I just found out today that a Whole Foods is going to be built close to my neighborhood. Too bad it’s not an Earth Fare.
While many crunchy, green mamas might rejoice at Whole Foods coming to town, I am in mourning because Whole Foods is basically on par with your “neighborhood”  Walmart.
There is nothing “neighborly” about Walmart or Whole Foods.
What a joke.
Whole Foods is just another cutthroat Corporate Bully dressed in organic, “let’s save the world”, “buy local” disguise with the shareholders in full throttle, profit taking control.
While Whole Foods is undoubtedly counting on health conscious Moms like me in the neighborhood cha-chinging away at the brand spanking new registers, let me just share with you that you won’t see The Healthy Home Economist browsing the aisles there.
I’ll be shopping at the 2 small, local healthfood stores less than a mile away where I’ve shopped for the past 15 years. Â That’s where my business loyalty lies.
I spend almost all my food money with local businesses and local farms. Â Not Whole Foods.
How could I possibly rationalize shopping at Whole Foods which has recently rolled over on the GMO issue in the United States by suggesting that we all need to “learn to live with GMO’s” by accepting the USDAs proposal for “peaceful” coexistence between organics and genetically modified foods?
Here is Whole Foods’ official statement on the matter:
The reality is that no grocery store in the United States, no matter what size or type of business, can claim they are GMO-free. While we have been and will continue to be staunch supporters of non-GMO foods, we are not going to mislead our customers with an inaccurate claim (and you should question anyone who does). Here’s why: the pervasive planting of GMO crops in the U.S. and their subsequent use in our national food supply. 93% of soy, 86% of corn, 93% of cotton, and 93% of canola seed planted in the U.S. in 2010 were genetically engineered. Since these crops are commonly present in a wide variety of foods, a GMO-free store is currently not possible in the U.S. (Unless the store sells only organic foods.)
Since the U. S. national organic standards do not allow the use of GMO ingredients and practices in the growing or production of organic foods, choosing organic is one way consumers can avoid GMO foods. The other is through labeling, of which we are strong supporters.Â
Hey Whole Foods, here’s a novel idea:  How about selling only organic and local foods then? That would solve the problem nicely wouldn’t it?
I don’t know about you, but that statement screams “sell-out” to me. Even more damaging, Whole Foods recently endorsed the peaceful coexistence option with regard to GE alfalfa rather than an outright ban. The unrestricted planting of GE alfalfa that starts as early as this spring threatens the entire grassfeeding dairy industry over the long term as alfalfa hay is an integral part of winter feeding.
Whole Foods is all about corporate profits and management can shade it and couch it any way they like, but the message is loud and clear: Â corporate profit and shareholder gains are more important than sticking to the basic sustainability ideals Whole Foods was founded upon.
Do you want your neighborhood healthfood stores and farmer’s markets to suffer revenue losses from business ruthlessly stripped away by a Whole Foods coming to town?
If not, you can choose to stay away like me and treat Whole Foods like just another supermarket or Walmart: Â a place of last resort where budget dollars are rarely if ever spent.
Note: as of July 2012, it appears that Whole Foods is still sourcing much of its “organic” produce from China which provides further verification of the video below.
In addition, as of June 2015, Whole Foods’ new veggie rating system can rank conventional produce grown in another country ahead of organic, local produce!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
In the north we are forced to buy organic produce from WF, I am always skeptical, have no choice in the winter.
I (occasionally) shop at the flagship WF in downtown Austin where Iive. They have actually earned the name, “Whole Paycheck” because of their prices. Still, this store does carry local meats, dairy, and eggs. So, in a pinch I can pickup items from the WAPF shopping guide recommendation of ‘best’ or (gasp) ‘good’ – not ideal, but better than the local HEB (think Publix) which I rarely enter (think pencils or paper napkins). It really all comes down to knowing the right questions to ask. At my WF I talked to the folks in the bakery about some ‘sprouted, whole grain sourdough bread’ for my non-celiac hubby. The baker explained the entire process from start to finish and I think it would fall into the WAPF ‘best’ category. If you are an educated buyer, then you can find a few things that can get you through the week until the next farmer’s market.
We shop at the S. Tampa Whole Foods and we are just picky about what we buy. It is the only place to get grassfed beef, pastured pork and organic free range chicken in one stop…..unless you order through a farm, in bulk usually. With 2 small kids it becomes inconvienent to stop at 2-3 different smaller stores and farmers markets. I personally am excited about their new N. Tampa location.
I shop at WF weekly. It is the best choice for me at this time. I work full time and cannot belong to a CSA. I do shop a local market on the weekend and order many things online. For others such as sugar for DH, Applegate hot dogs, honey bacon, etc. I find WF the best choice. I do check all labels and do not buy things from China. I buy virtually all organic produce (with few exceptions) and try to stick with local items pretty much all the time. I already knew WF’s stance on GMOs and such but cannot find another good place to shop. All health food stores in my area are ridiculously expensive….
