Holy false dichotomy, Batman!
It’s not like these monkeys could find work elsewhere. These valiant capitalists are the only thing keeping the monkeys off the streets. /s
No I think us moralizing over it pretty self-centered; people are generally good and us trying to dictate the morally right thing to do from our safe first world countries is privileged.
Imagine you are poor and have inherited the coconut harvesting business, you can’t afford a bucket truck, are you sending your workers, relatives and kids up a tree to potentially fall to their death? Or you can train some monkeys that will work for treats and affection, one that you can otherwise treat like a pet, and not risk the life of everyone you should care about?
Humans can treat their animal workers well, see horses, oxen, dogs; US making a line at monkeys is hypocrisy and privilege.
Oxymoron
You sure do want those monkeys to get your coconuts real bad, man.
Cuckoo for Coconuts
… a deft deployment of the rhetorical “us,” for sure
I don’t want to know what poor creature he wants to harvest cocoa.
You already know:
Monkeys for treats and affection, or humans risking their life for very little money, or a rich foreign company putting everyone out of business with their mandated bucket trucks, and paying fewer people even less money, and charging too much for locals to afford the harvest because of their oligopoly.
That’s your three choices.
TELL THOSE CIVET CATS TO EAT FASTER
dammit, i need my catshit coffee!
Do you know for a fact what percentage of coconut production in Thailand is from smallholders who cannot afford any other means of harvesting coconuts? Because your examples sound highly hypothetical.
Holy false trichotomy, Batman!
James Hoffman:
One theory is that the civet cats ate only the choicest coffee-- because they had other things to eat and do. If true, this process cannot be industrialized.
I’m not saying they need to do anything. I’m predicting how people will respond if they replace monkeys with humans.
Again, I’m not advocating for or against monkey labor. I’m simply predicting how people will react to those different circumstances.
Yes, I am sure the people illegally taking the monkeys out of the wild have great concerns about the sustainability of the practice.
Please, won’t somebody think of the shareholders?
No thanks. I’m trying to quit.
Also don’t forget that by exploiting poor people in other countries, we’re actually helping them by giving them jobs where they can be exploited! (Or so capitalists like to say.)