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Commitment to Organics? The Proof is in the Produce – The Whole Foods Problem, Part 2
By OMO Sapien
Created Jul 27 2006 – 5:12pm

ORGANIC MEANS ORGANIC
It’s time to draw a line in the soil.

The Whole Foods Problem, Part 2

What troubles me more than Whole Foods turning a blind eye to the past is their two-faced approach to promoting organics in the present.

Ever since my first encounter with Whole Foods eight years ago in Boulder, I’ve noticed there’s lots of stuff in their produce section that could pass for the stuff at anyone’s local supermarket. One would think that with organics growing at a steady 20% rate annually and a concurrent increase in both breadth and depth of availability of organic produce due to an international distribution network, Whole Foods would be sourcing more and more organic produce to both satisfy and stimulate demand, and the ratio of organic-to-conventional produce in their coolers would be growing as well.

But they don’t, and it isn’t. Certainly not in Marlton –I’d venture a guess that less than half the produce there is organic. Recent visits to stores in northern Virginia and Maryland’s Montgomery County –some of the wealthiest communities in the world– revealed the same predominant presence of “conventional” produce. (See the chart on our website describing our more scientific analysis of the population of Whole Foods’ South Street Philadelphia produce section.) Like I said, if the issue was once availability, it certainly isn’t now. Name your favorite fruit or veggie and I assure you it is now available organically and nationally distributed, all year long in most cases. (Whether that last part is desirable ecologically is definitely debatable and we address it elsewhere in this site, but the point is it is out there, and Whole Foods asserts that its customers want off-season produce, so if it must be trucked across country or shipped across the globe, it might as well be organic, right?)

Wrong. Go to any Whole Foods (America’s First National Certified Organic Grocer, mind you) and you will see just as much conventional, off-season, import produce as organic. They buy a select amount of organic apples, for instance, then pit them against cheaper conventional apples of the same variety –with no mention of the latter grower’s farming methods or sustainability credentials, so we are left to guess just how ecocidal they are. The result may be that some folks are exposed to organics that had not been before, but it also reinforces the popular notion that organics are a luxury item that only the wealthy can afford to choose. Seen in this context, organics are not an integral part of a revolutionary change in our approach to personal, social and planetary health that can benefit everyone –they are a designer commodity that helps the rich stay healthy while the poor slog home and crunch all the Doritos they want. The “Whole Paycheck” mystique already keeps many people from feeling welcome in their stores, and this polarized approach to sourcing and selling produce creates polarized impressions about organics among those who do shop there.

Can’t you picture the middle-class father of three picking out apples for his kids’ school lunches: “Hmmm, these organic granny smiths look great….but I could get the conventional ones from New Zealand and save 75 cents a pound…..’course, I could get these at Such & Such Market for even less. But no, these ones come from Whole Foods, so they must be healthy and good for the environment….”

Yep. Image is everything, right Mr. Mackey?

I don’t know any natural foods store that compromises its commitment to organics this way. Sure, there are plenty of words about organics, because words are part of image-building. You can read about the benefits of organic farming in pamphlets, on signs in the produce section, even on their “up to 30% recycled material paper grocery bags (Now what the dickens does that mean? And as little as what, zero percent?) And you think, “Great, from now on I’m only buying organic food so I can support the farmers who are making these changes happen! I’ll start with some organic hummus.”

“Um, sorry,” says the team member stocking the cooler. “You can get that at the 35-year old natural foods store down the street. Better hurry, we’re about to put them out of business.”

(You want to see a real commitment to organics? The Abundance Co-op Market in Rochester, NY has an exemplary policy (full description in the works & will be linked to from OMO website) in which non-OG, non-local produce is offered only when other options are not available and at all times make up no more than 5% of the stock. I go there twice a week and I can testify that they abide by this policy religiously; in fact I never see anything that does not fit their standards of organic or local. If a co-op market with a fraction of a fraction of Whole Foods’ financial resources, paying higher wholesale per unit prices, can accomplish that level of commitment and survive, in a city not really overpopulated with cliché hippies, why can’t Whole Foods even come close?)

I did find an attractive pamphlet called “The Heart of Organics,” detailing how “our commitment reflects our concern for the quality of our lives, the improvement of our environment on earth” blah blah blah (this is the “repeat a 30% truth often enough and it becomes all the way true” philosophy of marketing that Whole Foods has mastered). It also contains a section called “Organic Integrity” that details how:

“retailers who handle, store and sell organic products must implement measures to protect their organic integrity by:
• Preventing the commingling of organic and conventional produce
• Protecting organic products from contact with prohibited substances
• Labeling organic products properly and clearly
• Keeping proper records with regards to organic handling procedures and vendor relationship.

