{"id":3545,"date":"2022-05-24T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T12:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?p=3545"},"modified":"2022-11-22T00:58:40","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T00:58:40","slug":"censored-ad-exposing-whole-foods-antibiotics-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/censored-ad-exposing-whole-foods-antibiotics-deception\/","title":{"rendered":"Censored: Ad Exposing Whole Foods’ Antibiotics Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Apparently Whole Foods\u2019 \u201cno antibiotics, ever\u201d marketing really means \u201cantibiotics, sometimes.\u201d Farm Forward recently exposed Whole Foods\u2019\u00a0humanewashing<\/a>\u00a0after we uncovered drugs in the Amazon-owned retailer\u2019s meat. Now, as Amazon\u2019s annual shareholder meeting kicks off, the cities of Austin and Seattle have decided not to run Farm Forward\u2019s new humanewashing public service announcement. We believe that the ad\u2019s censorship by the two cities\u2014where Whole Foods and its parent, Amazon, are headquartered\u2014is unconstitutional, on First Amendment grounds.<\/p>\n

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In our appeal,\u00a0we explain<\/a>\u00a0that placing the PSA on publicly operated spaces like the Seattle and Austin airports and public transit would provide an important public service. The ad informs consumers and shareholders about\u00a0research by Farm Forward<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0research from George Washington University<\/a> that uncovered prohibited antibiotics in Global Animal Partnership\u2019s (GAP) Animal Welfare Certified\u2122 program (the certification used by Whole Foods), including in meat sampled directly from the grocery chain\u2019s shelves.1<\/a><\/p>\n

Farm Forward found prohibited drugs at Whole Foods because factory farms depend on them to\u00a0keep animals alive<\/a>\u00a0in filthy, crowded conditions\u2014which are permitted in all but the highest tiers of GAP\u2019s certification. Yet shoppers expect labels like GAP to ensure animals are raised on pasture, and a third of Americans actually believe\u2014incorrectly\u2014that this is the case when they see GAP\u2019s label, according to a\u00a0recent survey we conducted through YouGov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Farm Forward\u2019s censorship appeal references two previous successful legal challenges of local governments suppressing issue-based ads that were initially deemed controversial, with one\u00a0federal appeals court writing<\/a>, \u201cThe City, which owns the Airport, says the policy helps it further its goals of maximizing revenue and avoiding controversy. \u2026 Because the ban is unreasonable, it violates the First Amendment and cannot be enforced as written.\u201d\u00a0According to legal precedent, Farm Forward has just as much of a right to inform the public of this information\u00a0in its totality<\/em>\u00a0as major companies have to display their latest products in airports and on buses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon has previously cast doubt on its own grocery chain\u2019s humanewashing animal welfare certification by\u00a0excluding GAP from Amazon\u2019s online Climate Pledge Friendly store<\/a>\u00a0after conversations with Farm Forward. If GAP\u2019s not good enough even for Amazon, why is Whole Foods, which prides itself as a leader in sustainable food, still using the GAP certification to deceive consumers about the factory farmed products on its shelves?<\/p>\n

As Farm Forward awaits a decision on our appeal, we have taken steps to make sure the public learns the truth by deploying our ad to tens of thousands of cell phones within a 1-mile radius of both Amazon and Whole Foods\u2019 headquarters, as well as the offices of Amazon\u2019s top 10 corporate shareholders, to offer investors a glimpse into the factory farming practices permitted on Whole Foods\u2019 shelves.<\/p>\n

If Amazon and Whole Foods can\u2019t be honest with their customers and shareholders about the truth behind their animal welfare labels, they need to ditch factory farmed products completely. <\/strong>Sign our petition today<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farm Forward’s public service announcement was censored in the two cities where Amazon\u2019s annual shareholder meeting kicked off. Read why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,13,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanewashing","category-animal-product-labeling","category-antibiotics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}