Special Delivery: PETA to Lob Coconuts at Whole Foods Midwest President Over Forced Monkey Labor

For Immediate Release:
June 19, 2023

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Whole Foods Midwest Regional President David Schwartz will get an unusual gift this week: PETA is sending the executive an armload of human-picked coconuts along with a letter urging him to ban Thai coconut milk from the company’s stores and supply chain.

Thailand’s coconut-picking industry is fueled by the labor of endangered pig-tailed macaques—many of whom were illegally snatched from their forest homes as babies. Handlers fit them with rigid metal collars, use chains and leashes to choke and control them, and may pull out their canine teeth so that they can’t defend themselves. Because the industry and the Thai government lie about their systemic reliance on forced monkey labor, it’s impossible to guarantee that any coconut milk from Thailand is free of it.

“Whole Foods’ decision to continue selling Thai coconut milk, including through its own 365 by Whole Foods Market brand, exhibits a willful disregard for monkeys being kidnapped and used as coconut-picking machines,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Whole Foods to stop supporting Thailand’s abusive coconut industry and get Thai coconut milk off its shelves immediately.”

One of Whole Foods’ coconut milk suppliers was implicated in PETA Asia’s latest investigation into the trade, but the company failed to act after PETA presented it with this information. PETA is sending a letter and coconuts to each of Whole Foods’ nine regional presidents.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.