Prevention of commingling serves two important purposes: it helps prevent contamination of organic products and helps customers know that what they pick from the cooler is organic. It also helps defray the perception that the products of organic and ecocidal agriculture are interchangeable (“Ahh, what’s the difference? They both look the same.”) GreenStar Cooperative Market in Ithaca, NY stocks a significant amount of local non-certified produce (and a few imports as well, but far less than any Whole Foods I’ve visited). These items are displayed in a separate cooler, leaving no room for confusion. With a much larger produce section than GreenStar in terms of square footage, Whole Foods could easily duplicate this setup.

Whole Foods might argue that their approach exposes more consumers to organics while they shop, which is a valid point in stores with a customer base that is not necessarily dedicated to organics. In this case, however, it is all the more crucial that stores like this pay very strict attention to the labeling of organic and conventional products. It is in this regard that Whole Foods is woefully lacking: every location I’ve visited has had multiple violations of this policy. At one Virginia store, for instance, I saw artichokes clearly labeled as organic baby carrots; after some searching to find the sign corresponding the artichokes, I found out that they were conventional. I believe this kind of laxity on the part of the entire Whole Foods chain is the inevitable result when we let corporate marketspeak matter more than actual demonstrated commitment.

It is also a shame that Whole Foods’ “commitment to organics” does not extend to the prepared food section.

“What?” you might ask, “Isn’t it safe to assume that America’s First National Certified Organic Grocer uses only organic items in its prepared food?”

Nope.

“Uh…some organic items???”

Not according to the people who work there. Go ahead and ask them which items in the deli case and salad bar are organic –I’ll tell you what the answer will be: everything is “natural.” They’ve been trained to say that –I’ve received the same response at seven locations so far. Then ask them what “natural” means –are the vegetables “passive organic,” (non-cert but grown by organic methods and principles) pesticide-free, no chemical fertilizer, not made of plastic, what? What is Whole Foods’ criteria for buying “natural” produce –anything that comes from the ground? Whole Foods is suspiciously mum on this issue, and the employees don’t have any answers. Just repeat the word “natural” until the problem customer goes away.

And I’ll tell you what: for $6.99 a pound, they should have a good explanation why their salad bar is better than the one at Piggly Wiggly or Krogers. The same price at Essene gets you an predominantly organic salad bar and a vegan hot bar with about a dozen scrumptious items daily, including several making creative use of the various meat substitutes like tofu, tempeh and seitan (I challenge any carnivore to come away feeling unsatisfied!) Ditto at Green Fields Market in Greenfield, MA, where $6.99 a pound gets you a 100% organic salad bar (the store sells only organic, including a huge variety of in-season local western Massachusetts items) and an outstanding hot bar that always caters to all diets, including expensive organic poultry. Green Fields is one of those “not economically sustainable” co-ops, and Essene is just one medium-sized market almost hidden in a Philadelphia neighborhood more famous for beer and cheesesteaks –if they can offer an organic salad bar and a high-quality hot bar for $6.99 a pound with their limited resources, why can’t Whole Foods?

The bigger issue, however, is that Whole Foods is missing a huge opportunity to put some substance behind the image it presents in their literature by using even some organics in their deli and salad bar (not to mention increasing demand, which could encourage more farmers to convert to organic, which could increase supply, which could lower consumer costs…). Instead they opt for cheaper, non-certified ingredients –not all of which are ecocidal of course, but what are their standards? And at $6.99 a pound, they are certainly not passing on those savings to the customers. I’ve never seen a more expensive salad bar anywhere, organic or otherwise. When you consider the cheaper unit prices that Whole Foods gets for buying in large quantities, I’d say they have some real explaining to do to justify that price.

It all reeks of the Starbucks method: create an impression that your product is better & more valuable, and you can charge people more for the privilege of buying it, regardless of the truth of its quality or how much it actually costs you to procure it. By the time people start to catch on to your game, you will have grown big enough to withstand the pockets of mutiny, and you will have eliminated enough of the competition so that there are fewer alternatives.

From the OCA piece on the Mackey/Pollan debate:

“How can anyone in the grassroots consumer coop movement forget Mackey’s words at a national Coop managers meeting in the early 90s, when he announced at the keynote address that he was ‘coming to your town and taking your business?’ If growing the industry was his goal, why would that be, exactly?”

Indeed…….

Next: The Whole Foods Problem, Part 3 — If “‘Transparent’ Is the Next ‘Organic,'” Color Whole Foods Conventional

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