Europe's Dirty Harvest

Europe's Dirty Harvest

The disturbing truth behind the food on our plates and how fruit and vegetables can be sold so cheaply in our supermarkets, at great cost to our social responsibility.

Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees flock to Spain and Italy seeking work in the agricultural sector. The high numbers increase the competition for jobs and many farmers and landowners are exploiting the plight of those looking for work: laborers complain that wages are too low, that they live in huts they have built themselves from scrap, without running water or electricity and that they are suffering the effects of using poisonous pesticide sprays without protective clothing. The unions and refugee organizations are calling it "modern slavery". This documentary investigates just how dirty the vegetables on our plates really are, given the backdrop of wage dumping, violations of employment protection legislation and social welfare fraud in this industry. It also looks at how the European Union is actually supporting these businesses with millions of euro in subsidies.

The documentary sheds light on the social dimensions of the buzzword of our time: sustainability. A film with its finger on the very pulse of our times that directly confronts our daily consumption habits, where tomatoes, gherkins and oranges can be bought in the discounters at ridiculously low prices, but at great cost to our social responsibility...