I'm a little trendy and I like to hate on grocery stores. For all the warm and fuzzy feelings I get from walking around outside, mingling with farmers and vendors (and I have a lot of them. In fact, I wrote a song about them) and for all the blame I want to put on grocery stores for contributing to the disconnect between consumers and their food systems, I have to acknowledge the good grocery stores do for farmers. They increase a farmer's market reach immensely and dropping off a delivery at a store is far less time consuming than parking your self at a market for 5 hours. For small farmers with few or no employees, that's cutting into time out on the farm and with booth fees ranging from $5-$35, some slow days means the market is far less cost efficient than the grocery stores. Also consider that the heavily frequented markets like KCC have a waiting list for vendors of about a year and rumors that a lot of markets on Oahu do not require produce and products to be local, it begins to look like the farmer's markets have a lot of bureaucracy that doesn't always coincide with their reputation of being synonymous with supporting local. So i'm trying to learn more about it...
So after I encountered the usual greatness as I made my initial rounds of the market, the time period I like to call The Breakfast Sampler always starting and ending with Ba-Le Bakery, I picked up sea asparagus (salty green goodness, $6) from Marine Agrifuture in kahuku, organic mac nut pesto $5 from Just Add Water, would have grabbed Evil Jungle Taro (to snack on with chips, all day, everyday, $6) from Taro Delight, but I missed the last one. Then in one fell swoop I picked up a mini cantaloupe $2, a couple crowns of broccoli $2, 2 bell peppers $2, 6 ears of corn $4, and a huge bag of cherry tomatoes $3. As I was in line I looked at the banner to see which farm this was that had everything I wanted, and super cheap, and I felt like shit when I saw that it was Aluon Farms.
Dave called me one night last month, drunk and emotional at 12am, about Aluon Farms and I remember there had been an incident about human trafficking but I had since forgot. He got me all riled up about not being passive about such in issue right in the city we live in so I promised him I would look more into it and this is what I found. Yet, when I was standing there with my cheap food and saw where I was buying it from, I still went through with it. It's hard to hang on to the anger and confusion over the issues when no one else around me seems to care. But it wont happen again. Trial of accused human trafficker Mordechai Orian delayed one year
http://www.disappearednews.com/2011/02/trial-of-accused-human-trafficker.html
"Aloun is the second-largest farm in Hawaii and its owners, the Sou
Brothers, also have been indicted on separate charges of visa fraud,
obstruction of justice and forced labor conspiracy related to the
trafficking of Thai workers. Federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment on October 27 against the Sou brothers accusing them of 12 criminal acts related to a forced labor scheme involving Thai workers at their Kapolei-based Asian vegetable farm on Oahu. The Sous pled not guilty October 30, and the case is scheduled to go to trial in July 2011.
Global Horizons (Orian's company) provided labor for other farms in
Hawaii, including Maui Pineapple Farm, Del Monte and macadamia nut,
coffee and flower farms on the Big Island and a coffee farm on Kauai."
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/in-an-exclusive-interview-global-horizon-founder-disputes-trafficking-charges
This article below is from July 2010.
"The Sous, who are of Laotian and Thai decent, are politically
connected to some of Hawaii’s most influential people. They’ve held
fundraisers and community events for some of Hawaii’s most powerful
and hosted high-ranking politicians and government officials, religious leaders and business executives."
"The deal and their influential friends may get the Sous off without jail time."
"Some of Hawaii’s highest-ranking elected officials, bankers and
agriculture officials who do business with the Sous have written to
the Judge in their defense saying their incarceration would hurt the
farming operation that is vital to Hawaii’s locally grown food supply." (Maybe that kind of disruption, that direct affect on citizen and consumers lives, will encourage us to be more conscious and concerned about food suppliers following labor laws? Does one movement, in this case supporting local ag and business, override our principles of human rights??)
"But some of the workers are hoping the Sou brothers and others
involved will not only have to reimburse the workers for the estimated
$15,000 to $22,500 plus interest they took from each worker, but also
go to prison for what is outlined in the original 2009 indictment and
confirmed as fact by the Thai workers interviewed by Hawaii Reporter
both in 2007 and 2010."
"The indictment says that Sous and Khoo told the 44 Thai workers after they arrived in Hawaii that “their employment contracts were a lie and just piece of paper used to deceive the U.S. government and that Aloun Farm would not pay the workers more than $5 to $6 an hour or a flat monthly wage” and that the cost for their meals and accommodations would be deducted as well. When the workers complained that they didn’t get the pay they were promised and unfairly had expenses taken out of their pay so they made minimal or no wages, the Sou brothers “threatened to send them back to
Thailand knowing the workers could not pay off their debts and would
cause serious economic harm including the loss of their family
property.”
