Comments on: Diving—and Dying—for Red Gold: The Human Cost of Honduran Lobster https://civileats.com/2023/12/06/diving-and-dying-for-red-gold-the-human-cost-of-honduran-lobster/ Daily News and Commentary About the American Food System Mon, 28 Apr 2025 22:08:04 +0000 hourly 1 By: Mark Shields https://civileats.com/2023/12/06/diving-and-dying-for-red-gold-the-human-cost-of-honduran-lobster/#comment-309425 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 21:21:49 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=54569#comment-309425 The Walton Family Foundation is committed to combatting human rights abuses and forced labor in the global seafood supply chain. Millions of dollars of grants have been made to advocates, journalists, and others working on these issues. An extensive list of that work was also shared with Civil Eats.

]]> By: Mark Shields https://civileats.com/2023/12/06/diving-and-dying-for-red-gold-the-human-cost-of-honduran-lobster/#comment-309424 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 21:20:56 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=54569#comment-309424 The Walton Family Foundation has found Fishery Improvement Projects to be most effective when communities, governments, and supply chain partners all work together over time. Building those relationships is a long process. It takes years and substantial resources to create meaningful change.

WFF shared many examples of this type of close engagement Fishery Improvement Projects with Civil Eats. For example, WFF supports Por La Pesca in Peru alongside local, national, and international partners. This work has been years in the making, and represents millions of collective dollars worth of grantmaking.

]]> By: Mark Shields https://civileats.com/2023/12/06/diving-and-dying-for-red-gold-the-human-cost-of-honduran-lobster/#comment-309423 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 21:20:01 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=54569#comment-309423 The Walton Family Foundation worked extensively with the reporter for this story to provide facts and full background for this piece. We regret that Civil Eats omitted relevant information and responses to important questions. For full transparency, we are sharing the facts that we provided to Civil Eats:
First, the Foundation supported this fund in an effort with other partners to try to encourage seafood vendors to increase sustainability in their seafood supply chains.

The Walton Family Foundation contributed $300,000 to the fund. Of that, $240,000 was budgeted to fishery improvement projects. From that budget, one subgrant was made to the Spiny Lobster Fishery in Honduras in the amount of $104,552.

The article states that WFF “has since distanced itself from the FIP.” This is inaccurate, as the foundation was never closely involved in this work. A one-time subgrant was made from a fund that WFF supported a decade ago.

]]> By: K Pool https://civileats.com/2023/12/06/diving-and-dying-for-red-gold-the-human-cost-of-honduran-lobster/#comment-309422 Thu, 07 Dec 2023 23:52:18 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=54569#comment-309422 This is an important story. I ache for all of the injured and uninjured divers and their families.

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