Retailers Suspend Business With Mich. Fruit Grower

JAMES PRICHARD

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Wal-Mart and two other top retailers said Friday they are suspending business with a large southwestern Michigan blueberry grower after investigators found children as young as 6 working in the grower's fields.

Wal-Mart, Kroger and Meijer said pending further information, they have stopped buying products from Adkin Blue Ribbon Blueberry Co. near South Haven, about 85 miles northeast of Chicago.

Adkin general manager Tony Marr said the company has a strictly enforced written policy prohibiting young children from working in its fields. All adult employees must sign copies of the policy, and the farm keeps the signed copies on file, he said.

"We certainly don't condone or promote child labor here in any way," Marr said.

The company has eight full-time employees and hires about 350 seasonal workers each year to harvest and process the blueberries grown on its 640 acres. About one-third of its berries are processed for sale as fresh produce and the rest are frozen for commercial use.

Adkin is conducting its own investigation to determine what happened, he said. Parents sometimes bring children with them because they don't have child care, he added.