Agricultural "killing fields": The poisoning of Costa Rican banana workers

The poisoning of Costa Rican banana workers by multinational corporations' excessive use of pesticides is not a local issue; it is embedded in a domin ant ideology expressed by the phenomenon of globalization. This ideology se eps into every aspect of our social institutions-economic, political, and l egal. The practice of this ideological perspective is evident in the indust rialization of global agriculture and the shift from "developmentalism'-lib eral welfarism, industrialization, and urbanization-to a dominant, undemocr atic, global financial elite with "economism" and a neoliberal political ag enda overriding the nation-state polis. A specific effect is to transform t he agricultural workers of developing countries, such as Costa Rican banana workers, into politically superfluous flesh-and-blood human beings.