A documentary examining the treatment of farm workers was screened Tuesday night at Harris Hall followed by a Q&A session with its director in an event hosted by Real Food at NU, the Environmental Policy and Cultural Program, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and other Northwestern groups.

“Food Chains,” directed by Sanjay Rawal and produced by “Desperate Housewives” actress Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser, writer of bestselling book “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal,” focuses on the struggle tomato pickers from Florida face when trying to overcome low salaries, poor treatment and, in some cases, abuse from their employers.

The workers, united under the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, share their story of a fight against large supermarkets and fast food chains for better working conditions and a fair salary.

Rawal said he was inspired to start this project after reading a book by Barry Estabrook called “Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit,” which detailed the human and environmental cost of the $4 billion tomato industry in the country.

“There’s so much interest in food these days. People care about where food comes from, how its grown . . . but I think there’s a real lack of interest in the hands that pick that food,” Rawal told The Daily. “A lot of times, we make food decisions based on the direct impact of that food on our physical bodies. … We care about pesticides (because) we care about ingesting them. We don’t necessarily care about the pesticides because of their exposure on farmers.”

The documentary aims to create social consciousness about the way agricultural workers across the U.S. are treated. Though the film focuses mainly on Florida and California farmers, Rawal said that it is a “deep, dark secret” that agricultural workers in the country are among the most vulnerable and most poorly paid.

Rawal said he was very grateful that the movie has been received so positively and said one of the biggest effects the film has had is how it sparked conversations and protests in college campuses.

“There’s a growing movement called ‘Boot the Braids’ against Wendy’s,” Rawal said. “There’s 22 Wendy’s on campuses in this country, and there’s now an active movement to try to get those Wendy’s kicked off of campuses because Wendy’s still hasn’t signed the Fair Food program.”

The Fair Food Program partners with growers and retailers, including restaurants like Chipotle and food providers like Sodexo and Whole Foods Market, to improve working conditions for agricultural laborers in the United States, according to the film’s website.

“A lot of students watched the film and were motivated to actually go and protest outside those Wendy’s restaurants,” Rawal said. “So we’re finding that students are becoming incredibly active around this topic, and that’s very exciting.”

Medill junior Miranda Cawley, Real Food at NU’s co-director, said people don’t tend to talk about the human cost of food because it’s uncomfortable and invisible to them.

“It’s really easy to focus on what goes into your body because it’s something you have control over,” she said. “But delving into a system with a very uncomfortable history of exploitation of marginalized communities and slave labor is harder because generally that information is not as available, and it’s way more uncomfortable to think about.”

Colleen Fitzgerrell, the other co-director of Real Food at NU, said the film was a good way to open a new conversation about food at NU.

“We have a lot of groups that talk about sustainable agriculture … but we don’t talk so much about who’s growing our food and how our food system affects them,” the Weinberg senior said. “So we thought this movie would be really important to bring to campus.”

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