Orchid Island’s slave-free juice.

It’s tough to know what businesses to patronize and which not to when looking at issues beyond basic quality. Some folks won’t do business with anti-union companies, others won’t support manufacturers with CEOs who contribute to Democrats. You could go nuts figuring out which businesses warrant a personal boycott and which deserve support. But if there’s one standard that I suspect everybody can agree on, it’s that it’s wrong to buy products produced using slave labor.

As The New Yorker exposed in 2003, an enormous amount of the orange juice sold in the United States is made with oranges picked by slaves. As a big fan of OJ, I wanted to make sure that my daily fix isn’t keeping people in bondage. From reading the article, I knew that Tropicana and Minute Maid were out of the question. Florida’s Natural was unwilling to affirm that their juice is produced without slave labor, which was a shame, since that was my brand of choice. Organic Valley, however, had no problem telling me that their juice is slavery-free, so that’s the brand that I’ve bought ever since. (It’s $5 for a half gallon, so I’ve had to drastically reduce the size of my average glass.) It is, happily, excellent juice.

I recently contacted the Orchid Island Juice Company, inquiring as to their business practices after I discovered that my grocer carriers their juice. They promote themselves as a Christian business, and I’d explained in the letter that, commensurate with that, I expected that they’d go to great lengths to ensure that all of their fruit is picked by fairly compensated workers. I received the following response.

Dear Waldo:

Thank you for your letter. Orchid Island Juice Company is a small family owned and operated specialty Florida citrus juice company that has been squeezing fruit for over 15 years. The family consists of 5th generation citrus growers on the Indian River. We own or control over 20,000 acres of groves. Besides having a family oriented company we are honored Christians and thank God for all his blessings. There have been many times that we have been asked about automatic parts of our production process as we grow but consistently decline where people are involved. One of our objectives is to provide good jobs for our community. It is one of our obligations.

You are correct in saying that we oppose slavery.

We have had relationships with our growers for many years. These growers assure us that they have fruit picked in accordance with state and federal wage standards.

It is an honor communicating with people that care for others such as you do. We should be thankful to have someone like you as a customer.

Sincerely,
/s/
David Cortez
Vice President of Service & Logistics

So now there are two brands of orange juice that can be bought in good conscience, Orchid Island and Organic Valley. Good for these companies for maintaining the reasonable business practices that their competition seem unable to manage.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

8 replies on “Orchid Island’s slave-free juice.”

  1. Waldo:

    It sounds like Organic Valley is in fact slave-free, but I see no indication that Orchid Island truly is, except that they say they have asked their growers, “Are you a slimy son-of-a-bitch,” and they have been told, “No, we’re not.” I would be reluctant to rely on such a statement. It sounds like Alberto Gonzales, who asked Paul McNulty, “Did we fire anyone for political reasons?” and received the answer, “No. That would be wrong.” Or wait a minute — maybe that was Richard Nixon. Time kinda runs together when you get to be my age…

    What history — and you and I — think of as slavery is not practiced anymore, but many agricultural workers are kept in what amounts to slavery under perfectly legal conditions. These days, slavery does not take place by humans being bought and sold. But some essential characteristics of the plantation continue in the 21st Century — the workers do not share in the profits of their labor, they are housed in squalid conditions, they have no realistic means of escape (language, immigration issues, no transportation), and there is little effective deterrent to maltreatment. This situation would describe the lot of most temporary or migrant agricultural workers in this country.

    The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (http://www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html) has identified tomato and orange pickers as the most likely to be held in what amounts to slavery. Although they have mounted a campaign against Taco Bell and McDonalds to get them to pay a little more and to enforce the legal working conditions, I don’t think they have mounted a comparable campaign regarding orange pickers. So I don’t know if there is information from the folks on the short end of the stick as to who the good guys are.

    Hearing from a grower that he is a good guy is not dispositive.

    Lloyd Snook

  2. What history — and you and I — think of as slavery is not practiced anymore, but many agricultural workers are kept in what amounts to slavery under perfectly legal conditions.

