FIFA under fire for migrant workers in Qatar, turf wars in Women's World Cup, and EcoMyths

Eight laborers died while working on Brazil's World Cup stadiums. Estimates are that 4000 migrant or foreign workers will die before Qatar’s World Cup in 2022. Some have demanded that the tournament be moved to another country. We’ll talk about the controversy with Fiona David, lawyer and executive director of Global Research for Walk Free Foundation, an organization dedicated to ending what they call “modern slavery."
And, female soccer players from around the world are outraged that the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada will be played on artificial turf. In a letter to FIFA from some of the top footballers in the world, lawyers representing the players wrote, “Singling out this women’s tournament for substandard treatment is a mistake that can and must be corrected.” The players cite an increased risk of injury and call the decision to play on turf discriminatory, because no major men’s soccer event would ever be held on turf. For the 1994 men’s world cup at the Pontiac Silverdome, FIFA spent about $2 million dollars to unroll sod over the top of the turf field. But in this case, FIFA is still refusing to change to grass, and the women are expected to bring the issue to Canadian court. Carrie Serwetnyk was the first woman inductee into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame. She joins us to tell us what should be done to level the playing field.
Then, for our regular EcoMyths segment, Kate Sackman of EcoMyths Alliance asks, “Is it better for the environment if food waste goes into our water system through our garbage disposals - or if it does more good when we just throw it in our garbage that ends up in landfills?” To help us figure out the answer we’ll talk with Eric Masanet, professor in Materials and Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University and Debra Shore, commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago.

(photo: A member of the RCMP walks past a logo on the pitch as FIFA unveils the official emblem for the 2015 Women's World Cup soccer tournament during a ceremony in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward))