Does Whole Foods Use Slave Labor?

Gourmandize

How does the "fair trade" behemoth get away with paying its workers less than a dollar a day?

The answer: prison labor. 

On the surface, prison labor is a good idea: inmates are given an activity and a paycheck, while learning new skills that will help them adjust to life on the outside upon their release. And it seems like it's working. Prisoners who participate in these programs are less likely to relapse into crime once they're out. 

But in application, these programs look less like meaningful employment and more like slave labor. Convicts are given as little as $0.02/hour for menial, unskilled work in fields, manufacturing warehouses and kitchens — none of which is likely to secure them work on the outside. Convict-labor is widely leased by private businesses and inmates are required to work full-time, under threat of solitary confinement. According to The Atlantic, convict-leasing is cheaper than slavery since companies don't have to worry about the health of their workers (prison inmates are excempt from health and worker protections). 

This is all pretty dark news... It's clear that convicts don't benefit from this sytem, but how much does Whole Foods?

Quite a lot. 

In 2015, it surfaced that Whole Foods had been using prison labor to farm tilapia and fresh goat's cheese. Prisoners were paid between $0.74 and $4 per day, while Whole Foods sold the tilapia at $12/pound and the cheese at $10/piece. The worst part? The items had been labeled with the names of small farms in the West. So much for "Fair Trade."

The company has since announced it will stop using prison labor to source its food, however their application of this policy remains dubious, considering the lengths they went to cover it up in the first place. 

Whole Foods is certainly not the only guilty party when it comes to exploiting prison labor. Wal-Mart purchases most of its produce from third-party prison farms, and coffee titan Starbucks uses convicts to package Christmas goods during the holiday rush. McDonald's uses prisoners to process its beef patties and package its chicken, bread and milk-products. 

So while locally-sourced food is ideal, it's probably best to make sure it hasn't come from the local penitentiary. 

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