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. That’s where my business loyalty lies.
I spend almost all my food money with local businesses and local farms. 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.
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: 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: 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
Do you have an actual link for the pdf? I can’t find it on their site.
You will be lucky if you still have those two small health-food stores a year out from when Whole Foods opens. The store will pull enough business that it will be hard for the smaller stores to carry on.
I couldn’t find the pdf either but someone posted the WF response. The story is from 2008. This is worth looking at:
Exactly … WHOLE FOODS IS FOLLOWING THE WALMART MODEL FOLKS. They move in and put the Mom and Pops out of business. I want no part of that. There is no justification for shopping at Whole Foods unless there are no other options locally.
No justification?! I am a homeschooling mama trying to do the best I can with our financial resources – I’m not a “foodie” but I enjoy various traditional foods blogs and trying to better our eating. I have other options locally besides Whole Foods, but by the time I drive all over the freaking DFW metroplex on 5 different days of the week fetching raw milk, picking up eggs, meeting the meat guy, picking up the csa veggies, etc….it is too much.
Articles like this are really discouraging. While I understand the concern you have about how Whole Foods operates, to make these blanket statements is extreme. I know one thing, if a single, working, Walmart-shopping mama found your site because she was thinking about trying to buy more organic items, she would surely leave feeling like this “real food” thing is way too complicated and not possible.
I visit Whole Foods maybe twice a year as they have some good and bad things there. Yes, there is alot of sugar-laden junkfood, GMOs, non-organic, and either mystery ingredients used. However, you can always look at labels. Mostly I enjoy going to the bulk bins for nuts, seeds, and flour. WF has very high prices that are too much for me, but the same can be said for local healthfood shops and farmer markets around me, too. Usually I just go to whats close and get everything else at Krogers (they actually have a natural section there).
They have run virtually all of the health food stores out of business here. 🙁 And – their idea of “local” is generally somewhere within 750 miles of here despite the abundance of great organic growers near here.
In our area, we have “health” food stores that I hesitate to use that description. They are mostly vitamin stores with a few extras. I would give a lot of have a Whole Foods here. However, we have two Walmarts that have run so many of all types of stores out of business with their cheap Chinese crap.
It is sad to me that even supposed safe places to buy food are being run with smoke and mirrors.
Compared to the national grocery chains, WF has a lot to like. I appreciate them for their grassfed meat, wide choice of organic food, and raw cheese. I missed the rolling over part in their statement.
The only thing I buy at whole foods is the chicken and meat because it does not have hormones. This is better than buying meat at the local grocery store. Right?
Yes, it is much better.
What about hormone free meat at a local buying club or a locally owned healthfood store. These businesses are much more deserving of your business than Whole Foods.
it’s like Bert’s Bees, now they are owned by clorox, I just can’t get over the fact that when I buy a Bert’s Bees product I’m benefiting the the profit margins of Clorox…so wrong…
Ohhhhhh and I love Burts Bee’s but I did not know this . So sad .
Good post Sarah, I will not shop at Trader Joes or Whole Foods, or any corporate food chain for the exact reasons you state.
Buy and support your local farmers and co ops!
I have been eating real and organic food for many years now.
What if one lives in a place where there are no co-ops and local farmers feed their animals GMO and spray the vegetables they grow?
Start your own garden. Live in an apt or no space for garden. Get together with others and start a community garden.
We live in ranching area and there are no gardens or local farmers markets . So it’s really hard to find good food. Live in Wyoming…..Western Wyoming…..at least 1 1/2 hours from anywhere to get any kind of healthy food . So we do the best we can from what we have to choose from . And I also thank Sarah because I have learned so much from her blog…..and just keep on learning. I wish there were a Whole Foods within 100 miles LOL
(In the interest of full disclosure, my husband works at Whole Foods. Also, Wal-mart is pretty much at the highest level of corporate evil in my mind based on a lot of research I did in college regarding environmentalism and consumerism)
Yes, they do have to turn a profit, as they are a corporation with employees and stakeholders. But I think comparing them to a Wal-mart is a pretty inexact comparison. They have higher prices than other stores because they carry a different quality of product (instead of stocking their shelves with the cheapest garbage available) – they will turn down vendors / suppliers who do not align with their core values (instead of driving their vendors out of business by stripping down their prices). There are some areas with which the quality and price are actually better at my local WF store than neighboring grocery stores with limited, sad looking organic options (especially for fresh food) and little to no local options.
The store that my husband works for is constantly searching for ways on the store level on up to green up the place (less waste, more sustainable options, etc). They are transparent with where everything comes from, how it’s made, types of packaging, pretty much everything but the profit margin of each individual item.
They are also a pretty darn good company to work for – they have great health insurance (as well as other benefits) for their employees and promote wellness initiatives for them. Wal-mart keeps their employees working few enough hours and making little enough money to where a frighteningly large percentage of their employees are living below the poverty line and collecting welfare benefits in some form – Medicaid, food stamps, etc – are are ineligible for health insurance.
Furthermore, they are introducing principles of health to a broader audience than some of the local health stores are capable of doing – this will help increase demand and soon after supply of non-GMO, organic, whole, healthy foods. On the local level, I’ve seen the variety and quality of organics skyrocket at my other local stores since Whole Foods opened its doors.
Is it a perfect system? No. Are they a perfect company? Absolutely not. But I think they definitely hold themselves to a higher level of corporate responsibility than the Wal-marts of the world and do help to educate their audience which in turn increases demand for quality, responsibly grown/farmed food. And in agreement with NancyO, we can vote with our dollars on what they carry by how we spend.
Sarah – I do thoroughly enjoy your blog and feel like I am constantly learning from it!
I guess that would say that truly organic, raw, unprocessed local is not part of Whole Foods values. BPA free? What are their core values?
I was wowed by Whole Foods when I first moved back to Washington from Alaska but they are 80 miles to the south of me in the Seattle area. I quickly became a regular shopper at our Community Food Co-Op and now we have an local, independent natural foods grocery as well. In the summer I buy all my produce from the local farmers market (Wed & Sat) and buy all my meat, poultry and fish from the local producers/farmers. We are really lucky here in Bellingham to have access to such a terrific market. I don’t miss Whole Foods at all but I have lived in places in Texas and Virginia where it would have been a welcome sight.
When Whole Foods dropped raw milk and supported Organic Valley in disallowing their farmers to sell raw milk I called and objected. After this last cave-in to GMOs I sent them a letter and returned the WFM green bags I had with it.