    Actually, the point of this New Yorker article (which, unfortunately, appears not to be available online) is that this is precisely what you and I — or at least, what I (and the Justice Department) — think of as slavery. :) Not at all to your surprise, the article is about Immokalee, where the workers are told that they’re free to leave any time…but they will be murdered if they’re caught escaping. The author writes that the Justice Department has been collaborating with The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, because there’s no way for the feds to penetrate what goes on there.

    You may well be right about Orchid Island. Your closer parsing of their language doesn’t make ’em look real good.

  3. To further parse the language, “We should be thankful to have someone like you as a customer.”

    But we’re not. How dare you shine light onto our operations, blog-boy? At least, that’s how my mind ended that sentence. Maybe I’ve been working too hard this weekend.

    Interesting post though; I didn’t actually know about Tropicana/Minute Maid. (Minute Maid is actually owned by Coca Cola, so I have to ask, do you purchase other Coke products?)

  4. Minute Maid is actually owned by Coca Cola, so I have to ask, do you purchase other Coke products?

    No but, admittedly, it’s only because I don’t have any interest in consuming anything that they make. I don’t drink soda or coffee, and that cuts out 95% of their products. I’d be lying if I claimed to be boycotting them. I just don’t like any of their stuff.

  5. Wow, I knew Coke owned Dasani water, but I had no idea they own Odwalla. Luckily I don’t tend to buy their products because they are so expensive, but that is still an ouch.

    “These growers assure us that they have fruit picked in accordance with state and federal wage standards.” Do federal and state wage standards apply to illegal immigrants?

    You asked a simple question – do you use slaves? As Lloyd pointed out, what you got in response was a letter long on details about what honored christians they are, but short on definitive statements answering what was a simple yes or no question. Too bad we can’t grow our own oranges in VA.

    Have you tried Cascadian Farms juice? They are owned by General Mills so perhaps they are not such a great choice either.

    This is a very cool (and a bit scary) site showing who owns who in the organic food business. http://www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca/rcbtoa/services/corporate-ownership.html

  6. Wow, I knew Coke owned Dasani water, but I had no idea they own Odwalla. Luckily I don’t tend to buy their products because they are so expensive, but that is still an ouch.

    I hadn’t even noticed Odwalla on that list. Coincidentally, I just tried their juice for the first time about two weeks ago. I’d be willing to pay $2 for a bottle of it as an occasional treat, but I think it was something like $3.50. If I’m paying $3.50 for 12oz of juice and it may well have been with fruit picked by slaves, that’s just not money well spent.

    Do federal and state wage standards apply to illegal immigrants?

    They do.

    Thanks so much for that link about the organic food biz, Malena. That’s amazing — I had no idea that organic had been so entirely become a product of corporate America. I guess it shows the importance of simply buying locally or growing.

  7. Waldo, your commitment to ethical products is highly commendable. If only more consumers had such standards. I’ll be putting these two brands at the top of my OJ list.

    Mr. Snook, what is it about Organic Valley’s assurances that makes them more credible than those from Orchid Island? I’m not seeing much of a difference.

  8. “I had no idea that organic had been so entirely become a product of corporate America. I guess it shows the importance of simply buying locally or growing.”

    Yep, I agree. My veggie garden is much expanded this year, and I’ve put together a group of people to share the purchase of a whole steer. The price works out to about $3.50/lb for locally produced, grass-fed and finished beef (from Polyface). Great tasting, nutritious food and I am supporting Joel and his family – definitely a win-win there. I love venison if I can get it too. We have chickens roaming the orchard eating the bugs that would attack the apple trees and giving us some mighty fine eggs in return. My next project is to get some dairy goats and make my own yogurts and cheeses with the milk. Finally, I try to minimize the amount of processed foods I buy: I make my own mostly everything using as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. Unfortunately, all of this is time-intensive, but the results of wholesome, nutrient-dense foods for my family are worth it to me so making the time is a priority. The icing on the cake is the education that the children are getting about from where food comes. The look of awe on their faces the first time they pull a carrot out of the ground, or open the nest box to find the eggs laid by the hens is priceless. :-)

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