Taking Stock on the "Growing Goliath" Investigation
Roughly two weeks ago, we produced an extensive investigation of a shrimp processing plant in India. The reporting took a lot of guts to publish since the company at the center of the investigation sent us very aggressive letters when we initially contacted them about our findings. But the journalism was solid, the documents were strong, and the whistleblower had shown real courage in stepping forward.
Shrimp is the most popular type of seafood in the U.S. and over 90 percent is imported, mostly from India which accounts for a third of what Americans eat.
Beyond the focus on that one plant, the investigation offered a window on broader labor, environment and food safety concerns that pervade much of this industry in India. Since then, we have been continuing to cull thousands of documents and present them on our website. We also produced a video explaining the backstory behind the reporting process.
Last night, one of our strongest partners, NBC News, published a long and excellent written piece as well as a TV segment based on the investigation as their top nightly news story.
A growing number of foreign news outlets have also entered the fold, publishing versions of our original investigation or running their own spin-off stories.
Among them: Time magazine (US), The Globe and Mail (Canada), InsideClimate News (US), the Rappler (the Philippines), The Wire (India), PBS (New Jersey affiliate). The industry press, particularly Seafood Source, Undercurrent News and Intrafish, have also done thorough and smart follow-up pieces. In the coming days, CNN (US), Die Zeit (Germany), Mediapart (France), El Diario (Spain), Ojo Publico (Peru), Clarin (Argentina), El Sol (Mexico), Daily Maverick (South Africa) have stories planned.
The impact from this investigation has been speedy. Within days of its publication, several members of Congress asked our organization for documents from the investigation, which we provided. Other lawmakers wrote to President Biden asking him to halt Indian shrimp imports.
Federal agencies engaged too. The FDA interviewed the whistleblower and began reviewing the documents. Officials from the Customs and Border Protection Agency contacted us to discuss the materials. We are waiting to hear what actions, if any, may come from the Dept. of State and Dept. of Labor, both of which also received tailored whistleblower complaints.
Some industry officials reacted as well. For example, the Southern Shrimp Alliance, which represents U.S. producers, filed a petition to the Dept of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs, requesting that it add Indian shrimp to two federal lists of products produced with child or forced labor. The Indian Commerce Ministry met with exporters -- albeit less to figure out fixes to problems than to strategize on pushback against what they described as a smear campaign.
Admittedly, it is still early days, but we at OO and our colleagues in the industry press are still waiting to hear more from the seafood companies, grocery-store chains, auditing firms and certification/standards organizations (like MSC and BAP) about steps they intend to take.