Agribusiness  September 30, 2015

Whole Foods’ action doesn’t get Haystack’s goat

LONGMONT — Despite confirming that “a pretty big chunk” of Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy’s goat cheese had gone to Whole Foods customers, an official for the Longmont-based producer said Thursday that Whole Foods’ decision to stop selling products made using a Colorado-based prison labor program wouldn’t adversely affect the dairy’s relationships either with the natural-foods grocer or with Colorado Correctional Industries.

A protest at one of Whole Foods’ stores in Houston prompted the chain to announce this week that it was stopping the practice of selling goat cheese and tilapia sourced through CCI inmates. The grocer had initiated the relationship as a way to help rehabilitate prisoners — a mission CCI confirms on its website — but prison-reform advocates saw the practice as taking advantage of inmates who are being paid meager wages.

John Scaggs, director of sales and marketing for Haystack Mountain, said the 26-year-old dairy stopped maintaining its herd of goats at its farm in Niwot in 2007 when founder James Schott retired and sold the farm. The herd was transferred to the Skyline Correctional Center in Canon City, where the dairy was launched as a joint venture between Haystack and CCI. Inmates, who work for CCI, milk the herd of 1,300 goats there, and the milk is shipped to Haystack’s processing facilities in Longmont for processing and packaging.

“We send about three or four trucks down there a week during the summer and about two to three in the winter,” Scaggs said. “The milk comes from there, and we make the cheese up here.” Distributors then ship it to retailers – which had included Whole Foods.

“Whole Foods did account for a pretty big chunk of our production,” Scaggs said, “but we’re committed to working with Whole Foods to find different milk sources from around the state for the cheese we sell to them.

The cow milk used for Haystack’s Buttercup mixed-milk cheese is supplied by Windsor Dairy and Aurora Organic Dairy, but “we had already been talking with other sources for different milk products, like pasture-raised milk, which is really hot right now,” he said. “We’ve been looking more broadly. This just advances the timetable a bit.”

Haystack Mountain also remains committed to the prison program, Scaggs said.

“We’re proud of the CCI partnership,” he said. “It’s one of the leading programs of its kind, and its impact is real.” Of the inmates who work for CCI, he said, the rate of recidivism – returning to prison after serving a sentence – is about half that of the general prison population.

“With our strong sales, we’ll still be able to sell everything we get from CCI, with or without Whole Foods,” Scaggs said.

LONGMONT — Despite confirming that “a pretty big chunk” of Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy’s goat cheese had gone to Whole Foods customers, an official for the Longmont-based producer said Thursday that Whole Foods’ decision to stop selling products made using a Colorado-based prison labor program wouldn’t adversely affect the dairy’s relationships either with the natural-foods grocer or with Colorado Correctional Industries.

A protest at one of Whole Foods’ stores in Houston prompted the chain to announce this week that it was stopping the practice of selling goat cheese and tilapia sourced through CCI inmates. The grocer had initiated the relationship as…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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