Posted on 10/01/2015 4:42:53 PM PDT by BBell
Whole Foods will stop selling products made using a prison labor program after a protest at one of its stores in Texas.
The company said the products should be out of its stores by April 2016, if not sooner. Whole Foods said it has sold tilapia, trout and goat cheese produced through a Colorado inmate program at some stores since at least 2011.
Michael Silverman, a Whole Foods spokesman, said the company had sourced the products because the program was a way to "help people get back on their feet and eventually become contributing members of society."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
On the other hand, this could be used as money making scheme for corrupt prison officials.
I agree...plus....knowing what I know about prisoners, I don’t want them anywhere near my food.
The last thing that I would want would be for convicts to be involved in any food that I might purchase. I’m appalled.
Me neither.
Also, wonder if the food was a lot, lot cheaper. Since they pay those guys like 46 cents an hour or something, don’t they?
I believe most prison labor schemes are scuttled because labor unions, and I agree with them here, say it deprives gainful employment to law abiding citizens.
The last thing that I would want would be for convicts to be involved in any food that I might purchase. I’m appalled.”
Certainly much better to import it from China where we know everything is inspected at each step in production.
I don’t know, but I can’t believe that Whole Foods would do this without informing their customers. I’m shocked. I just sent the link to my sister, who often shops there.
I don’t want that, either.
I’ve had goat cheese. Never had tilapia or trout cheese.
Prisons were a lot cheaper when they were self supporting.
I grew up near Southern Michigan state prison and they farmed several thousand acres. They produced all of their own food plus food for the Jackson county jail as well as ran a roadside vegetable stand. They baked thousands of loaves of bread every week.
When Is was a kindergartner I remember the prisoners working in the field right next to our house. I used to take my toy shotgun out and walk the 2 strand barbed wire fence with the guard on the other side of the fence with his shotgun.
“The last thing that I would want would be for convicts to be involved in any food that I might purchase.”
And what about fast food workers?
And what do offended cooks do to a dish that has just been sent back to the kitchen because it wasn’t cooked right?
I knew a guy who told me of a House of Pancakes cook who would rip apart cigarettes and sprinkle the insides in the mix for pancakes he was making.
Isn’t Whole Foods where the `Top Chefs’ TV cooking show contestants shop?
I also have mixed feelings about this. It’s certainly good to provide job training, but I am worried about corruption.
In response to the other comments, just replace “prisoners” and “convicts” with “Mexicans” and see if it changes how you feel about those tomatoes and broccoli down at the local supermarket.
If Whole Foods can't defend that program, they've lost their way. They didn't make their name by being all things to all people.
Seems they’ve now had a couple of questionable things. The accidental mislabeling of food quantities and now this.
Of course, I never shopped there anyways.
I live in Arkansas and over 50 years ago the Arkansas Prison System was self-funding, this going way back. They had a huge farm down there in the Gould and Wrightsville area. All of the prisoners worked on the farm, they had a Trustee System in place that worked, they had less than 50 state employees and the farms made enough money to run the prison system with a surplus that went to the State. Now we have over 800 state employees employed in the prison system. So why would anyone complain about prisoners growing food. It keeps them busy and some income coming in.
Jesse Jackson said he used to spit it white peoples food .
Let them out sooner to work fast food or whole foods.
No one is redeemable, says Jesus.
Never forgive, even after they pay.
Jessie “Hymietown” Jackson.
We shop there a few times a year, for special occasions. My husband hates it, because the majority of the customers are pretentious and obnoxious.
I ignore them, but he can’t.
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