In 2009, Gertten's production company was sued for defamation by Dole Food Company after the US screening of Bananas!*, a documentary film about a conflict between Dole and banana plantation workers in Nicaragua over alleged cases of sterility caused by the pesticide DBCP.
Methadone was developed in 1937 in Germany by scientists Max Bockmühl and Gustav Ehrhart working for I.G. Farbenindustrie AG at the Farbwerke Hoechst (it is synthesised from 1,1-diphenylbutane-2-sulfonic acid and dimethylamino-2-chloropropane) who were looking for a synthetic opioid that could be created with readily available precursors, to solve Germany's opium shortage problem.