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There are so many food issues to think about when you hit the market to do grocery shopping. Store brand versus national brand. Sale versus regular. Organic vs conventional. Locally grown vs imported. Every company is promoting at least one thing (sometimes all things) at a time.With organics going mainstream, and organic farms getting larger and more efficient/industrial, more community and eco-conscious people are turning towards supporting local growers and patronizing farmers markets, rather than blindly opting for organics of unknown origin.
Following this trend and keeping itself ahead of the curve, Whole Foods has just pledged to spend an additional $10 million each year to further support locally grown foods. John Mackey one of the co-founders of Whole Foods said that some stores "would use parts of their parking lots on Sundays to host open-air markets for nearby farms and [all] would redouble efforts to buy from local producers."
The question is, will this move encourage you to shop at Whole Foods, knowing that you are more likely to be supporting local growers/producers that you might not otherwise have access to?
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7-01-2006 @12:51PM Carole Sonmor said... You bet on supporting local farmers along with Whole Foods. As is I drive across town to the Farmer's Market. I would love for something like that to come to the local Whole Foods.
You go Whole Foods.
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7-01-2006 @12:54PM Dalene said... Absolutely! I wish Whole Foods wasn't so far away from where we live though -- and perhaps other grocers will follow the path Whole Foods is forging in support of local farmers. We live in the Pacific Northwest and travel many of the back country roads. In the summer, we often stop at roadside stands to buy fresh produce. Also, we have an annual tradition of going to our favorite farmer's place and picking enough fresh blueberries to last a year.
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7-01-2006 @12:59PM Jen said... I would also support this, although the nearest Whole Foods to me is 45 minutes away. And we live in the Chicago suburbs where you think they'd be everywhere. I wish Whole Foods would open up some more stores. For now we shop at Meijer which is just 10 minutes from us and they have good prices.
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7-01-2006 @1:39PM suburban misfit said... Right now I don't have to. We have a grocery store here that sells only locally grown produce and Amish baked goods. They also sell locally made cheeses and charcuterie, along with imported (but inexpensive) sauces (like spaghetti sauce, mexican salsas, etc.). The only things I can't get there are the dairy products we use.
For living in a surprisingly un-progressive area (suburbs of Cincinnati), we're incredibly lucky to have this store.
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7-01-2006 @2:47PM Alexi said... Why not? I'd take an organic, farm-fresh tomato over pre-packaged bland ones, anyday, especially if I don't have to drive to the farm to get it. If only they'd do the same thing for meat.
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7-01-2006 @4:02PM Charlotte said... I would if they didn't charge $10.00/lb for cherries. Everything is WAY overpriced. I'm all for supporting farmers..co-ops..and all likeminded endeavors. I LOVE the variety at Whole Foods; I expect quality to cost more--but not to rival my mortgage payment.
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7-01-2006 @6:30PM Dr. Electro said... When I was but a child we would hop in the old conestoga and clip-clop to some of the local roadside stands for the freshest natural foods available. That's one advantage of living in a rural area that is heavily cultivated in food crops. At the time, we had a dairy farm so we would barter milk, cream, buttermilk, butter and cheese for other things. At times we also sold or bartered beef, pork, chickens and even eggs. We were rather busy in those days.
If there were a Whole Foods Market anywhere near West Texas I might go to judge the offerings for myself. I think it would be worth the trip. As it stands now, I don't even know if there is one anywhere in the state of Texas.
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7-01-2006 @10:28PM Mr. Food Markets said... It will be great to see this but note that Whole Foods says that they will only be doing these "farmstands" in "stand-alone" stores, which I haven't seen in my immediate area (west of Boston.) My post yesterday at http://foodmarketindex.blogspot.com/2006/06/whole-foods-to-open-up-parking-lots-to.html mentioned also that this initiative is partly a response to the ongoing public dialogue between Whole Foods' CEO and Michael Pollan. This and other changes in the works seem to be shifting the grocery industry in potentially positive directions. The big question, as you point out, is what will we demand and support of Whole Foods?
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7-02-2006 @5:08AM Berkana said... I have a love/hate relationship with Whole Foods. If only they'd live up to their advertised ideal, rather than spouting it as advertisement, and cutting corners, I'd actually shop their.
My primary gripe is that Whole foods is way to gentrified; they are so expensive, they make "organic and sustainable" synonymous with "luxury". The parking lot in the Whole Foods Markets in San Francisco looks like a gallery of luxury cars, many of which are SUV's. (How ironic.)
My close secondary gripe is that Whole Foods still sells the quack medicine colloidal silver, which causes heavy metal poisoning and argyria. The FDA's public findings on colloidal silver (that it's worse than useless; effective concentrations are not safe, and safe concentrations are not effective) are known to them, but they sell it anyways. Yet they prominently advertise that they carefully consider every item they sell.
What hypocricy. I want to love them, but I can't. They have beautiful stores, but that's not enough. I bleed green (as in environment, not as in money), and as it stands, Whole Foods bugs me. As for me, I'll shop sustainable at the farmer's market.
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7-02-2006 @7:15AM Mike said... Anybody buying into Whole Foods' support of the small farm should read The Omnivore's Dilema by Michael Pollan, an journalist who visited a bunch of organic farms in California. While Whole Foods does buy from distributors which buy from some smaller farms, almost all of their food comes from industrial farms or industrialized producers. A small startup farm would find it nearly impossible to sell to Whole Foods directly.
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7-02-2006 @7:56AM Nicole Weston said... Actually Mike, this move is at least partially in response to an argument that Pollan made in his book, so it certainly looks like Whole Foods read it. Hopefully, small farmers will now have a much easier time.
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7-02-2006 @5:58PM Bob H said... The (dare I say) 'problem' with large stores doing the organic or sustainable production route is that it goes against large scale economic sense and thus either the goods get more expensive, they fail to reach their goal or they go bankrupt.
We are beginning demand more food from small producers, but the challenge is producing enough at the quality we demand as consumers. If a company needs 1000kg of tomatos, organic or not, thats alot for any producer to deliver.
The best mode of delivery is obviously small shops from small producers, but again the cost. The most economical is to make it yourself, but we can't all do that easily. Perhaps, bring back the medieval markets of old, roaming around collections of farmers bringing their food to market in populated areas.
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7-03-2006 @1:58AM mcauliflower said... No... I'd rather buy from the farmer's market, which will be closer and more assesable than the WF that will be moving into our downtown.
Whole Foods has slipped on their pledges to support farmers inthe past and I expect as much for their future.
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