The Indelible Bonobo Experience

Forget cheeseburgers and French fries—the new American meal of choice is shrimp. (via Cheap Shrimp, Funded by Human Trafficking and Environmental Destruction - Lifestyle - GOOD)

• American shrimp consumption has increased by more than 300 percent since 1980 [PDF].
• Now, chains like Red Lobster, Popeye’s, and Long John Silver’s offer up shrimp dishes for as little as $5.99.
•  about 90 percent of it originates at farms in Thailand, Vietnam, South America, and China. Using aquaculture to mass-produce the crustaceans has dropped prices to all-time lows
• ..,distributed by Rubicon, a major seafood supplier to corporations like Walmart, Phatthana was recently accused of human rights abuses disturbing enough to turn even the most die-hard shrimp eaters off their po’ boys: The company allegedly holds Cambodian workers against their will and pays them so little money they can’t even afford to buy food.
• According to the Bangkok Post, 20-year-old Sok Sorng came to Phatthana from his native Cambodia, signing a two-year contract with the shrimp supplier. Sorng says Phatthana promised him lodging, a food allowance, and paid transportation back to Cambodia after the two years had passed. But once Sorng arrived in Thailand, he was forced to work 26 days a month, and the company withheld half his pay to ensure he wouldn’t leave.
• According to the Bangkok Post, 20-year-old Sok Sorng came to Phatthana from his native Cambodia, signing a two-year contract with the shrimp supplier. Sorng says Phatthana promised him lodging, a food allowance, and paid transportation back to Cambodia after the two years had passed. But once Sorng arrived in Thailand, he was forced to work 26 days a month, and the company withheld half his pay to ensure he wouldn’t leave.
• The operations have contributed to destruction of one of the world’s most important ecosystems—mangrove forests. In many regions of the world, shrimp farmers cut down and remove mangroves in order to construct shrimp ponds. About 70 percent of the world’s mangrove forests have disappeared in the last 40 years, due in part to the rise of shrimp aquaculture.
• Mangrove forests are the rainforests of the sea. The trees’ vast networks of roots act as nurseries for a variety of marine critters—including shrimp—protecting them from predators. Mangroves also provide food and habitat for land animals ranging from beetles to tigers. Plus, mangroves prevent soil erosion, protect tropical coastlines from storm surges, and are one of the most effective trappers of carbon dioxide, making them instrumental in the fight to curb climate change.
• Shrimp farms take their toll on the world’s oceans, too. According to Kennedy Warne, author of the book Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea, shrimp farmers regularly feed their crustaceans fish meal made from ground-up fish, a practice that depletes ocean ecosystems of fish stocks. It takes about three pounds of fish protein to make one pound of shrimp.
• Many shrimp farms are quite similar to the notorious factory farms found in the U.S., regularly treating their product with antibiotics and other chemicals in order to prevent infections and disease.