Fishing boats at the beach at Bang Sen, Thailand
The AP has done an investigation into the bleak world of
Burmese fishing slavery.
Tainted fish can wind up in the supply chains of some of America's major grocery stores, such as Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway; the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart; and the biggest food distributor, Sysco. It can find its way into the supply chains of some of the most popular brands of canned pet food, including Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. It can turn up as calamari at fine dining restaurants, as imitation crab in a California sushi roll or as packages of frozen snapper relabeled with store brands that land on our dinner tables.
In a year-long investigation, the AP talked to more than 40 current and former slaves in Benjina. The AP documented the journey of a single large shipment of slave-caught seafood from the Indonesian village, tracking it by satellite to a gritty Thai harbor. Upon its arrival, AP journalists followed trucks that loaded and drove the seafood over four nights to dozens of factories, cold storage plants and the country's biggest fish market.
Work on this dark phenomenon has been done over at the
Guardian, in terms of the prawn market. In that case, Walmart and Costco were much more obvious
beneficiaries of the cheap labor. That investigative work and subsequent pressure brought on by these revelations has resulted in a number of the big chain food suppliers banding together to
handle this problem.
Retailers have focused, however, on abuses that came to light further up the Thai prawn supply chain – in processing and packing factories or in companies subcontracted to peel prawns. It seems the parlous state of fish stocks and the pressure to monitor supply chains for sustainabilityhas made the issue of slavery visible. Two retailers who did not wish to be named said that when they started to look at where fish for prawn feed was coming from, it became clear that the boats engaged in illegal fishing were also likely to be using trafficked forced labour.
But the problem is not limited to prawn fishing. However, this isn't a surprise to the
seafood distribution industry.
Santa Monica Seafood, a large independent importer that sells to restaurants, markets and direct from its store, has been a leader in improving international fisheries, and sends buyers around the world to inspect vendors.
"The supply chain is quite cloudy, especially when it comes from offshore," said Logan Kock, vice president for responsible sourcing, who acknowledged that the industry recognizes and is working to address the problem. "Is it possible a little of this stuff is leaking through? Yeah, it is possible. We are all aware of it."
Solving the issues of human trafficking and our food's supply chain is important in so many ways. Not only is there a moral obligation on our part, as free people, to support equivalent freedoms for others, it is also important that we and our suppliers understand exactly what is happening to our food from its harvesting to our dinner tables.
Read the rest of the AP's account here. It's brutal but it also highlights what is and is not being done, the obstacles faced, and our "first world" accountability—by extension.
You can watch video below the fold.