Pesticides In Amelia Ceja's Mindful Vineyard

In the short film, Mindful Vineyards, Amelia Ceja shares her past connections and how it relates to the development of her vineyard. When Ceja was twelve years old she immigrated with her family from Mexico to Napa Valley, California. There she worked in a vineyard picking grapes. From her experience in the vineyard she described the work as skilled labor and back breaking. Within the time she spent working on the vineyard she developed close relationships with other agricultural workers. One was Cesar Chavez, the founder of the farmworker union. From him she learned the importance of treating farm workers with dignity and how to provide them with the support they need to make a living. Between working in the vineyard and forming connections

Arturo Rodriguez the current president of the United Farm Workers, explains that around two million farm workers grow and harvest food each day, and around ten to twenty thousand are impacted from an illness from pesticides. He exposes the issue of pesticides and its effect on the farmworkers. Exposure to these chemicals can cause detrimental health effects such as asthma, allergies, cancer and hormone disruption (Lozowicka, 1480). While Rodriquez did not give examples of the health effects he argued the main point that farmers need protection from pesticides. Ceja mentioned the issue of pesticides, however she never explicitly said she does not use pesticides in her vineyard. As the film captures different images and shots of the vineyard, no pesticides were shown. Also, there was no alternative of using pesticides specified. In a chapter of “The Grocery List” Steingraber explained a method to farm that does not require pesticides, “A farmer can plant strawberries, for example, in the path where last year’s broccoli grew, and the naturally occurring fungus-inhibitor exuded by the broccoli roots will protect the mold-prone strawberries” (Steingraber, 60). This example presents a solution to keep food fresh and the farm workers safe from pesticides. This film would have been more effective if there was adequate information on alternative pesticide methods the vineyard