Between Ads and Apples at Whole Foods
I recently wrote about how Whole Foods Plans to Ban the Plastic Bag and got a good comment that prompted this post…
Bridget said: I love this store A LOT and totally support their decision to discontinue the plastic bags. But, I would love for you to post a little more on your comment of their ethical behavior regarding small farmers. Interesting…
I started to respond in the comment section but there’s so many issues behind the Whole Foods story that I thought a post would serve them a little better.
Whole Foods has made some good moves in the last year or so in regard to being more supportive of small farmers but they’re still finding their way. In 2006 Whole Foods made some changes including making efforts to buy more from smaller growers and…(via SFGate)
- Give $10 million a year in low-interest loans to help small, local farmers and producers of grass-fed and humanely raised meat, poultry and dairy animals.
- Raise its standards of humane care for the animals who supply meat, eggs and dairy to the stores. Whole Foods has hired an “animal compassionate field buyer” to work with producers to ensure that they meet the standards.
- Set up Sunday farmers’ markets in the parking lots of some Whole Foods stores, including about 10 in Northern California.
The moves came after criticism from Berkeley author Michael Pollan on the store’s failure to walk its talk in support of small farmers. (Pollan’s blog can be found here, Whole Foods CEO John Mackay’s blog is on temporary hold due to his “anonymously participating on online financial message boards” prior to the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger).
What Pollan brought to light was the way Whole Foods markets certain ideals but often falls short on delivering them to consumers. For instance, only a small amount of the organic pasture-raised beef sold by Whole Foods is American and the rest comes from abroad which goes against the principles behind buying (and supporting) local farmers.
Another issue is the “buy organic, help the small farmer” line that Whole Foods markets. Most domestically grown organic food comes from a handful of big farms in California. Whole Foods is well aware of that because those goods take up a hefty portion of the shelf space but the store still entices customers with the feel good marketing which stretches the reality.
When it comes to local farmers, the marketing highlights locally grown goods with “grower profiles” but the pictures don’t necessarily match up with what’s in the bins or represent a fair portion of the goods.
Again, I think Whole Foods is making some significant efforts recently (and there’s certainly a lot of variables to consider) but the shift is in response to some serious criticism of discrepancies between the sell – organic, local, and in support of small farmers – and what’s actually for sale.
What’s your take on Whole Foods?
More:
- Whole Foods Goes Small at CNN
- My Letter to Whole Foods at Michael Pollan’s Blog
- Is Whole Foods Straying From its Roots? at NYT
- The Dark Secrets of Whole Foods at Slate
I love Whole Foods Markets too! I have spent alot of time shopping there another health food stores. It seems to me that WFM scrutinizes their vendors or products they sell before they ever bring them in the store. I don’t see products with harmful chemicals and often much fresher items.
It can’t be easy and it takes a committed people to do that on a consistant basis. So I feel that I am going to support them so they will continue to do a good job. when I am in the store I always see people WORKING and they are pretty nice and seem happy for the most part.
I didn’t like what happened when the CEO wrote his article on the health care plan. I own some rental property and would like to see our tenants get health care. But the truth of it is they already do, they get free rent, they don’t work and have all day to cause trouble for the neighbors, they neglect their children,and want more free stuff. I am tired of people who can work but refuse to, and I don’t like to see people do without. My brother recently died, he feel in between the cracks.He owned his home, worked his way through college, paid taxes all his adult life until he passed away at age 54. He couldn’t get free medical care and they sent him away. That wasn’t a fair trade off. He paid taxes, social security for over 35 years and never collected one dime, while others, like parasites collected freebees. So some people are biased and want to boycott this store because of the idealogy of the CEO that has a vision for the working people other than extraction and sucking them dry. These boycotters must have a political aspect or agenda to force a situation, to force cash flow from the taxpaying citizens into the government hands so that the money is dispersed a little to the really helpless, a bigger piece of the pie to the lazy, and the a huge piece of the pie to the government payroll.
I’m not interested in the politics, I am just a shopper. This CEO has every right to put his ideas out there so the public can learn about how successful business is run and how successfukl business can support their workers health benefits. It is CEO’s like this that set the example and higher standards for all employees. Now empolyees can say, “hey I can go to work for Whole Foods and get health benfits, what do you have to offer”? My point is that competition will spill over to the employees, where businesses will compete as well to offer the benefits. Or is health care just about the lazy refusing to work and politicians wanting to scam the citizens. The government already takes care of people at at tremendous cost to others.