Whole Foods stops selling goods made by prison labour

Despite confirming that “a pretty big chunk” of Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy’s goat cheese had gone to Whole Foods customers, an official for the Longmont-based producer said Thursday that Whole Foods’ decision to stop selling products made using a Colorado-based prison labor program wouldn’t adversely affect the dairy’s relationships either with the natural-foods grocer or with Colorado Correctional Industries.

Michael Allen, a prison reform advocate who organized the protest at the Houston store this past weekend, said other companies sell products made by inmates, but it was hypocritical of Whole Foods to do so, given the image it tries to cultivate.

These products have been sold in Whole Foods stores across the USA since 2011. “We felt that supporting supplier partners who found a way to be part of paid, rehabilitative work being done by inmates would help people get back on their feet”, he writes. And a state audit found that the program’s earnings have not been used to fund prison maintenance or operating costs, as intended. Three companies wholesale CCI food products, he said.

CCI employed more than 1,800 prison inmates in 2014, says an annual report, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A worker restocks cream cheese at a Whole Foods in Woodmere Village, Ohio. Inmates receive only 74 cents per day, in a few cases, for high-end foods the supermarket chain sells at top-shelf prices.

CCI’s employs about 1,600 inmates with the goal to give them job skills that could help them find work when they are released.

The overcharging row was sparked after a Department of Consumer Affairs investigation in New York uncovered “systemic overpricing” in Whole Foods’ sliced fruit and fresh juices section.

And there are also questions about the justness of prison-work programs.

“Are companies doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, or because it’s cheap labor?”