Salmon are more important than the workers. This is the state of michoacan in southwest mexico the Worlds Largest producer of avocados. Yes there are good. Avocados are a lucrative crop that provides jobs for thousands of people. This is wild country the residents are strong and independent and they enjoy a good time. There we mexicans are crazy. You know this fruit is about the right size. It just evolved to send his neighbors on small avocado farms the harvest season is just getting underway. And they keep growing. More than we can start and i resting now. For those who are the other way and 20 years ago we were just getting 0. 09 for a kilo of other cargoes. Sometimes we didnt even our missed them because it was cheaper to let them rot than take them to the market. But now avocado exports a booming farmers can get up to 6 euros a kilo and earn a good living. At this and with all of a car goes green gold goes in the. But all that new prosperity caught the attention of organized crime gangs they started extorting protection money from local farmers those who refused to pay up were killed or simply disappeared. Lost that one lets get out of those take over the fields or they force farmers to sell the land dirt cheap some people dont want to transport their crops to market because theyre afraid theyll be attacked for the mortgage thing thats a bet on where there is money to be made youll find organized crime so you go on the run theyve been there. 6 years ago some of the farmers started fighting back they formed their own Security Force. They deserve. Every. Oh these people have exchanged their Farm Equipment for weapons. They dont leads the Security Force and provides a rigorous training program. On the community that if they could only put this force together because we had to. This it will not have our farmers were safe. We wanted to stop the crooks from taking over our community but the criminals are going to. The local residents are fighting a determined and unscrupulous opponent of the criminal gangs are involved in drug dealing extortion robbery and murder and theyre fighting each other for control in the region. The gangs will not hesitate to eliminate anyone who tries to get in there why. And that includes farm workers and avocado trade as. The criminals have also moved into ectors hometown sharod to just a few 100 people live here. Most belong to an Indigenous Group called purepecha the community has joined forces to stand up to the crooks. The authorities have now designated the local Security Force as an official police unit in years past the regular police should have cracked down on the crime gangs but they didnt. Most of them in we saw criminals who would actually go out on patrols with the police or the theatre. With them or that my motivation is the fear that theyll kill our families and take our money and the authorities wont do anything to stop it all in theyre all. 3 4 on. Every patrol is dangerous ecto has often been shot at by criminals but he continues his work to protect his family his neighbors and their farms. We have officially declared war on organized crime. By the model of your peers maybe now theyll think twice before they try to take over our land because theyre not in with a better body. But its like David Fighting goliath. A similar battle is underway in chile. Here on the island of chile way another trendy food salmon is mass produced on fish farms. Until recently the local economy was focused on the harvesting of shellfish like mussels oysters and sea snails. The islands population has grown sharply along with the boom in salmon exports salmon and they ship to the Northern Hemisphere as fishermen luis menounos points. He takes us to visit one of the salmon farms. There are some dolphins out here today. That. The farm consists of pens that contain up to 12000. 00 salmon and each luis quit his job here when he realized the extent of the environmental damage. In the mornin the problem is that much of the salmon just things to the seabed. Theres also a lot of fish species down there. And all that stuff just piles up sometimes to a height of one meter for that sort of the. Exports of fish farm salmon a booming thanks to the huge demand. The stock market has has been working in the salmon industry for 23 years hes a trade Union Official and speaks openly about the poor conditions that workers face in the factories. You know what im going to name you get there when im there is a real climate of fear. That the boss is constantly threatened to fire us if we dont meet the production quotas or if i dont volunteer to work overtime that i mean i say its have a very you know it all adds. Up 2150000 salmon a day are harvested and then sent to the factory theyre said to be pumped full of antibiotics to help prevent disease environmentalist say the dose was over 500 tons higher than the amount used in europe. I. Lose marina sato worked at the factory until she was injured in an industrial accident a year ago since then shes been unemployed she hopes that the Staffers Union can help her. In the arena still suffers from shoulder and back pain. Maybe days i was turning around and a big fish container hit me in the back thats the last thing i remember so i passed out your the a new way to the but that only later i asked my boss whether he could take me to the hospital if it when he said it wasnt his. Youve been going to get me see any give me. News marino work for the Salmon Company for 8 years on a seasonal contract so she received no compensation or severance pay. If you are im 60 years old now it was in the end i hope that ill at least get a minimum pension see my children buy food for me thats the only way that i can survive and the company ruined me and caused me a lot of pain or should i knew. Those marina still has not recovered from her injuries she has a hard time walking. Starbucks says this is not an isolated case such incidents a common in the salmon export business. Still the salmon industry has brought some prosperity to the town. You know here attends a meeting of factory workers and managers they discuss whether or not seasonal contracts are still appropriate one manager says they are. All the devil you know what if you have production year round and then give people temporary contracts that