Boycott Dole for refusal of responsibility for past DBCP use : Open Topic Discussion

Boycott Dole for refusal of responsibility for past DBCP use

by billg » Mon 03 Aug 2009, 09:41:19

The facts speak for themselves....organic consumers need to wake up and stop supporting the Dole machine. I know this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as Dole's abuses go, but the organized dissent against Dole needs to start somewhere.

Dole Food Bashes New Documentary "Bananas!" LA Times June 16, 2009

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n the eyes of Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, his documentary "Bananas!" is a balanced, nuanced depiction of a trial pitting Nicaraguan banana plantation workers and a prominent L.A. attorney against a powerful multinational agribusiness.

"It is a classical David-Goliath story," the director said in a phone interview last week.

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')The events that "Bananas!" partially chronicles are complex and the subject of ongoing lawsuits and disputes.

They center on Dole's acknowledged past use of the pesticide dibromochloropropane, or DBCP, in Nicaragua and other countries. Banana farmers and other plantation workers have taken Dole to court, seeking millions of dollars in damages, contending that they were rendered sterile by exposure to the pesticide, which has been banned in the United States since 1979.

Thousands of plaintiffs in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast and other countries have brought cases against Dole and pesticide manufacturers. Lawyers for some Nicaraguan plaintiffs have taken their cases to U.S. courts, hoping they will enforce verdicts against Dole that have been awarded by Nicaraguan courts.

Wikipedia on DBCP

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Workers at the Dow Chemical plant producing DBCP were made sterile by exposure to DBCP. These male reproductive effects were consistent with animal experiments showing that DBCP sterilizes rabbits. One contract worker at the production plant successfully sued the company. Most workers remained with the company and in a company sponsored medical program until the facility was sold in 1987. At that time, some of the workers did file suit against the company. However, the suit was denied due to "statute of limitations" issues.

Most domestic uses of the chemical were banned in 1977. Amid growing concerns over DBCP's effects on male workers, Dow ceased production and reclaimed DBCP that had been shipped to its users. However, despite warnings from Dow about its health effects, the Dole Food Company, which was using the chemical on its banana plantations in Latin America, threatened to sue Dow if it stopped DBCP shipments. Dow then shipped half a million gallons of DBCP to Dole, much of it reclaimed from other users. Plantation workers who became sterile or were stricken with other maladies subsequently sued Dow and Dole in Latin American courts, alleging that their ailments were caused by DBCP exposure. Although the courts agreed with the workers and awarded them over $600 million in damages, they were unable to collect payments from the companies. A group of workers then filed lawsuits in the United States, and on November 5, 2007, a Los Angeles jury awarded them 3.2 million dollars.[4] On April 23, 2009 a Los Angeles judge threw out two cases against Dole and Dow Chemical due to fraud and extortion by lawyers in Nicaragua recruiting fraudulent plaintiffs to make claims against the company.[5] The ruling casts doubt on $2 billion in judgments in similar lawsuits.[6]

Boycott Dole for refusal of responsibility for past DBCP use

Boycott Dole for refusal of responsibility for past DBCP use

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