The Cruel Face of Capitalism Hidden Behind Coconut Milk
Written by TaeEun Shim (Translation Team, ISC)
Translated by Alice S. Kim (Translation Team, ISC)
A monkey picking coconuts in Thailand / Source: NPR, Christophe Boisvieux/Corbis
As the number of people becoming vegetarian for various reasons, such as health, climate change, or the protection of animal rights has increased these days, the demand for alternatives to existing foods has also surged. As a result, it is now common to see vegetarian products from major brands in supermarkets. And the number of imported vegetarian products has also risen. Among them, a product with increased demand in Korea for the purpose of replacing dairy products, especially milk, is coconut milk.
Coconut Milk and Animal Labor
When you think about the connection between coconut milk and capitalism, the first thing that comes to mind is the law of supply demand, which states that the production of coconut milk has increased in response to the increased demand. That is correct. However, there is a problem that needs to be examined one step further. That is “labor.”
In 2022, the animal rights group PETA published an investigative report accusing Thai coconut farms of exploiting monkeys to pick coconuts. An investigative team dispatched from PETA visited eight coconut farms, including Thailand’s main coconut farms, and found that coconut farmers were exploiting and abusing monkeys. In these farms, baby monkeys are kidnapped from their parents, trained harshly, and their teeth are forcibly removed to prevent monkey attacks. Also, monkeys are put on leashes and forced to pick coconuts all day
In other coconut growing areas outside of Thailand, coconuts are harvested using people or machines. Moreover, a group of Indian researchers developed coconut picking robots in 2020 though they still have a long way to go for the commercialization of the technology. Since the use of animal labor in agriculture has been around for a long time, we may be able to understand the use of monkeys as a traditional Thai farming method. However, looking at the scale and intensity of the labor, it is clear that this is exploitation rather than traditional farming methods. Why should it be seen as exploitation? Behind this, in addition to the animal rights issue, there is the systemic problem called capitalism.
First, let’s look at the animal rights issues that appear on the surface. The Hankyoreh article that reported on this issue, using PETA reports and expert interviews, stated that the monkeys “working” in coconut plantations should be viewed as exploitation. This is because, rather than livestock, which have built a symbiotic relationship with humans over a long history, animals that originally lived in the wild are forcibly taken, put on leashes, and forced to work long hours that humans would not.
What is the Relationship Between Coconut Milk and Capitalism?
So what role does capitalism play?
We need to think about “why” monkeys were used to harvest coconuts in the first place. Other coconut growing regions use machines and human labor to harvest ripe coconuts without damaging them, which PETA states is a better method than using monkeys. Nevertheless, the reason for using monkeys is “labor productivity.” While humans can pick 80 coconuts a day, male monkeys are said to pick up to 1,600 coconuts a day and female monkeys can pick up to 800. The difference in productivity is almost tenfold to twenty-fold. Monkeys may not be able to tell whether a coconut is ripe or not, and the coconut may be damaged when it drops the fruit, but this horrifying abuse continues under capitalist greed for higher profits.
What should we do about this problem to stop this abuse? Should coconut milk production plants be made to certify that they do not use coconuts from problematic farms and that the coconut farms do not abuse and exploit monkeys? Or, should individual consumers boycott products made by companies that use such coconuts?
Boycotting products or introducing a certification system will have some effect in resolving the problem of monkey labor exploitation. A boycott is a very effective means of coercion. However, the fundamental problem of capitalism, which pursues the highest profits at the lowest cost, is not resolved. But if you think about it, it wasn’t that long ago that there were articles about salt farm slaves who had been exploited for decades. Even if they are one and the same human being, if they do not resist, they can also become targets of exploitation at any time, and the ways in which capital exploits humans have become more sophisticated than before, to the extent that it is opaque to the outside. Going forward, capitalism will continue to exploit the entire world for more profits.
The only ones who can prevent this are “human workers,” who have the power to resist capital at the production site. On the one hand, we need to take action against farms that abuse and exploit monkeys, and we need to overhaul the system so that companies do not use coconuts produced in this way. In the long term, changes are needed across society, culture, and the economy so that the value of human labor is properly recognized, not only in the coconut industry but in production in general. And ultimately, we must move towards production for the benefit of humans and the entire planet, rather than production for the sake of profit. To achieve this, “human workers” around the world must take the lead.