Despite the title of Is Whole Foods Wholesome?, the Slate
article is not about Whole Foods as much as it is about the organic movement. Essentially, the article treats the
increased demand for organic goods as an overly cynical teenager would treat their once favorite band after it
"sells out." The band, having joined up with a major record label and making more money, reaching a wider
audience and popularizing their brand of music, is no longer appealing to the teen who feels that if it isn't small and
under-recognized, it isn't worth his or her recognition.
Organic foods have had a following for a long time, though their potential value was largely unappreciated by the mainstream population of grocery shoppers. As Whole Foods picked up and popularized the organic foods market, neatly filling a growing consumer demand with smart store layouts and good timing, they had to look further to find the organic foods to fit the demand. The question that posed by the Slate is whether it is appropriate to purchase these goods when they are not grown locally. In California, this is not a problem because most of the organic produce in the country comes from the state, but New York has a more limited production of those types of goods.
What the Slate is missing here is that fact that organic versus conventional is the choice, and though Whole Foods promotes supporting small, local farmers - who are not excluded from their supply chain, by the way - it is the organic label that is their key marketing element. The source of the organic products is not as important as the fact that it is organic. Shoppers who want organic foods because they want to avoid pesticides and genetically modified foods will continue to buy them for those reasons. They should continue to buy them no matter where they come from, if those reasons are their priorities. Shoppers who want locally grown should look for local labels and not condemn a market that specializes in organics for failing to carry an equal or greater amount locally grown food. They might have to accept that some locally grown foods that are easily available are also conventionally grown. Shoppers who want only local, sustainably grown, organic foods should seek out their local farmers market.
Expecting a large supermarket chain to operate exactly as a farmer's market does is unrealistic, but fortunately there are enough shopping options in this country to fill any and all consumer demands. It just might not all take place at Whole Foods.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-18-2006 @ 3:56PM
Lady Amalthea said...
How true. In this country we're blessed with having all kinds of shopping options and people need to just give up on this vision of "one-stop shopping."
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3-18-2006 @ 4:16PM
McAuliflower said...
"The source of the organic products is not as important as the fact that it is organic."
...but that is exactly the crux of one of the WF problems. You say that buying local is not an option for the NY area. That is because of large grocery stores importing produce from foreign countries when produce is off-season. NJ used to be the farming region that supplied NY with its produce (hence the name Garden State). NY has become part of the nationwide trend that shows a steady decrease of vegetable farms every state.
The food we put into our mouths today travels an average of thirteen hundred miles from where it is produced, changing hands at least six times along the way. Coming Home to Eat, Garry Paul Nabham. This shows the crux of fossil fuel consumption still being tied up in the problem when non-local organic produce is purchased, and sustained.
More than one-thrd of all truck traffic is carrying food!
If you are one who cares about the condition of your local roads, cares about gas tax, cares about our use of fossil fuels (not alot of biodiesal delivery trucks out there yet!) purchasing local produce (organic or not) directly helps the livability of your town. You put money directly into the hands of farmers, who in turn spend this money in your economy- not sending the profit to shareholders or CEOs in Texas (as in the case for WF).
I used to think simply buying Organic was a solution. The rise of mega-corporations has stressed that we need to go beyond the simple label of organic and look to local.
Why not expect a store like WF to carry more local produce? WF is not the benign giant it wants you to think it is. The Eugene WF is situating itself to compete head to head with our local farmers and local grocery stores. In this case WF is not operating out of the desire to offer more choices- it is simply operating out of greed.
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3-18-2006 @ 9:40PM
schiller thurkettle said...
Historically, people who "eat local" starve. They're doing it now like they've done it for centuries, and they starve. If you are healthy you can walk twelve miles in a day. How much food can you find in a twelve-mile radius that was all grown there? Likely about nothing. And then you'd walk some more. And then you would starve, too.
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3-19-2006 @ 6:34AM
Sharon said...
Why aren't farmers all starting to offer at least some organic produce? It is not that much more expensive to convert to all organic and it is better for the soil, the environment and our health.
I buy local organics when available. If not available, I get it where I can.
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3-19-2006 @ 12:39PM
Joe said...
I think 12 miles would be a bit ambitious, however within twelve miles of my home, one can find
http://www.boggycreekfarm.com
http://www.purelucktexas.com
http://www.sunsetvalleyfarmersmarket.com
http://www.austinfarmersmarket.com
http://www.austinfarm.org/safm/
Travis County Farmer's market
http://www.whiteegretfarm.com/
Tecolote Farms
P2 organics
And I only took about 10 minutes to look....
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3-19-2006 @ 6:31PM
Davediego said...
I'll never understand this backlash against genetically modified food. When Farmer John mates his fattest cow with his fattest bull, what do you think he's doing? Like it or not, humans have been genetically modifying species for increased food yield since the start of civilization through selective breeding. Abhorring food that was modified in a lab is simply hypocritical.
Also I don't understand why one would choose to always buy organic over other "non-organic" food. Labeling a food as "organic" can be more marketing than anything else at times. Pesticides/fertilizers don't have to hurt the environment if they aren't used in excess, and can reduced the total land area needed for growing produce. So again, buying something just based on a label that supposedly supports some higher cause is just silly.
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3-20-2006 @ 10:07PM
Kirsten said...
New York has a more limited production of those types of goods.
Partly because we're buried in snow for part of the year, unlike Calif.
What the Slate article gets close to, without actually articulating it, is that supporting local growers and supporting organic farming are two separate things.
People link them together under the umbrella of "sustainable agriculture" but whereas "organic" has penetrated the mass consciousness (witness Walmart) "sustainable agriculture" has not. And may not ever, too abstract.
Buying local might, though. My local supermarket chain makes a very huge deal out of its locally grown sweet corn in late summer, for example.
I was on the scene when the organic certification process was turned over to the federal government. I'm on the scene now of something else--cooperatives forming for the express purpose of patronizing local growers. It's ever bit as rootsy and rough-around-the-edges as organic farming was 20 years ago. But I predict it's not going away, and 20 years from now it will have also influenced our food buying habits ;-)
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3-21-2006 @ 5:01PM
Jon Morgan said...
Anyone who believes that conventional food is as good for you as organic, has definatley not done their homework. Besides the sustainable farming practices many of them adhere to, there is also the element of 'health'. Those of you who shy away from organic meats, produce etc, are getting what you paid for, which is compromised with hormones, irradiation, fungacides, herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, vaccine metals, poor quality farming practices, sick animals and sick plants/vegetation. Not my idea of good health, but if you would eat an apple sprayed with RAID, I guess you would be willing to eat a conventionally grown one, which is no different. I would throw it in the trash, but some people like the chemicals in their bodies and believe that they cause no harm. I would beg to differ and also factually back up the nutriotional differences of the two. The fact is, the mega corporations don't like the fact that people are becoming savvy and aware of their bodies and the food that is making this world ill.
Unless you are starving to death, you would be best served avoiding conventional products.
I applaud Whole Foods and their vision...
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