Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Tufts University in the US have measured the risk of forced labour behind ingredients in recommended US diets, and hope their findings will inform how governments and institutions buy food at scale.
Many Americans choose food based on cost and nutrition, but personal values, such as animal welfare and environment concerns, also shape what ends up on our plates. Now, experts from the Nottingham Rights Lab and the School of Geography, and the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, have shown when healthy eating may come at the expense of exploited workers in food supply chains.
For the first-of-its-kind study published today in Nature Food, the researchers analysed the ingredients of five different diets: three diets recommended by federal dietary guidelines (Healthy US-Style Diet, Healthy Mediterranean-Style Diet and Healthy Vegetarian Diet); the 2019 EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet; and the current average American diet, based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
All dietary patterns are exposed to the risk of forced labour to various extents, without understanding these risks informed policy decisions and personal choices regarding diets cannot be made."
The International Labour Organisation estimates that approximately 28 million people worldwide are currently ensnared in forced labour, including across the United States.
"Forced labour takes many forms, but most often it traps workers in jobs through isolation, dependencies on employers, exploitative pay schemes and binding recruitment debt," explains Dr Jessica Decker Sparks, Assistant Professor at the Friedman School and corresponding author on the research. Forced labour can also involve intimidation, with-held wages, abusive living conditions, or even violence.
To assess the risk of forced labour among these recommended healthy diets and the current American diet, researchers rated more than 200 commonly eaten foods on a risk scale, based on how and where foods available in the US are typically grown, harvested, or processed.
"We found that recommended healthy diets could have higher or lower risk of forced labour compared with what Americans currently eat, depending on the mix of foods," says Dr Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Associate Professor at the Friedman School and co-senior author on the paper.
The biggest differences came from how much fruit, dairy, and red meat people eat. Protein foods were the biggest source of forced labour risk across the five diets studied, but the drivers varied.
When looking at livestock farming, the researchers accounted for the risk involved in slaughtering, meat processing, and producing feed for these animals. Fruits that need to be handpicked (versus harvested by machines) or nuts that need to be shelled by hand tend to have a higher risk of forced labour. And, the fishing industry has a very high risk compared with many other food sectors.
The Healthy Mediterranean-Style diet, which leans toward plant-based foods and seafood, with some dairy and red meat, and the Healthy US-Style diet, which includes a balanced mix of nutrient-dense foods with a relatively high amount of dairy, showed greater forced labour risk than today's average diet. Seafood on top of red meat and dairy substantially raised risk in the Mediterranean pattern, and fruits also contributed to the risk. Dairy was the highest contributor to overall risk in the US-Style pattern.
In contrast, the Healthy Vegetarian diet, which includes beans, soy, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and the Planetary Health diet, which is mostly plant-based, with very small amounts of meat and dairy to reduce environmental impact, had lower risks. These diets both showed outsized risk from nuts and seeds.
While swapping foods on individual plates may not end forced labour, the study could have far-reaching implications. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans shape what millions of children and adults eat through public programs like school lunches, and cities worldwide are using the Planetary Health Diet to help guide purchasing policies.
The researchers note that programs such as the Fair Food Program show how farm workers can drive real change when they have a seat at the table. These, coupled with trade policies that block imports made with forced labour, can help level the playing field so that companies that respect workers aren't undercut by exploitative practices abroad.