"Two of Hawaii’s leading defense attorneys, Howard Luke and Eric Seitz, are defending the Sou brothers. Seitz made a statement to the media earlier this year: “Both brothers are going to help the government go after the people in Thailand who made false promises to the workers. Both brothers became caught up in a web of regulatory problems. We deny categorically that we did anything to abuse or harm anyone.”
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/aloun-farm-owners-thai-labor-recruiter-await-sentencing-for-forced-labor-violations-hawaiis-influential-government-and-banking-officials-back-defendants-in-court/123
This article is from September 2009
The judge did not accept the plea bargain, so the brothers retracted
their guilty plea and trial date was november 9 2010
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=13127797
This is from a woman's blog, Sep 6 2010
"However, Fox News states, "two former state governors, community
groups, fellow farmers and other supporters are trying to keep them
out of prison." The produce grown at Aluon Farms is important for the
local food supply. Produce grown at Aluon Farms is sold at both local
grocery stores as well as in farmers markets around the island. Aluon
Farms is not a vendor at these farmers markets, but provides products
through other vendors. Eliminating their products could potentially
mean that local consumers will have no choice but purchase produce that is shipped here, which is against the idea of going green."
November 5 2010
"In January 2010, the brothers pled guilty to one count of conspiracy
to commit forced labor involving 24 of the 44 workers, bringing down
their maximum federal sentence from 15 years to 5 years. The brothers also agreed to pay an estimated $8,000 per worker or
$192,000 help defray money the Thai nationals lost when they were
forced to pay high recruitment fees – as much as $20,000 – before
coming to Hawaii. Several workers, still living in the islands, are on the verge of leaving their families homeless and destitute in Thailand because the banks they were directed to borrow money from by the Thai recruiters are about to foreclose on their loans."
(so these workers are waiting for the case to be settled so they can
try to pay their loans back)
"There are also questions now surfacing about the role of the Thai
government’s labor department which secured the jobs for the workers, the manpower companies that collected high fees and arranged the deal and the banks that gave the impoverished farmers high interest loans they could not likely repay in their lifetime in exchange for their homes and farms as collateral at the direction of the manpower companies."
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/feds-up-the-ante-human-trafficking-charges-against-aloun-farms-owners-multiply-four-fold-after-defends-back-out-of-plea-deal/123
November 18 2010
Attorney changed for defense, new trial date july 26 2011
http://www.disappearednews.com/2010/11/attorneys-switched-in-aloun-farms-human.html
Interesting website. This article below also gave suggestions on how
they should be punished (sell the farm and use profits to promote
awareness about human trafficking)
"At sentencing in July, Alex and Mike did not withdrawal their plea,
but also do not want to go to jail. They blamed the translators in
Thailand for the human trafficking. The courtroom was filled with
employees were Aloun Farms hats. Local chefs and government officials attested to the Sou brothers goodness through letters and testimony. The judge is unsure of what to do and does not know if the brothers realizing what they are pleading guilty to or just passing blame. The brothers offered each of the workers $8,000 compensation. They argue that their farm will shut down. Sentencing for a case that began in January is now suspended until September."
"Where is the justice here? Will Mike and Alex Sou get to keep their
farm where they admitted to using forced labor? Is $8,000 enough
compensation for broken promises and unpaid wages? How about those of us who have consumed fruits and vegetables whether in Hawaii or on the mainland from Aloun Farms, thereby providing profits to human traffickers?"
http://www.shoptostopslavery.com/how-to-punish-a-human-trafficker-638.html
ALOUN FARMS
CUSTOMERS
Wholesale and Food Service Customers Across the Hawaiian Islands.
Aloha Products
Armstrong Produce
D. Otani Produce
Diversified Agriculture Products
Esaki Produce, Kauai.
Golden Traders
Ham Produce & Seafood CO.
HFM Foodservice
Hilo Products Inc.
Honolulu Ship Supply, Inc.
Island Fresh Fruits
Island Fresh Produce
James Swoish Co.
Kula Produce, Maui
Manson Produce
HFM Foodservice-Maui
So Ono Food Products, LLC
Wong's Produce
Y. Fukunaga Products ltd.
Major Retail Outlets
Farm fresh produce grown by Aloun Farms can be found at the following retail outlets.
Big Save Supermarkets, Kauai
Commissary Outlets
Don Quijote Supermarkets
Foodland Supermarkets
K-mart Outlets
Marukai Supermarkets
Pacific Supermarket
Palama Supermarkets
Queen Supermarket
Safeway
Tamura Supermarkets
Times Supermarkets
So looks like those Hawaii Reporter articles from February is the last
stuff out there on the issues and the trial is now set for July 26
2011. So there's so many questions I have about this. Why have businesses and markets not spoken out against the practices of Aluon Farms? How can people defend the brothers acts in the name of the local food movement??