Whole Foods Says It Will Stop Selling Foods Made With Prison Labor
Whole Foods will stop selling products made using a prison labor program after a protest at one of its stores in Texas.
Items such as farmed tilapia, goat cheese, and farmed trout are now processed in prisons, the company said, and had been since around 2011.
But Silverman says, “we have heard from a few shoppers and members of the community that they were uncomfortable with Whole Foods Market’s sourcing products produced with inmate labor”.
The products in question came from the Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI) through third parties to Whole Foods.
Dennis Dunsmoor, director of the program, said the program doesn’t provide goods directly to Whole Foods, but that its partners do.
The problem for protesters: the prisoners were being paid between 74 cents and $4 per day, according to FOX 31 Denver.
A spokesman for Whole Foods, which has suffered from huge stock market losses and allegations of overcharging this summer, announced the change earlier today.
“People are incarcerated and then forced to work for pennies on the dollar – compare that to what the products are sold for”, he said.
The decision was made following a protest at a Whole Foods in Houston.
Starting next year, Whole Foods Market, Inc. CCI administers prison work programs across the state.
She said prison programs also help inmates develop a work ethic while they “are trying to teach inmates a trade or a skill”. “They say they care about the community, but they’re enhancing their profit off of poor people”, he told The Associated Press.
The cow milk used for Haystack’s Buttercup mixed-milk cheese is supplied by Windsor Dairy and Aurora Organic Dairy, but “we had already been talking with other sources for different milk products, like pasture-raised milk, which is really hot right now”, he said. CCI employs about 1,600 inmates, according to a report by the Colorado state auditor.
The announcement comes on the heels of a protest in Houston, staged just last weekend near a Whole Foods store.