Consumers to Whole Foods: Be afraid.
Be very, very afraid.
The Lapka, an intriguing new iPhone appcessory, is currently ramping up for mass production from the prototype phase and should be available for purchase this December for about 220 US$, just in time for the holidays.
Marketed as a “personal environment monitor”, this little contraption could likely prove an excellent tool at farmer’s markets or while shopping at Whole Foods (you know, “organic” food from China?) where produce is sometimes marked organic when, ahem, it is really not.
One of the four Lapka sensors is an organicity device, which provides the user with a steel probe to check the organic-ness of a particular food.
How?
By measuring the concentration of nitrates which are commonly used in non-organic fertilizers.
Brilliant!
The other 3 Lapka sensors test for humidity/temperature, radiation, and electromagnetic frequencies (EMF).
Environmental readings are presented on the screen in a manner which is easy to understand. For example, instead of presenting radiation readings as parts per million which would not make sense to most people, the reading is instead identified as acceptable or not with gradual color changes to red as the environment becomes less safe.
Environmental snapshots can then be sent to friends who don’t need to have a Lapka themselves to view the information.
After the launch of the personal environment monitor, Lapka’s team plans to potentially expand into other peripherals with medical applications for glucose screening and blood pressure monitoring. A device for vehicle diagnostics and even a fitness tracker are also possible.
This further empowerment of the consumer is sure to give food companies fits as they will have fewer ways in which to deceive people about the so called quality of their products.
Now all we need is a GMO sensor!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Why can’t the Chinese farm organically? They invented agriculture as we know it. Sometimes I think its just a mater of people being racists against the Chinese.
I do find it a little insulting. Not everything from China is bad. I mean seriously, if they were, people would be dropping like flies there from the food, which they’re not. Don’t Chinese people in general live longer than Americans in general?
Exactly Cee. We wouldn’t have half the produce we have now if it wasn’t for Chinese farmers cultivating and breeding fruits and vegetables. And we should support the Chinese growing organically.
hhaha!
I would be interested in some documentation on WF and their alleged mislabeling.
Sarah already addressed the whole Whole Foods thing in another shout out. I’m sure you can find it in her archives .
It is my firm belief that this is a lie.
Even if it worked the way they claimed, absence or presence of nitrates in food doesn’t prove anything about whether it’s ‘organic’.
What a load of rubbish, an app that can do what you need lab for? How can it see the difference between organic nitrogen and artificail, rofl.
Provocative article Sarah. Thanks for sharing. Would it not be great if we had a such a tool?! Perhaps after reading this blog (hopefully) people will will become more diligent in checking where their food comes from and seeking sources they can trust, but I am sure most of those following your blog are already pretty savvy when it comes to selecting their food.
After shopping with Whole Food for the last few decades, about five years ago I began to get frustrated with how much junk they were bringing into they stores (especially from China) which in turn made me question their trustworthiness. I was especially skeptical when their founder was busted for his unscrupulous behavior in acquiring his main competitors line of markets, Wild Oats. I became a very loud voice in sharing my opinion with them, but it did no good so I began to seek out an alternative to the likes of Whole Food.
Since my eyes were opened and I “stepped out of the Matrix” so to say, I have been seeking food from local farms and CSA sources as well as teaching myself how to garden. I found a cow share for my raw dairy products who makes delivers to my area once a week. My dairy farmer also provides products (meats, hand-crafted cheeses and veggies) from other local farms that are like-minded in how they raise their crops. I also found a beef farmer right in my own town who raises grass fed beef. He has full control from birth up to butchering to insure a quality product and also grows his own grasses for feed. He also offers as little as one steak to a whole cow as well as local delivery. Another new source is a CSA located right across the field from me that put up hoop houses to raise organic veggies year round! You only need to take a closer look to find quality food from souces you can trust. With every step we take in taking back control of what we buy and consume we weaken the power of the industrialized brokers of the inferior commodities we have been calling food here in America.
Thanks for your great news letter and blog!
Like like like like like like LIKE! Saves me studying a degree in chemistry and setting up a home laboratory 😉
I will be honest. I get really sick of people criticizing Whole Foods all the time. My husband works for them. On top of treating their employees well and doing an excellent job offering health and wellness benefits………there is an enormous amount of oversight that goes into Organics at their stores……at least the ones my husband has worked in. They have chosen to have external oversight for organics in the stores and to make sure what is labeled organic really is…………just my 2 cents.
I agree! They are at least trying. Without them, I would not be able to afford my local pastured pork, chicken, and beef. My local CSA prices are nearly double from some of the same farms! Frankly, I love that WF sources and supports locally farmed meats from sustainable farms. Same goes for my local health food store. They are always more expensive:(
Yea I agree with you. I trust organic labeling at WF. My SO also works there. As much as they have their issues… I’d trust their organics probably more than most stores. For instance, there is a local chain of co-ops that have dried fruit and label it as organic, and I wonder if it really is, because the prices are very good and they use a generic label. My SO used to work there too and said they used to label things as organic when they really weren’t and it was mad corrupt. Whole Foods, being the national leader in organic yada yada, I don’t think they have a massive conspiracy going on to sell conventional food as organic. Now, their frozen organic stuff from China, maybe more questionable… but why buy the frozen stuff anyway?
The criticism is justified. They market an image that is different from what they actually are. Plain and simple.
Hearing about Whole Foods makes me SO sad!! I have very limited options for healthy produce where I live so I make the 30 min drive there to shop…Is Trader Joe’s any better or do they do the same thing??
Erika,
It isn’t that all organic food from Whole Foods is bad, (the meter will be useful) it’s just that food that is imported from China (look for the label QAI – Quality Assurance International) is not monitored well enough. They simply (from what I understand) ask the farmers “was this grown organically” and simply go on the word of the farmers without actually physically checking each farm. I think if it was grown in the USA and has “grown in California” or “Oregon” or certified by a smaller US certification group, it’s probably a better bet…
I don’t trust this?