Coconut Monkey Slavery!?

As crazy as the title may sound this is a real issue. Some of the coconut farms in tropical regions employ the use of trained monkeys to climb trees and harvest coconuts. The farmers frequently work these monkeys ragged. They are treated inhumanely and beaten for being disobedient. They are fed sweet tasting caffeinated drinks so that they are more energized and farmers can get more work out of them.

The monkeys are miserable from frequent beatings they receive. In one case a monkey dropped a coconut on a farmers head in retaliation. This is proof positive of the suffering these animals experience and their desperation to escape. Apparently the farmers go into nearby jungles to hunt for monkey families with newborns, kill the parents and steal the babies. The babies can be easily trained to harvest coconuts. This seems to be most prevalent in countries in the Asian tropics like Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. The training the monkey's go through is cruel and agonizing. The training includes literal torture which is meant to force new behavioral conditioning on the monkeys. It is debatable as to how many coconut farms use trained monkeys but this should still be in the awareness of consumers of coconut products.

Watch this video from YouTuber Fruit Daddy who witnessed this for himself and records the monkey abuse. He does a great job of explaining these circumstances and provides other resources and information.

Visit Fruit Daddy's channel and tell him Gorilla Picnic sent you.

Please be aware of these unethical practices and share this article as much as you can. Fortunately we have a list below of brands that claim to not source their coconut harvest from slave monkey coconut farms. Still do your own research about your favorite coconut brand.

Find the list of abuse free coconut brands below.

3 Buddhas Coconut Water
Alaffia
Aunt Patty’s
Ayam
Artisana Organics
Better Body Foods
Big Tree Farms
Carrington Farms
Coconut Bliss
Coconut Magic (Australia)
Coconut Secret
Dr. Bronner’s
Earth Circle Organics
Harmless Harvest
La Tourangelle Artisan Oils
Maison Orphee
Naked Coconuts
Native Pacific “Banaban” (Queensland)
Nutiva
Ojio (Ultimate Superfoods)
Sanso-Boeki LLC (Japan)
So Delicious
Silk
Spectrum Organics
Trader Joe’s
Tropical Traditions
Vita Coco