It’s astonishing, but comes as no surprise to me, that The Malibu Times would publish a cute but irrelevant editorial regarding the newly planned Wildlife Crossing in the Sept. 24 edition, “A not-so-perfect solution.” While I certainly support and donate to the project, it has little to no relevance for Malibu residents. The more important and relevant issue, of great concern for all 13,000 Malibu residents now and in the future, was news of a PETA class action lawsuit.
This lawsuit was filed on Monday, Sept. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Why should this be of vital interest to Malibuites? It should because the class action suit alleges that Whole Foods duped customers in their meat department. You’ll see signs, placards and even napkins bragging about so-called humane meat sold at a premium price from farms that Whole Foods touts as having no cages, no crates, no crowding and more. Furthermore, the class action lawsuit states that Whole Foods’ Five Step Animal Welfare Rating System violates California consumer protection laws by snowing shoppers into paying higher prices for meat from farms raised under standards that differ little, if at all, from the industry’s paltry minimum standards. In the suit, PETA asks the court to prevent Whole Foods “from continuing its unfair and deceptive business practices.”
These allegations come on the heels of another Whole Foods run-in with the law, as the company was recently fined by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs for systemically overcharging customers. However, Co-founder and Co-CEO John Mackey apparently saw it differently. “We don’t think our track record is any different from any other supermarket,” he said. “It went viral in the media and we feel we were victims.”
This statement claims that Whole Foods is the victim and that they blame their customers for taking advantage of them. Not in our community.
Michael Osterman