Monkey Free Coconut Oil
So you would think that coconut oil might be free of animal involvement. As it turns out there are many companies/suppliers that are using monkeys to go up the trees and knock down the coconuts where their human masters are waiting. At Earth’s General Store we carry Monkey Free Coconut Oil.
I have received a response from one of our suppliers so far (awaiting responses from our other brands) that has told me that “I’m happy to tell you as Canada’s only award winning fair trade coconut oil, Alpha’s DME is only made by people, each one of whom is paid fairly for their contribution. As a matter of fact, DME is the only coconut oil in Canada where no one in the process is taken advantage of, whether man or animal.”
So far Nutiva Coconut oil, Dr. Bronner and Alpha Health Products have confirmed that they are monkey free.
Dr. Bronner sent me this information today: “The coconuts that are harvested to produce our coconut 
oil are harvested by humans, and not by animals. Our coconut oil comes from our Fair Trade and sustainable project in Sri Lanka called Serendipol as well as SerendiKenya in Kenya. At both projects, local small scale farmers are employed and paid fair wages for their labor. You can read more about both projects on our website at the following links: https://www.drbronner.com/
Here are a couple of links to some articles about the practice of using trained monkeys to pick coconuts.
- NPR article from October 2015 – What’s Funny About The Business Of Monkeys Picking Coconuts?
- Daily Mail
- Facebook post by Nathan Wonograd –
- YouTube video – https://youtu.be/8gWEsNL-RJc
Earth’s General Store is about respect. That is why we are so passionate and involved in the Fair Trade and Organic movement. We want our food to be produced by people that have been paid a respectable wage for their efforts. We do not want anything to be exploited – humans, animals or the environment.