38:01 but yes, it's good for business, undoubtedly.
601 00:40:58:03 ♪♪♪
602 00:42:26:09 ♪♪♪
603 00:44:31:06 (narrator) Residents of Ituzaingo reported cancer rates
604 00:44:34:11 to Sofia that were 41 times
605 00:44:36:12 the national average in Argentina.
606 00:46:07:14 (narrator) Despite these threats, Sofia and the mothers
607 00:46:10:01 continued their fight.
608 00:46:12:01 They ultimately succeeded in getting a local ban
609 00:46:14:09 on aerial pesticide spraying within 2,500 meters of homes.
610 00:47:38:22 (female) All the yellow tanks, those are the machines
611 00:47:42:16 they use to fumigate, to spray.
612 00:48:15:09 (narrator) Just 400 miles from Ituzaingo, international corporations
613 00:48:19:04 have made Chacabuco an experimental zone
614 00:48:22:00 to test new agricultural products,
615 00:48:24:06 exposing residents to unknown risks.
616 00:48:56:21 (narrator) Santiago is breaking the silence
617 00:48:59:03 through Sustainable Chacabuco, his campaign to raise awareness
618 00:49:03:05 about the government-approved testing
619 00:49:05:06 taking place in his town.
620 00:49:44:04 (David) It's an interesting conversation because you can grant pesticides
621 00:49:47:04 everything good they do, and you still have a problem.
622 00:49:51:06 And that problem is they boost food production
623 00:49:55:08 from sometimes subsistence levels
624 00:49:57:23 to spectacular improvements, which is fabulous
625 00:50:01:01 because it, you know, increases the food supply
626 00:50:03:12 in a hungry world.
627 00:50:05:04 The problem is it's a blunt instrument
628 00:50:08:01 trying to fight a nuanced problem,
629 00:50:10:14 which is the ecology of agriculture.
630 00:50:15:09 You need--all the different crops and the animals
631 00:50:17:22 and the species that live together
632 00:50:19:17 where we grow our foods get affected
633 00:50:21:20 by this blunt instrument.
634 00:50:23:12 So, it's not that pesticides aren't effective.
635 00:50:25:08 They're extremely effective.
636 00:50:27:00 They've been called miracle drugs.
637 00:50:28:14 They increase our food supply beyond anything else
638 00:50:31:01 that we've ever had.
639 00:50:32:14 Fertilizers help also, of course.
640 00:50:34:15 But the problem is that's only a short-term success.
641 00:50:39:01 Inevitably, you have the problem of insect resistance
642 00:50:41:18 that kicks in, that undermines all of that success.
643 00:50:44:18 And you have all of the environmental
644 00:50:46:12 and health contamination effects downstream.
645 00:50:48:13 When you spray a pesticide, you kill the beneficial insects.
646 00:50:54:21 And the pest that you're trying to control
647 00:50:57:17 now emerges resistant, so you have to use
648 00:51:01:12 far more pesticides because there's nothing
649 00:51:04:03 to control this new pest.
650 00:51:06:17 One thousand two hundred times more pests have grown
651 00:51:10:03 in the world with the use of pesticides.
652 00:51:13:01 And the pesticide treadmill is this:
653 00:51:17:02 that you destroy nature's ability
654 00:51:20:06 to control pests through ecological balance.
655 00:51:23:22 You then create an inflation in the numbers of pests.
656 00:51:29:01 You constantly use more pesticide,
657 00:51:31:20 thinking you're going to control it.
658 00:51:34:09 What started as 1 spray becomes 60 sprays,
659 00:51:37:15 becomes 100 sprays,
660 00:51:39:22 but meantime your pests overtake your field,
661 00:51:42:03 and new pests emerge.
662 00:51:45:09 (Kathryn) When it comes to global hunger,
663 00:51:47:13 the weight of the scientific evidence
664 00:51:49:04 does not stand behind a regime of pesticides,
665 00:51:52:12 fertilizers, and hybrid seeds, which is the package
666 00:51:57:04 that is promoted to solve global hunger by these companies.
667 00:52:00:11 That's kind of the moral face they put on selling pesticides.