Wow, Sarah you opened a can of worms. Good for you! I will admit I do shop at WF in the Seattle Area on occasion but I now shop with my eyes wide open and ask lots of questions. I do feel deceived with the product labels but the organic business has become mainstream now (everyone is jumping on the band wagon) and along with that comes sneaky marketing and labeling. We should complain about this and boycott buying these products if at all possible. We all have to be informed consumers and thank you for putting out this information!
PS – we should also be asking questions about organic regulations and mexico – have you ever noticed how much produce is coming out of mexico and labeled organic. This especially holds true for Trader Joes. I no longer shop there due to this and the fact they always have recalls of their produce/products (due to e.coli or salmonella contamination) every time I was going in there. Posted in a tiny little ad by the checkout of course.
That’s interesting about Mexico. Almost ALL of the organic produce in the local Vitamin Cottage, or as they now want to be known as Natural Foods, is from Mexico. And this is in Grand Junction, CO where they can get organic and locally grown vegetables from all over Colorado and Utah organic farmers, but choose not to and imo, this makes them worse than Whole Foods.
For those who have no alternatives available, WF is a blessing…kind of. I was a new convert to organic when I then discovered I had cancer. I chose to have surgery (the tumor was huge and too much of a burden on my system), but to follow-up with the alternative approach. No drugs, no radiation. I wasn’t healthy enough to start a garden, and new to the area I was living in. WF is where I shopped until I could find better resources. Fortunately, I live in an area where better resources are available and expanding rapidly.
I remember standing in the produce section of WF with tears streaming down my face. I had just tried to find the organic versions of the foods I’d discovered i’d need to eat. At this time, my diet was nearly all produce. A perusal of what was available was wonderfully varied, and ALL PRICED BEYOND MY ABILITY TO BUY IT. I was completely devastated! I was so upset (and still pretty ill), that I think I scared one of the employees, who very kindly listened to my tearful explanation and tried to help. Bless her; she helped me calm down enough to be able to drive home, that day.
The prices at WF drove me to put more effort into finding an affordable source of HEALTHy foods that I could afford to buy. I was very ill, so it wasn’t easy; but, I managed to find a local market. I now buy nearly everything we eat from a local co-op in the off season and local farmer’s market during the spring and summer. Since I started doing this, the demand for local and CLEAN (even if not certifed organic) has grown exponentially, here. Now what was 4-5 producers and lots of artisans at the local fm is now as many as a dozen grower/producers, and many of them conscientously avoid health-destroying chemicals and gmo’s.
BTW, not all farmers’ market grower/producers are any more honest or conscientious than the folks behind the stores. People are people, no matter where you find them. You GOTTA ASK POINTED, DETAILED QUESTIONS. Today, my health is significantly better than it was the day I stood in the midst of all that over-priced abundance at WF. And my financial status has improved a little. So I am able to enjoy all the growth in our farmers’ markets and make the random, imported organic foods from WF too.
I still don’t have a garden. Every spring I hope to be able to start one, but I haven’t improved quite enough to do that, yet. Not everyone can invest themselves in all the DIY involved in growing/preserving, nor can everyone spend the incredble amount of time involved in researching what is healthy and what isn’t. It’s actually easier now than it was just 5 years ago, but it’s still daunting. So, the information about how WF or any other resource makes their decisions on what we find there, and what’s healthy and what isn’t (and why) is always good to find.
Information is helpful, allowing us all to make the decisions we each have the right to make according to our own priorities. On the other hand, condemnation is not helpful at all. I tends to inspire a defensive reaction, which short-circuits less emotional and more logical thinking. And while I do sometimes give in to the urge to condemn (especially in regards to Monsanto and the FDA and Big Pharma), no matter how justified I feel I am in doing so, it doesn’t change the less beneficial reactions from the uninformed.
The key is to inform, rather than condemn. Those who are uneducated will be helped more if they are not feeling the need to defend their ‘default’ lifestyle. And freedom of choice is a precious thing, even if it means some folks choose to be self-destructive.
Fully agree with you Sarah! And I’m happy you tell it straight out the way it is! Real, unaltered, healthy foods come from “the heart”, not from “the pocket”. I am a true believer in local sustainable, SMALL businesses. Once any business gets too big, their integrity is questionable. And we have a real example here. I lost my faith in Whole Foods when they stopped carrying the raw milk, since they’d have to pay too much money for insurance…Wasn’t worth it for them…I go now rarely there for a few items, but as soon as I can I’ll solely rely on local, small farms and businesses, hopefully by then I’ll move to a rural area as well and leave big stinky city behind…
No business can be sustainable selling a product they aren’t able to sell at a low enough price people will buy it… and it’s unreasonable to expect a company to carry a product they lose money on! If insurance rates for raw milk are very high, then they have to raise the price, which means they sell less, which means they have to raise the price further. And even having to have the insurance puts people on alert and makes WF more liable to lawsuits (because, really, if some sue-happy person is going to drum up a lawsuit over raw milk, of course they will pick the national store over the local store! They’ll make more money!) That’s a problem with the government’s regulations on raw milk, not Whole Foods’ business practices!
I’ll stick with my local farmers, farmers markets and my local home economist stores, thanks just the same.
this is just another prime example of learning to ask questions and becoming more involved in what is happening in our local areas.
I can’t stand WF!