The answers may surprise you
Estimated reading time: 2m 49s
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Last week, the Associated Press published the stunning results of a two-year-long investigation into prison labor in the South. The investigation uncovered that some of America’s most popular retailers and food brands (McDonald’s, Aldi, Whole Foods and Kellogg’s, to name a few) benefited from prison labor throughout their supply chains. Anything from the wheat milled for the flour in your pantry to the sugarcane that goes into your Coca-Cola may have been harvested by an inmate making pennies per hour, if anything at all. And as consumers, we have very few ways of finding out. The most horrifying part? It’s completely legal. |
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(Image credit: Alabama Reflector) |
Remember last week when I briefly mentioned the 13th Amendment? Let’s circle back to that for a moment. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” (Emphasis added.) Slavery never officially ended in the United States, it simply evolved to fit the current legal landscape.And within that landscape, it’s completely legal – although morally reprehensible – for companies like Kroger and Costco to purchase the goods that line their shelves from prisons. Likewise, it’s also legal for restaurants like Popeye’s and Burger King to staff their kitchens with prison laborers who work side-by-side with un-incarcerated civilians. The Alabama Department of Corrections is currently being sued for its alleged role in schemes like this in federal court. A group of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Montgomery in December, claiming they have been trapped in a system of convict leasing. |
“Vote with your wallet” or “Vote with your dollar” are common phrases when people want to protest consumer goods to force companies to change their ways. Bud Light, Frito-Lay and Starbucks have all faced consumer boycotts in recent years. Those protests have had varying degrees of success beyond media coverage cycles. But what happens when brands that are integral to your daily life engage in behaviors that can’t be ignored? Kroger is the largest grocery chain in the country by revenue, and it operates stores in 35 states under many brand names (Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Mariano’s and Harris Teeter, to name a few). That makes consumer protest actions more difficult, especially if you live in an area where grocery options are limited. There is some history for shoppers to look toward, though. From 1977 to 1980, LGBTQ activists around the country boycotted Florida orange juice to protest the hiring of anti-gay activist Anita Bryant. There were also international boycotts of South African goods to protest the apartheid government. |
Companies making use of prison labor is legal, but that doesn’t mean consumers are completely helpless to voice their opposition to the practice. Contacting corporations through public-facing social media is one public-facing way to draw attention to the issue and push for changed behavior. In an era of corporate consolidation of the food supply, a sustained boycott against a retailer might not be possible, but spreading the word about its business practices to make it into a public relations headache can still yield results. |
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That's all I've got for this week!
Thanks for reckoning with me, Aria |
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