668 00:52:06:03 In fact, in some of the places around the world
669 00:52:08:10 that are facing hunger very acutely,
670 00:52:11:18 there are recent studies have shown that organic agriculture
671 00:52:14:18 results in increased yields when you compare it
672 00:52:17:18 to a pesticide-reliant system.
673 00:52:20:04 ♪♪♪
674 00:52:27:12 (male) It's called vermicompost.
675 00:52:32:22 It is made out of cow dung and the earthworm.
676 00:52:45:17 So, they are our best friend.
677 00:52:51:12 It's called vermicompost.
678 00:52:59:10 (Vandana) About 2 years ago, the prime minister of Bhutan
679 00:53:01:23 invited me to help Bhutan become 100% organic.
680 00:53:06:22 So, what we've been doing in these 2 years
681 00:53:09:12 is my team goes twice a year and works with the farmers.
682 00:53:14:20 And the Bhutanese come and train at our farm in Dehradun,
683 00:53:18:21 where we practice an ecological agriculture
684 00:53:20:23 with no chemicals,
685 00:53:22:15 and we have no pests in our fields at all.
686 00:53:24:10 We have lots and lots of insects, but no pests.
687 00:53:30:00 (narrator) Bhutan's ambitious plan to make all local farms organic
688 00:53:33:14 would make it the first country in the world to convert
689 00:53:36:03 to a fully organic agricultural system
690 00:53:38:14 and ban the sale of pesticides.
691 00:53:41:21 ♪♪♪
692 00:53:50:22 (Kesang Tshomo) Sustainable agriculture has been always
693 00:53:53:05 very important to Bhutan because our country
694 00:53:56:08 has very little land under cultivation.
695 00:54:00:13 And of the whole country, we have only about
696 00:54:02:20 8% of the land is actually arable.
697 00:54:05:09 And of that, because of our limited human resources,
698 00:54:09:17 we're only cultivating about 2.9% of the land.
699 00:54:13:02 And to keep that percentage, very low percentage of land
700 00:54:17:10 cultivatable for a long time, it has always been important
701 00:54:21:18 for the people to make sure that there's enough organic matter
702 00:54:25:07 so that the soil doesn't degenerate,
703 00:54:27:14 the soil is always sustained.
704 00:54:29:21 Because for generations, this is only the land
705 00:54:32:11 that we have to farm on.
706 00:54:35:12 And we just can't use it up in one generation
707 00:54:38:00 and not leave productive land for the next generation.
708 00:54:41:17 So, it has always been a tradition
709 00:54:43:22 that it's taken care of.
710 00:54:59:17 (Vandana) The Bhutan government has very, very clearly decided
711 00:55:04:12 to not measure growth which measures only
712 00:55:08:20 how much commerce takes place.
713 00:55:11:12 And of course, you can have lots of growth
714 00:55:13:13 by first creating pesticides.
715 00:55:16:23 The pesticide industry makes lots of profits, that's growth.
716 00:55:20:09 People get cancer, the same pesticide companies
717 00:55:23:09 sell you a patented cancer medicine, that's growth.
718 00:55:27:00 This growth is not measuring welfare.
719 00:55:30:19 It is measuring destruction, death, endless.
720 00:55:35:17 Bhutan decided it was going to make happiness the objective.
721 00:55:41:23 And therefore, they focused on gross national happiness.
722 00:55:46:06 And the prime minister, when he wrote to me, he said,
723 00:55:48:06 "There's only one way I see growing
724 00:55:50:22 "gross national happiness.
725 00:55:52:17 It's by growing organic."
726 00:55:57:09 (narrator) Bhutan is not alone.
727 00:55:59:17 After seeing the devastating effects of pesticide use
728 00:56:02:11 in their communities, small farmers around the world
729 00:56:05:08 are turning to sustainable methods of agriculture.
