Yesterday I had a brilliant idea as my husband Richmond and I drove by a grove of coconut trees. (We live in Kauai.) We should get some monkeys to hire out to climb trees and pick the coconuts. Richmond is from Malaysia and has long told me stories about monkeys in Southeast Asia climbing trees and picking coconuts. They are trained separately to either pick young coconuts, which are green and are used for coconut water, or old coconuts—the brown ones, which are used for coconut milk, oil and to eat.
But Richmond burst my bubble at the mention of my proposed monkey business. Nowadays, if we bought and hired out monkeys for that, we’d be in a lot of trouble as people have classified the coconut-picking monkey industry as “cruelty to animals.” Think People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
“No. Way!” But yes. In the past two months while I was apparently asleep under a rock, news emerged in the British press that monkeys in Thailand are being abused and forced to climb trees against their will and thus, stores should not carry coconut products from Thailand. I’ll quote a BBC article: "These curious, highly intelligent animals are denied psychological stimulation, companionship, freedom, and everything else that would make their lives worth living, all so that they can be used to gather coconuts," said PETA director Elisa Allen. PETA is calling on decent people never to support the use of monkey labor by shunning coconut products from Thailand.
Actually, monkeys don’t mind climbing trees and picking coconuts, and it’s quite a novel thing to watch. In the event a monkey gets stubborn—perhaps tired of picking—it will climb halfway up the tree and just sit there, and no amount of prodding will coax it to keep working, Richmond said. Abuse is an ineffective method to get a monkey to work. Rather, the monkey and its owner or trainer develop a close bond.
Now, if an owner does mistreat the monkey, that is cause for concern, but the whole practice of using monkeys to pick coconuts is no more a crime against animals than using cows to plow a rice field as they do in third-world and developing countries where they also work elephants and horses as part of logging operations to haul timber to rivers where no machinery can reach. We don’t refuse rice from Thailand where cows are denied their best life while forced to work. If we shun making animals to work, then we should add bomb-sniffing dogs to the list of abused animals. I’m sure some owners put the dogs on leashes and in cages or fenced areas to prevent them from wandering free.
I know I’m being absurd. So are the grocery stores that cave to pressure and misinformation and refuse to carry coconut products from companies that use monkey labor. It’s not just such UK grocers as Waitrose, Ocado, Co-op and Boots that have vowed to stop selling the goods. News travels. I read a CBS News article noting that Walgreens, Giant Food, Food Lion, Stop & Shop and Hannaford in the US refuse to carry coconut products from Thai suppliers that use monkey labor. They apparently are taking PETA’s word that working a monkey is unethical.
To its credit, The Washington Post actually interviewed the Thai Commerce Minister to learn the real scoop. He said monkey coconut picking is mostly a tourist attraction. On the commercial level, shorter coconut tree varieties are the norm that allow for picking with a pole.
But misinformation gets out there, doesn’t it? Perception becomes reality. The Post article gets to the bottom business line: “Increasing numbers of consumers are speaking with their wallets, and retailers are listening.” There’s always a cause, isn’t there? My advice to grocers and foodservice operators is to check out a claim before believing it and standing on it, and worse, taking out a legitimate product or company. And when you learn the real truth, become a positive voice for it.
Tell me what you think.
Jody
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