'But Whole Foods Is Supposed to Be Cage-Free!': Colbert Skewers High-End Grocer for Using Prison Labor

Adam Johnson
,
AlterNet
and
Adam Johnson
October 06, 2015Media

Stephen Colbert took aim on Monday's Late Show at Whole Foods, which has been in a lot of hot water recently over its use of prison labor (AlterNet was one of the first to report this issue back in June). Evidently, Whole Foods routinely staffs out some of its farming and food packaging labor to correctional labor corporations that pay prisoners severely below minimum wage. Prison reform advocates are lobbying the powerful grocery chain to stop supporting this practice.

"But everything at Whole Foods is supposed to be cage-free," Colbert joked. "That's not right. The whole time I thought it was Farmer Bob making my goat cheese. Turns out it's some guy named Spider."

Then, in a segment called "Whole Foods Apologizes," the Late Show host anticipated future PR problems for Whole Foods and offered to pre-tape a series of apologies for increasingly absurd scandals. 

Watch the clip below:

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