Study assesses risk that fruits, vegetables sold in U.S. are products of forced labor
Findings and limited data serve as 'red flag' to increase transparency of
food systems

Date:
August 23, 2021
Source:
Tufts University
Summary:
A new scoring method to identify the risk of forced labor in
fruits and vegetables sold in the U.S. has been developed by
researchers. Limited, scattered data serve as a call to action to
build evidence base and address accompanying equity issues.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study in Nature Food calls attention to the need for better
systems to track forced labor in food supply chains. The study --
a methodological advance --reports on the development of a new scoring
system that identifies the risk of forced labor for fruits and vegetables
sold in the United States. It finds a high risk of forced labor, but
also scattered and incomplete data sources that limit action.


==========================================================================
The study, published August 23, 2021, was led by Nicole Tichenor
Blackstone in the Agriculture, Food and Environment program at the
Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts, and Jessica
Decker Sparks, who leads the Ecosystems and the Environment Programme
at the University of Nottingham Rights Lab.

"Sustainability research on the food supply typically focuses on promoting human health and protecting the environment," said first and corresponding author Blackstone. "But social sustainability provides a different
perspective on our food sources, including issues of labor rights and
equity. Globally, agriculture has one of the highest incidences of forced labor." The study developed a new forced labor risk scoring method that
draws upon original data compiled by the authors as well as a range of governmental and non-profit data. The research team then coded each food
and country-of-origin combination as either very high risk, high risk,
medium risk, or low risk for forced labor having occurred at some point
in the growing and harvesting of each item. Previously, there have been
short lists of commodities suspected of being produced with forced labor,
or case studies of foods produced in one country, such as Mexico.

"What we've done, for the first time, is to look at all of the major
fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S., as well as all of the
countries these foods come from, including the U.S., and assess the
possibility that somewhere in the production process forced labor could
have been involved," said Blackstone.

The scoring method is not meant to be a consumer tool but could help
industry and policy makers interested in the development of systems and protocols for the responsible procurement of foods.



==========================================================================
The final data set included 93 fruits and vegetables in 307 food-country combinations. The results of the qualitative coding show that most
food-country combinations were coded as high risk (85%) for forced labor
at some point.

Seven percent were coded as very-high risk, 4.5% were coded as medium
risk, and 3.5% were coded as low risk.

"This is an extraordinary percentage at high risk, but it reflects that
there are very limited or coarse data," said senior author Sparks. "There
are major structural issues with how agricultural labor is set up that
make workers vulnerable. To us, this reflects systemic issues in food
supply chains that have not been addressed. Our findings point to the
need for policymakers, farmers, and food companies to engage with farm
workers to address the systemic issues." Some of the variables that
factored into the scoring were:
* documented history of forced labor for a given food in a given
country; * a country's record on monitoring forced labor -- a good
record lowered
the score and vice versa; and,
* whether a given food is harvested by hand or by machine.

Agricultural work often takes place in remote and isolated environments
with demanding labor requirements. There are typically inadequate
legal protections, with piece-rate pay systems tied to productivity,
and reliance on migrant labor.

As defined by the International Labour Organization, "forced labour
can be understood as work that is performed involuntarily and under
the menace of any penalty. It refers to situations in which persons are
coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, or by more
subtle means such as manipulated debt, retention of identity papers or
threats of denunciation to immigration authorities." "Forced labor in agriculture is a threat to the sustainability of food systems.

However, the scarcity of data noted limits holistic analysis and
action. Future research should prioritize data and model development to
enable analyses of forced labor and other labor-related social risks
(e.g., wages, child labor) across the life cycles of a wide range of
foods. These efforts can help ensure that the rights and dignity of "the
hands that feed us" are centered in the transformation of food systems," concluded the authors in the study.

Authors and Funding Additional authors of the study are Catherine Benoit
Norris of NewEarth B, Bethany Jackson of the Rights Lab and School of
Geography at the University of Nottingham, and Tali Robbins, who was a
master's degree student at the Friedman School at the time of the study.

Jessica Decker Sparks was supported by the Nottingham Research Fellowship, University of Nottingham, and Tali Robbins was supported by the Friedman School. Please see the study for conflicts of interest.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Tufts_University. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Catherine Benoit Norris, Tali Robbins,
Bethany Jackson, Jessica L. Decker Sparks. Risk of forced labour
embedded in the US fruit and vegetable supply. Nature Food, 2021;
DOI: 10.1038/ s43016-021-00339-0 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210823125836.htm

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