MB Civic

Published on BuyBlue.org (http://www.buyblue.org)

Image is Everything, Organic Hummus is Nothing – The Whole Foods Problem, Part 1
By OMO Sapien
Created Jul 22 2006 – 10:29pm

ORGANIC MEANS ORGANIC
Smashing corporate imperialism, one mind at a time, since June.

About every other blue moon, Jodi and I find ourselves both neck-deep in the strip malls of Philadelphia’s South Jersey exurban sprawl and in need of some grocery items. Living as we do in a small demilitarized zone surrounded by this corporate war on community, democracy and heterogeneity, we sometimes decide it would be impractical to shoot past our home and cross the Ben Franklin Bridge so as to shop atour beloved Essene Market (4th and Monroe, 2 blocks south of South St). So we swallow what is left of our dignity following an afternoon of traipsing through No Left Turn Land in pursuit of this and that, as we meekly make our way to pay tribute at the local outpost of our great Certified Organic empire, the place we affectionately refer to as “Food Hole.”

This happened recently as we were preparing to host an organic potluck gathering for MOVE ON (somehow we ended up with a giant jug of non-potable Turkey Hill green tea-flavored high fructose corn syrup in our fridge –so much for the organic theme). We decided to get some fairly healthy variation of the vegetable chip (be they wheat, corn or potato, I forget) and some different concoctions of mashed and stewed vegetation in which to dip said chips. We found the organic chips and salsa easily enough –steering clear of the oxymoronic “all-natural Cheetos”– and then…..hey, where’s the organic hummus?

Sure, there was hummus, probably very tasty I’m sure. But there are very good organic brands available as well, and surely “America’s First National Certified Organic Grocer” carries at least one of them. We searched high and low, we asked different “team members” in multiple sections, but all to no avail –Whole Foods in Marlton, New Jersey has no organic hummus (And in case you’re thinking “out of stock,” I have since repeated the search at five other stores, and they were all “out of stock” too.)

Now I can give Whole Foods a free pass on hummus. I don’t think I would have mentioned this at all if it were not illustrative of what I consider a disturbing pattern of hypocrisy at best –and outright deception at worst– in the way that Whole Foods markets itself. Yes, Whole Foods has done much to promote awareness of organics to mainstream America, and as soon as John Mackey finishes patting himself on the back, I’ll be sure to give ample credit where it is due. But there is ample room for criticism as well, something that neither this nor the other well-known Texas-based empire seem to accept very well.

Let me say that this piece is largely a response to Mr. Mackey’s blog entry called “Open Letter to Michael Pollan” which itself was a response to the way he felt Whole Foods was portrayed in Mr. Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The OCA published a portion of the blog on its website; they were understandably irked by Mr. Mackey’s apparent suggestion that Whole Foods was not merely a partner or an ally of co-ops and independent markets in the growth of the organic movement, but that it more or less single-handedly created the movement:

“As organic farming and foods were embraced by the counterculture in the 1960s and 70s, networks of co-ops developed and came together for purchasing and distribution purposes. These soon dissolved since members could not agree on ideals and because most of the co-op models were not economically sustainable. A few of these models still are working, including one I belonged to in Austin many years ago, however none of them have been able to offer a strong enough market presence to sustain local or even regional agriculture.”

(”A few?” How about over 350 in the US and Canada [according to Cooperative Grocer]. Whole Foods will have to double in size before it approximates this scope –and this does not even include the many independent natural foods markets that also resist Mr. Mackey’s corporate hegemony. It is also worth noting that these co-operatives and independents are distributed across North America, serving diverse communities with varying economic profiles, whereas Whole Foods are heavily concentrated in the wealthiest sections of the country. Total sales at Whole Foods are indeed much higher than the collective pool of co-ops, mainly because the corporate stores are much larger and sell many items a co-op would not; this is not a particularly valuable indicator of anything other than economic power.)

I have not yet read Omnivore (but I am glad for the recommendation; it is now at the top of my list), so I will refrain from directly addressing those points and counterpoints. I have my own set of bones to pick, and they start with the above paragraph.

Even if you miss all the trees because you’re looking for a forest and you dismiss the co-op movement as irrelevant because it wasn’t united under one banner and logo, let us not forget that much of Whole Foods’ retail property came by acquisition, not by expansion of the natural foods market into uncharted territory. Back in my native Massachusetts, there was a very popular local natural foods chain called Bread & Circus; apparently Whole Foods realized the value of its name recognition, for more than 10 years after buying them out in 1992, the “Bread & Circus” name was still primary on the storefronts (Locals still tend to say they are going to “Bread & Circus” now.) The exact same thing happened down here when they swallowed up Fresh Fields, an established network of markets from Connecticut to northern Virginia; I hear the name “Fresh Fields” as often or more often than Whole Foods. I’m sure there are examples in other parts of the country, but as far as Whole Foods creating the market for organic foods in the Northeast, we were doing just fine without you, thank you very little.

Mr. Mackey also suggested that availability of organic products was very limited in the dark days before Whole Foods came along:

“In the days when organic co-ops were plentiful, very little product actually came from small-scale, local, progressive farms. The cornerstones of the income statement in the early co-ops were rice, apple cider, peanut butter, cheese, tofu, eggs, some seasonal fresh products, and membership fees. (Um, actually, Mr. Mackey, those are stocks in a community-owned enterprise, not fees. Sam’s Club has membership fees. I accept your apology in advance for trying to confuse the two.) In the 1960s and 70s, agriculture at the local and regional level was already in decline, having been decimated by low producer prices, lack of concern about diet by the American consumer, increasing desire for fast foods, decline in food quality, and an increasing, government-supported focus on chemical practices. Local agriculture hit rock bottom in the mid-1980s. The Greenbelt Alliance along with developing marketplace forces driven by the increasing numbers of ‘California Cuisine’ restaurants and the for-profit natural foods sector supported many of the young growers who created the next generation of family farms.”

Yes, this is all true; the days of the “Green Revolution” were an unprecedented “unnatural disaster” visited on our ecosystem that was not the least bit “green,” nor was it revolutionary unless you ran a pesticide manufacturing firm or a McDonald’s franchise. But the inference of cause and effect by which Mr. Mackey attributes the rise of natural food awareness to the “for-profit” retail sector is warped and self-serving. A public awakening to the fact that something was dreadfully wrong in the way we grow, produce, sell and consume our food is what created this increase in demand, not the magic appearance of for-profit suppliers. Seen in this light, Whole Foods is the benefactor of a rising tide that is the awareness of the value of organic and natural food; they are riding a wave they contribute to and help to sustain, butcertainly did not create.

And even the degree to which they can claim to be on the crest of this wave is questionable. Getting back to the hummus issue for a moment: I can vouch for the fact that organic hummus was sold at the Maryland Food Collective (still going strong after more than 30 years on the College Park campus) in 1990, because that was the first organic food I ever knowingly ate –and it was damn good too. So why is Whole Foods at least 16 years behind the times on the organic hummus fad?

Next: Part 2–Commitment to Organics? The Proof is in the Produce

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