730 00:56:09:07 ♪♪♪
731 00:56:19:07 ♪♪♪
732 00:56:29:07 ♪♪♪
733 00:58:47:07 (Vandana) And what I have found in my 25 years
734 00:58:50:05 of working with biodiversity,
735 00:58:52:16 working to build ecological agriculture systems,
736 00:58:56:06 is that chemical-free, poison-free agriculture systems,
737 00:59:00:14 which intensify ecological processes,
738 00:59:03:21 which intensify biodiversity, produce more food per acre
739 00:59:08:06 and more nutrition per acre.
740 00:59:09:23 That's the way we must go,
741 00:59:11:14 precisely because the population is increasing.
742 01:00:31:11 ♪♪♪
743 01:00:39:05 (female) This is Bhaskaran.
744 01:00:40:23 He is our organic farmer.
745 01:00:42:14 He does different types of vegetables and bananas,
746 01:00:47:05 beans, amaranth, cucumber.
747 01:00:52:16 This is organic. This is two types of organic.
748 01:00:56:11 This is the field of Bhaskaran.
749 01:01:00:01 (Jayakumar) The problems in Kasaragod is now being turned around
750 01:01:02:12 on a positive note, where from a pesticide-hit
751 01:01:06:15 or pesticide-impacted community, now we are moving towards
752 01:01:10:21 the survivors of this on a very positive note,
753 01:01:13:17 where we can produce food without pesticides,
754 01:01:16:17 we can provide rural livelihood without using chemicals.
755 01:01:21:14 In that sense, we see a lot of hope.
756 01:01:26:22 (narrator) Since 2003, the Organic Bazaar in Kerala has helped
757 01:01:30:18 small farmers give up chemical-intensive agriculture
758 01:01:33:16 to deliver safer more sustainable produce.
759 01:01:36:16 This farmer's market was inspired
760 01:01:38:13 by the growing organic movement in the United States.
761 01:01:45:18 (Patrick) What I thought might happen, hoped might happen,
762 01:01:47:22 it turned out did happen.
763 01:01:49:18 It was the organic farm bill.
764 01:01:51:19 People started paying a lot more attention.
765 01:01:54:01 And that hobby type thing that the detractors called it
766 01:02:00:11 has now turned into a $30 billion a year business
767 01:02:03:15 in the United States,
768 01:02:05:13 about the only agriculture business that's growing.
769 01:02:08:08 But also, more importantly, people started asking questions.
770 01:02:12:13 I think the best approach to handing a particular political--
771 01:02:19:21 I say controversial issue, like the choice
772 01:02:23:03 between profit for corporations or protection of human beings,
773 01:02:28:09 the first instigation should be the American public,
774 01:02:31:16 to educate the American public about what's going on.
775 01:02:34:06 We have to start thinking about the alternatives
776 01:02:37:22 rather than putting more and more energy
777 01:02:40:20 into trying to beef up risk mitigation
778 01:02:44:15 in the conventional chemical-industrial complex.
779 01:02:47:18 We need people to say, "We don't want the hazards.
780 01:02:50:03 "We don't want to support the hazards.
781 01:02:51:23 "We don't want to export our chemicals.
782 01:02:53:19 "We don't want to import poisons on our food.
783 01:02:55:23 "We want communities where food is produced to be safe.
784 01:02:59:06 "We want our food to be safe. We know the systems exist.
785 01:03:03:02 We need leadership desperately. We need an uprising."
786 01:03:07:05 (narrator) In recent years, an uprising has been gaining momentum.
787 01:03:11:07 In 2012, rallies were organized around the country
788 01:03:15:02 to protest against Monsanto,
789 01:03:17:09 but less than 20 people attended one in New York City.
790 01:03:22:18 At a second round of protests 1 year later,
791 01:03:25:05 2 million people showed up in 52 countries
792 01:03:28:18 to march against Monsanto.
793 01:03:31:19 They want you to believe that there's not enough food
794 01:03:34:17 on this planet to feed everybody.
795 01:03:37:05 They want you to believe that you need their products
796 01:03:41:01 in order to feed the hungry and the poor.
797 01:03:44:21 I'm here marching for Sofia in Argentina,
798 01:03:48:05 who organized mothers in her community
799 01:03:50:14 and demanded that Monsanto stop poisoning her children.
