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posted by martyb on Friday July 21 2017, @01:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the say-"cheese!" dept.

NPR visits a prison goat farm that was the subject of an activist's ire back in 2015:

Whole Foods loved [Jim Schott's] cheese. His company [Haystack Mountain] grew. It also changed. Ten years ago, Haystack Mountain started buying milk from a farm in a prison. Schott doesn't recall telling Whole Foods or his other customers about that change in the Haystack Mountain story. In any case, Schott felt that it was a good thing — "a model of good prison management."

Then, in 2015, a prison reform activist named Michael Allen sent a letter to John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods. Allen demanded that Whole Foods stop selling Haystack Mountain's cheese because it was made, in part, using the labor of prisoners earning pennies per hour. The way Allen sees it, Haystack was "taking advantage of helpless, powerless individuals. They're fair game for corporations to make money off of. And I just told [Mackey] that we wanted him to get out of that business."

Many things besides cheese are made in prisons. Across the country, tens of thousands of inmates work for businesses that have set up operations inside prison walls. They make flags and furniture. Most of the time, they attract little attention. People may feel differently about something they eat, though, especially a boutique food like goat cheese. To Allen's amazement and delight, Whole Food caved to his demands. In a statement, the company said that some of its customers weren't comfortable with products made by prisoners, so it would no longer sell them.

The inmates are still milking those goats, though. I was curious about this farm, and set up a visit.


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by fakefuck39 on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:20AM

    by fakefuck39 (6620) on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:20AM (#542677)

    Someone doesn't know the difference between profit and revenue. So 14 IQ it is I guess. It costs 6 figures to keep a prisoner in prison. That prisoner does not generate 6 figures in profit. The prisoners get paid almost nothing because their room and board eats up all they earn - which is still not enough to cover the amount spent on them, so a portion of Your taxes are paying for the living expenses of that guy who killed your kids. You are one stupid motherfucker.

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