We love all kinds of nuts as healthful, delicious snacks. Like everyone, we’ve mindlessly grabbed handfuls as an on-the-go burst of protein. But if you don’t know where your nuts come from, you might be enjoying more than just a nut; it might be seasoned with human misery.

In this screen grab from a Human Rights Watch video, Vietnamese workers process cashew nuts at a detention center.

A recent report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) notes that in Vietnam, the world’s largest producer of cashews, processing is done by drug addicts in rehab facilities that are basically little more than forced labor camps. Detainees work sometimes up to ten hours a day, six days a week, monotonously peeling and husking the seeds. Resins from the shell cause burning of the skin, and dust causes respiratory distress. When one detainee refused to work, she was put in solitary confinement until she complied.

Time Magazine, dubbing these “blood cashews,” notes that the rehab facilities also are not particularly effective at rehabilitating drug users. Former detainees note that they were never given any medically appropriate drug dependency method like substitution therapy, and  therefore the country sees a relapse rate of upwards of 95%.

Forced labor is not restricted to Vietnam. Fair labor organization Verité states that Brazil nut processing in Peru is done with forced labor, and with child labor in Bolivia, which also uses forced and child labor to process peanuts. Peanuts in Turkey and Cashews in Guinea are also processed using child labor. Debt bondage is the most common form of forced labor; workers incur debt to get to the work sites, only to find that their wages are not sufficient to cover the cost.

Don’t think this sort of slavery is restricted to third-world countries. Debt bondage is commonly used right here in the U.S., most notably with tomato and orange producers.

This is why it’s so important to know where your food comes from, and why we love food producers like Arnon Oren of Oren’s Kitchen, who develops direct relationships with small, organic family farms for his nuts and seasonings. We know we can enjoy his delicious snacks without the bitter aftertaste of guilt.