Chicago Cultural Center hosts Earth Day Action Fair
An Earth Day Action Fair was held Sunday at the Chicago Cultural Center.
People turned out to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the first Earth Day at the event organized by the One Earth Film Festival and the City of Chicago's Office of Climate & Environmental Equity, along with several partners.
Information booths were set up, and a special watch party was held for the award-winning film "The Grab" in the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Cultural Center.
"The Grab," as described by the One Earth Film Festival, "outlines a global warming reaction by several nation states, where the powerful use force, economics and illegal mercenaries to take control of food and water stocks." The documentary film follows journalists from the Center for Investigative Reporting as they uncover the issues.
"The narrative begins with the 2014 purchase of U.S.-based Smithfield Foods by Chinese WH Group, which the filmmakers say gave away control of a quarter of all pigs in the U.S. It then follows other hard-to-explain deals, such as the purchase of arid land in Arizona by a Saudi company. Russians hiring American cowboys to work in a region too cold for farmland. And Blackwater deals to secure land in Africa," the One Earth Film Festival adds in its description. "All these strange commercial arrangements are linked by 'following the money,' a phrase heard several times in the film."
"Blackfish" director Gabriela Cowperthwaite directed the film.
Also at the event Sunday, representatives of several groups were on hand to talk about what they do and how to collaborate with other environmental advocates.