would be legal people to give it off the top of the but some in production is a seasonal business. So we employ workers on a temporary basis only about the summer that i suppose an earlier. In the city of 10 seater all is seen as the Global Center of avocado production its a key part of the citys economy. Some of the local residents dont like people asking questions. These activists are going to show us some forest land thats been cleared. Theyre worried about possible attacks so they. Brain weapon. Look well this is part of this how the mob people in this region are obsessed with money that is this so youve got to have a gun. To protect your childrens future and our Natural Resources to water and forests but i live in this kind of mode of the assailant. The michaud i can region was once covered with forests but a lot of the trees have been cut down often illegally to make room for avocado farms activists fought for 3 years to try to save the forest in this hillside but they filed the green gold has made people greedy criminals but also some farmers as much as we even fight among ourselves but we have to stand up to the Big Companies that are causing all these problems for. Us it was going to thats what. Some workers were illegally cutting down trees here they left as soon as we arrived the area is being cleared probably to make room for an avocado farm the farmers resort to illegal methods to reach their goals here loggers have cut into a tree so that it will dry out and die sometimes part of a forest simply burns down by accident some of the fires are reported by Anonymous Sources and later avocado plants suddenly appear in the same area. Sometimes the fires are set but its only the forest land then burns never the avocado plantations. So we must get we know that its not a coincidence. Now were going to change vehicles in case trouble makers try to follow us. You know. This entire section of forest land has dried out of the avocado crops have drained off all the water but forested areas need to be protected to help maintain a supply of groundwater without one. If you want them was what were killing trees to make room for other its awful if the inferno. These huge pools provide water for the avocado crops it takes about 300 liters of water to grow one avocado the plantations also use pesticides which can damage the environment the local residents are paying a high price for these crops see as the most avocados generate a lot of income in mexico is ruining into air and water so that the rest of the world can enjoy these fruits can make it no one talks about that is. A major source of environmental pollution in chile is salmon feed. Its stored in harbor depose like this one. The think contains a pesticide that was banned in europe years ago it can only be used in salmon feed otherwise the feet would perish environmentalist say that this is a serious problem in chile. Much of the salmon feed is made from soybeans and rapeseed. So these salmon have been turned into vegetarians simply to cut production costs and keep prices down for this popular food. A lot of the soybeans used in salmon feed a grown in the brazilian state of matter grow so. This factory produces soybean meal exclusively for salmon farms 18000. 00 tonnes per month traces of pesticides are often found in this material a Company Official explains why. Apple blossom soon demand for this product is growing farmers have to use these chemicals to help increase productivity. This year alone more than 150 new pesticides were approved for use in soil monocultures in brazil. Rice says pesticide residues have been found in the local drinking water. And even in the feet of his dairy cows 2. Though no crop dusting planes are owned by Big Companies spray right next to his land. He gave us a dream actually they target their own fields do you live there but the clouds of pesticide spread to other areas this and this is the chemicals get into the surrounding environment always yellow t. He had. Such methods are banned in europe they are common in brazil. But paseo takes us to visit an organic farmer who lives nearby he says hes lost all his crop because of the pesticides you have on the soybean farms. Right good for their food look at these holes. In the foot. That are 3 days after they sprayed all my crops died. Chicory and radishes they were all gone. Now he plans to harvest these remaining plants before the spring starts again. But the soybean farms continue to grow to keep up with the booming demand for salmon fish. In chile the salmon farms are becoming increasingly unpopular especially among traditional fisherman. This crew is harvesting shellfish off the coast. Of the yellow poses provide the diet as with oxygen was. Cool. The. Process sanchez has spent an entire hour underwater. He has to use some strange equipment for these dives. It turns out thats my backpack. These days there are fewer and fewer divers because they cant find enough work. Was ive trained at least 15 divers to harvest shellfish im proud of that because they were good divers of the world. But supplies of shellfish are running out. So many of those guys quit diving. With. The divers are convinced that pollution caused by the salmon industry is responsible for the decline of the muscle population. Want to keep. Organic materials from some increases in feed are spread throughout the oceans by the carnage. That can cause algal blooms like the ones we had in 26 in the us ago when i got behind a lot of. The algae made fishing impossible local residents held protests and blocked roads and ferry docks for 3 weeks. To. The demonstrations were directed mainly against the salmon industry. Which the trinitarian one Carlos Cardenas supports the shellfish divers in their dispute with the salmon farms and he says that there are too many antibiotics in salmon feet and the farms need to reform their labor practices because if im saying go to this moment its like if the salmon industry has the longest working hours that are anything and the most violations of workers rights in the world. And even more than the other is going into today so much. An increasing number of the divers who work at the summons. Farms suffer from decompression sickness. If they come back to the surface too quickly air bubbles can form in the