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
While paycheck!
The prices at Whole Foods blow my mind! I was trying to see how much Kerrygold butter was there compared to other places – Whole Foods was $3.99. Trader Joe’s for the same product was $2.99, and Costco had the same product for $2.67 each. A dollar more for the same product??? That adds up if you buy a whole grocery load there. Yikes.
LOL, Sarah! Are you a glutton for punishment or what? You didn’t get quite enough abuse the first time around when you posted this article? Thank you for sharing your thoughtful, well-researched viewpoints – even when they’re so unpopular. Please keep up the good work!
Ours opens in Boise, ID on Nov 14th, I can not wait.
I have shopped Whole Foods regularly for 15 years. It is not perfect but I can go there and buy nearly everything I need and not have extreme crappy food displayed all over that entices my kids. The prices on items on sale can be great. It is a far better place to buy organic (cheaper and fresher) than other large markets. Cost and is important. Convenience is also important. When possible I buy locally through farmers markets, local locavore groups, farmers, and a tiny health food store. I’m totally proud of my families food choices and rely on the imperfect Whole Foods to help with that.
Everyone has to make profit, but when the entirety of the selling point for your store is, in the end, nothing more than greenwashing, at that point you’ve traded ethics for profit. Honestly, if I want organic I grow my own, or hit up the local farmer’s market. If I’m not being picky (I’m not saying I don’t consume any GMO products or only consume organic) then I’d just as soon save my money and buy somewhere cheaper, instead of paying 3 prices for the same product, just in a package that says “save the world we’re organic and better than everyone else”.
Whole Foods sells designer junk food. I use a CSA, but there are a couple of items that I haven’t been able to get from my CSA (either they stopped carrying an item or they say they have trouble securing supply of an item) and my local Whole Paycheck sells these item. They are all from local producers. I don’t go much, but when I do I’m in awe with thew crap they sell – crops that are from far away (I live in Ohio, farming doesn’t get any better or more plentiful than the midwest), crap meat (all these people say they get GF and pastured meat at WF, but most of what I see is NOT GF or pastured), rotten foods on the shelf (I got 2 jarred items that very quickly expired – WF offered me a refund on next visit, but I so rarely go in that it’s not worth trying to mess with), plus all the packaged vegan health food. I wish I never had to stop in there….
I admire and respect your choice of where to spend your dollars.. But to classify Whole Foods (where I’ve never shopped either, by the way) as some evil entity because they are motivated by profit… Do you think your small stores/farmers would be there if they, too, weren’t trying to make a living? I agree that those who have enough dollars to “vote” with should, but I don’t think there is anything inherently nobler about being small. Small has to make a profit too.
Our Whole Foods has quite a bit of local produce in all seasons. I think just because you still need your “buyer beware” cap on in Whole Foods that it deserves the Wal-Mart of Healthfood label. Whole Foods customer service is far superior to a Wal-Mart and many of the things they carry I can’t find anywhere else. I do the majority of my shopping at my local farmer’s market(fruits and veggies & eat seasonally) and directly from local farmers (through the winter even – meats, dairy -milk, cheeses, yogurt, butter) but I won’t stop shopping at Whole Foods just because they’re honest in saying that they can’t have a 100% GMO free store. It’s not their fault that our government is in bed with Monsanto and has allowed all of this GMO atrocity! In our un-perfect world, WF provides a valuable service and I don’t think they need to be boycotted because they don’t do everything perfectly.
Well that is an unfair and inflamitory article. Walmart is a disgusting company, doing Nothing positive for communities or employees or the environment, the opposite of Whole Foods. As a well treated and very informed employee of theirs, I see first hand the things they actually do, the programs they invest in, the education of their employees and customers that they take so seriously. They have not flip flopped about GMOs, that statement simply says that they cannot possibly, given the current state of things, be nonGMO and still satisfy their customers. Nor can they, or anyone else claim to be a 100% nonGMO grocery.
If you are against a small company that has been such a huge success that it is now a large (and mindful) corporation, then you are against success in general. How can you hold profit against any business?
Most of your views are quite extreme, so I don’t see why this should bother me, but it does. Whole foods makes available to people like me, that do shop at local organic farms and ranches, other items that are not so readily available. Huge selections of specialty foods for those with alergies or sensitivities that were previously not around or ridiculously priced. Not every little local health food store carries this stuff, and not every community had those stores to begin with.
Good for you that you don’t need or want whole foods, but so many people do. Don’t forget about that.