Honduran prawns are sold by three of our major supermarkets who say they are produced to high ethical standards. But environmental campaign groups say that prawn farmers are committing human rights abuses and destroying the environment.
Jeremy Bristow (The Price of Salmon, Ape Hunters) travels to Honduras and examines the conflicting viewpoints.
Director Interview: Jeremy Bristow
BBC Four: What was the original intention for the film?
Jeremy Bristow: We wanted to look at the 'price' that we are paying for the tropical prawns in our supermarkets and restaurants. We are buying more and more of them - the amount doubles every two years - and the industry worldwide is worth about $50-60 billion. But we don't necessarily know what potential damage has been done to the environment or how local people have suffered in the production of those prawns.
BBC Four: Why did you choose Honduras as the subject?
JB: We looked at a number of countries, but eventually went for Honduras because quite a few UK supermarkets were buying their prawns from there.
BBC Four: A key element of the film is the way that it not only looks at prawn farming in Honduras but also at the work of the Environmental Justice Foundation there. Could you talk a little about that?
JB: We planned to make a documentary about the real story behind the king prawns we are buying. We were going to Honduras and then the EJF also sent out investigators claiming that they had evidence of human rights abuses and, in their words, "massive environmental destruction" in Honduras. In the film we see the EJF going to M&S. They expressed the view that they should be cancelling the contract with their prawn supplier in Honduras, but leaving the door open if they changed.
When the EJF investigators arrived in Honduras, we looked at the way they carried out their research and what they said they wanted to do with the evidence that they claimed to have. We realised that what the EJF and companies like Marks & Spencer were asserting about the prawns was very different.
BBC Four: Were you surprised by the way the EJF gathered their evidence?
JB: Yes I was. I was surprised that during their investigation in Honduras, which they described as either a "ground-truthing investigation" or a "field investigation", they didn't go to see the company that they were investigating and making the allegations about - something we did. It occurred to me and my team that once we saw the company, the story was a lot more complicated than we might have believed if we had just been listening to the EJF.
BBC Four: The EJF work closely with a man called Jorge Varela and his organisation in Honduras. Who is he?
JB: Jorge is a major figure and probably the leading opponent of the prawn farms in Honduras. He's the executive officer of CODDEFFAGOLF - which is the fisherman's cooperative for the protection of the fauna and flora of the Gulf of Fonseca. He's internationally known and he's won the Goldman Prize, which is the environmental world's Nobel Prize really. So he's one of the reasons we went to Honduras, because we thought that if such a major figure was fighting this battle then there must be something in it.
BBC Four: What were the main issues you put to him?
JB: I wanted to see what actual evidence he had. We went round in circles somewhat, because he just said it was axiomatic that if you destroy the habitat then the biodiversity must also decline. From my point of view, the onus of proof is on Jorge Varela's side, if he's going around the world telling international institutions that there's been a decline in biodiversity and there's been habitat destruction then he should have some evidence for it.
We actually saw great numbers of migratory birds on the ponds and we filmed with Professor Pilar Thorn who's been going down there for 35 years. She didn't feel there had necessarily been a decline in biodiversity.
Also, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which is the international convention preoccupied with defending the world's remaining wetlands, classify prawn farms as man-made wetlands. If they're still wetlands, is it a destroyed habitat or is it just a different form of wetland?
Jorge Varela still maintains that prawn farms have contaminated the marine bio-diversity of the area and that human rights are still being abused.
BBC Four: What do you think the reaction of the EJF will be to the finished film?
JB: We'll have to wait and see. I would have liked to have had a final interview with Steve Trent from the EJF. We wanted to ask him about some of the issues that we raise in the film and give him the opportunity to reply. He's since sent us a written reply in which he states that the EJF's investigation was only a scoping trip and their research in Honduras still continues. He says that they will not publish their report until they have established the veracity and value of publishing.
BBC Four: Despite this prawn supplier, Granjas Marinas, seemingly doing a good job, there is still a big issue about prawn farming isn't there?
JB: Absolutely. There's no doubt in some countries, certainly in the past and when they started off, that companies were causing environmental damage and I'm sure impoverished local people were suffering. Aqua-culture, which is the fastest-growing form of agriculture and food production, is a new industry. It's on a steep learning curve and now some of them have learnt from the mistakes they made at the beginning. What's also happening while this extraordinary industry is growing is that consumer consciousness about the ethical implications of buying food is increasing too. Many companies that want to export to countries like the UK are aware that they will lose business if they don't improve their act.
BBC Four: So finally, would you say British consumers can buy prawns from Honduras without any great sense of indirectly causing any harm?
JB: One could hardly have had a more environmentally committed team filming in Honduras. I have a long track record of making films about environmental issues. For the majority of the time, I had Bruno Sorrentino, who produced and directed The Children of Rio and has worked for years for the Television Trust for the Environment. My researcher, Willow Murton, is a vegan whose dad runs an organic farm in Wales and she's fully committed to environmental issues. Yet we were all of the same minds when we came across Granjas Marinas.
It's interesting - I spoke to a lady from Flora and Fauna International who went to visit Granjas Marinas in Honduras. She told me she'd been a vegetarian until she went but decided to eat their prawns as a result of seeing the place. From what we saw of this company, that was supplying Marks & Spencer and also supplies Tesco and Waitrose, we now say at the end of the film that that we would buy and eat their prawns. I was impressed with the efforts they were making environmentally. It wasn't window dressing, there were really positive things being done by them.
I was also impressed by their employment practices and the work they were doing with the local community. They were giving local fishermen access to the fishing areas and they had actually given over some land for them to fish in, which they weren't legally required to do, but they did from a positive, forward-looking, altruistic sense - probably because they know there would be social unrest if they didn't, but nevertheless they had the foresight to do something.
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