800 01:03:55:22 I'm here for Santiago in Argentina,
801 01:03:58:16 who's using the power of social media
802 01:04:00:13 to know that his town will not be used as an experimental zone
803 01:04:03:16 for new GMOs and new pesticides.
804 01:04:07:21 I'm here for Paco in Mexico, who's organizing Yaqui farmers
805 01:04:13:03 to go back to traditional organic methods of farming
806 01:04:16:10 and stop using hazardous pesticides and GMOs.
807 01:04:21:21 And finally, I'm here with my friends from Thanal in India,
808 01:04:26:08 who are spreading the word
809 01:04:27:22 and trying to hold these corporations accountable
810 01:04:29:20 for the atrocities that they're causing.
811 01:04:32:21 ♪♪♪
812 01:04:47:21 ♪♪♪
813 01:05:02:21 ♪♪♪
814 01:05:19:05 (David) Well, you know, I'm hopeful too.
815 01:05:22:07 I think there's a lot of things going on in the world
816 01:05:25:06 regarding this issue to give hope.
817 01:05:27:15 And I hope, over time, that humanity will come together
818 01:05:31:07 and solve this problem.
819 01:05:33:13 I don't think a problem that entrenched,
820 01:05:36:05 that's been doing this much damage for that many years,
821 01:05:38:15 we're talking about long-term environmental
822 01:05:40:21 and health damage, probably damaging
823 01:05:43:05 the immune systems of human beings,
824 01:05:45:12 perhaps allowing new diseases to crop up,
825 01:05:50:07 weakening us as a species,
826 01:05:52:06 I don't think a problem that embedded in our culture
827 01:05:55:11 and our history can be taken lightly.
828 01:05:57:13 I think we all need to stay focused on finding solutions
829 01:06:00:17 that will, you know,
830 01:06:02:16 maybe render that history non-repeatable.
831 01:06:05:11 I wish I could say I was hopeful that would happen.
832 01:06:08:01 Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President,
833 01:06:12:01 members of Congress, my fellow Americans.
834 01:06:16:17 We need to work together on tools
835 01:06:18:20 like bipartisan trade promotion authority
836 01:06:20:21 to protect our workers, protect our environment,
837 01:06:23:05 and open new markets to new goods
838 01:06:25:13 stamped "Made in the USA."
839 01:06:28:17 ♪♪♪
840 01:06:38:17 ♪♪♪
841 01:06:53:17 ♪♪♪
842 01:07:04:07 (Evan Mascagni) My name is Evan Mascagni.
843 01:07:05:23 I just returned from India, where I am working
844 01:07:08:17 on a documentary film about the use
845 01:07:10:23 of hazardous chemicals.
846 01:07:13:06 Now, many of these chemicals are made here in the United States,
847 01:07:16:16 and we ship them overseas to poorer countries.
848 01:07:20:16 I'm wondering if you can speak about capitalism
849 01:07:24:07 from a Buddhist perspective,
850 01:07:26:15 and specifically the idea of placing profits
851 01:07:31:01 over human health and the environment.
852 01:07:35:02 (Dalai Lama) Oh.
853 01:07:38:08 Capitalism, the market-oriented economy,
854 01:07:43:00 is quite a dynamic sort of force.
855 01:07:45:11 That also has good points.
856 01:07:47:23 But then, without much concern about the real human
857 01:07:51:06 sort of equal right.
858 01:07:53:08 Exploiting, only thinking about money, profit.
859 01:07:57:12 I think that this country is really wonderful, wonderful.
860 01:08:01:21 However, huge gap in rich and the poor.
861 01:08:06:20 Then those richer people only concerned with profit.
862 01:08:15:12 I think truly capitalists are thinking just to profit, profit.
863 01:08:21:19 So, I want to--I want to use the word "we."
864 01:08:26:06 You and myself must educate.
865 01:08:29:14 It's our responsibility.
866 01:08:31:19 Tell more.
867 01:08:34:00 And this political--
868 01:08:35:17 In this case, you're actually experienced
869 01:08:39:03 as a scientific sort of researcher, so tell,
870 01:08:44:22 tell people through articles, through radio talks, like that.
871 01:08:51:12 Very, very important. Educate people.
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