Whole Foods Controversy: Employing Colorado Inmates at 60 Cents A Day

Organic supermarket chain Whole Foods is coming under fire from libertarians once again for reportedly paying inmates in the Colorado prison system about $ 1.50 an hour to cultivate its fish, milk and gourmet cheese products.

According to Fortune magazine, the Colorado Correctional Industries has created “a burgeoning $65 million business that employs 2,000 convicts at 17 facilities.”

Some reports put the earnings of Colorado inmates working for Whole Foods at a base pay of 60 cents per day.

The company and its CEO John Makey, whose net worth is more than $100 million, have faced controversy before over overpricing food products.

Mackey, a self-described conscious capitalist has also angered the left for his beliefs in astrology, his company’s restrictions on unions, and his beliefs on climate change which he’s reportedly called “perfectly natural and not necessarily bad.”