Journey to the seemingly idyllic world of Native Hawaiians, where communities are surrounded by experimental test sites and pesticides are being sprayed upwind of their neighbourhoods. Poisoning Paradise details the ongoing struggle to advance bold new legislation governing the fate of their island home. In an attempt to diversify an economy that was overly reliant on tourism, policymakers in both Hawaii and Washington, D.C. encouraged the world’s largest biotech companies to utilize Kauai’s favourable climate and fertile soil to test genetically engineered seeds and crops. Interviews with local residents, scientists, and healthcare professionals reveal the hardships and ecological dangers of intensive and continuous pesticide applications and the environmental injustice thrust upon people living in one of the most sacred, biologically unique and diverse locations on earth. Award-winning investigative journalist Paul Kolberstein describes Kauai as “one of the most toxic agricultural environments in all of American agriculture.”
Screened as part of the Environment Series sponsored by BDO | Busch Systems | McBride Robillard Financial Solutions Inc.