circulatory system and block the blood vessels. More and more of the divers have come to this local hospital seeking medical treatment for this problem they too a paying a high price so that consumers in europe can eat salmon. The divers have to spend 2 hours in the regions only Decompression Chamber which simulates a depth of 18 meters. The process reduces the size of the air bubbles and eventually eliminates them the salmon industry does not provide any Financial Support to cover the cost of these treatments. But some of them. You would think that these companies would want to make sure that we take proper care of their divers but i think theyre more interested in profits than in the health of their workers and over the physical. Market. They receive no Financial Support. One carlos visits a woman whose husband was killed in a diving accident many of polo sanchez has come to terms with her husbands death but she believes that the accident could have been prevented. By that you got them. When they didnt and i was cooking dinner when my sister came in crying and she said luis had been involved in an accident and they couldnt find his body i look you know i was in a state of shock joe i didnt cry i didnt scream i just kept saying no no no no no no no no. Louis novato died while he was repairing some in cages for an export company he was about 40 meters underwater at the time. In norway they havent had accidents like that for several years in the super silly is the worlds 2nd largest exporter of salmon but we still have these 3rd world kinds of accidents. Consumers in europe need to know that when they eat salmon from chile. It has the blood of workers on it. Environmental protection groups criticized the lack of worker safety programs and a salmon industry that seems to repeatedly break the rules. Chiles minister of economy and development can impart accept this criticism and has promised to make improvements. Its a new industry that breeds its bases from the Northern Hemisphere here in the south this is this is all fairly new in chile and were still learning about the impact that its having in the in the in the study the problems and make corrections. But the bottom line is that salmon exports benefit the national economy. To such an extent that the salmon industry is expanding its reach further south into the waters off antarctica seems to be no end in sight for the boom in salmon production. Increased avocado production has brought wealth to mexico but its also caused hardships for some. Lara rosco and her family had to flee. After a crime gang stole their land. All right mom where are you im home. Weve agreed not to reveal where they are living now. With those also we had to leave we were forced to move several times because we feared for our lives that mr. Lowrys family once owned a number of avocado plantations they were tarred and saved their money later they bought more land. 11 years ago lauers father was kidnapped later and 2 brothers went missing no trace of the 3 ever been found. Me but my father was very ambitious he said that theres a solution for everything except death. After the kidnappings the rest of the family was forced to abandon their land. And. Our lives were turned upside down and i never expected to have to live like this those people destroyed our lives so these days were not living were just getting by in the. Us. Weve now traveled to the region where lauer and her family used to live. Theres a tracking device on the roof of the car in case they run into criminals as we approach the site of their Old Plantation lauer and her mother become increasingly nervous. But i think im unlikely looking in the Rearview Mirror to see if anybody is following us. To maybe in the alley and. Weve got an anonymous phone calls and people we dont know show up at our door. And they suspect just what other stores. You see if they did all of us. And have threatened to kill us you know what i mean man but i like when they tell their why im a bad mother. Do you think its this way yeah. We film the property from a distance the new owners are now making money with crops that used to belong to lauers family and simply there are armed guards over there you cant get too close or theyll kill you or. Lauer says that no one has helped them to try to get their land back. Its a return return to a place that used to be yours is the land was taken from us get the lawn out of our father. Better get. We built that farm with our own hands and the help of our friends where you thought. It was a lot of hard work either. That was their life but its all gone now. They claim that the military and police were involved in the kidnappings and that the authorities work with the criminal gangs. In finding. Kidnapped members of my family. So that they can take over our avocado farms is their work out there. For 11 years now the family has fought for its rights now they want the land that they still own to be transferred to lauers mother since her father is still officially listed as missing. If the more part of this can help us to regain our dignity and prove that everything that weve been saying is true hume was it out there for. You. For years lowry has been waiting step by step through the government bureaucracy but there always seems to be something wrong with the paperwork. The sort of its frustrating. Some of the officials are no help at all theyre insensitive and incompetent things. Once again lauer has made no progress today she has to make a new application because some pure a crash was somehow made in the original one. But she wont stop fighting until her family gets their land back and she finds out what happened to her father and brothers even if she dies in the process the avocado crop has ruined her life. For me and my family its the greatest tragedy of our lives. Those who produce trendy foods like salmon and i often pay a heavy price for their efforts. Of this business. Yes. To get. Discovered. This is good news. Top Human Rights Court condemns russia over the death of the antifraud can. Paynter circuit magnitsky the court the drug needs these treatment imprisoned led to his death as 2009 so watch it if any will be the consequences of the moscow. Also coming up to brazils president rejected an offer of aid to help fight fires in the am