Whole Foods Market Bows to OCA Pressure
I've been very disappointed with Whole Foods Market.
Although they are much better than the alternatives Safeway and Lucky,
I noticed a strange change in their policy many months ago.
Before, the produce section had all the food labeled either
"Organic" or "Conventional". This was the only grocery store I knew of
that did this and I thought that it was a very important step towards
educating consumers.
One day I entered the market and noticed that they took down the
"Conventional" signs. Every last one.
To most the shift would be unimportant but to me it seems very significant.
From my perspective, the word conventional was not specific enough.
I would much rather see the fruit labeled "chemically treated" or
"pesticides", even "GMO", but to take off the label completely is a complete
step backwards. Now when a consumer enters their store they are not choosing
between two types of farming methods but instead given the choice between
the default regular "natural" banana and the organic upgrade, however they will
remind you that both are equally "natural".
Why would they do this? The only thing I can think of is to decriminalize
the non-organic food. Does anyone else have any other ideas?
Regardless, it was a bad move for the organic food movement and it
fits right in with with their policy of making all the 365 Whole Foods
Brand packaging very deceptive, making it hard to know when something
is organic.
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This article thanks Whole Foods for their announcement to expand their
Organic food commitment:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27761"Whole Foods Market Bows to OCA Pressure--Promises to Sell Significantly More Organics in 2010
The emperor of natural foods, Whole Foods Market (WFM), has no clothes.
Throughout the 2009 summer months, OCA has been alerting organic consumers
to the troubling fact that the overwhelming majority of grocery items
(approximately 2/3) sold by WFM, even their private label "365" brand,
are not certified organic, but rather so-called "natural" products that
are typically just conventional products in disguise. After being defensive
and unresponsive at first (basically saying "we sell more" organic food
than any other retailer), and after putting pressure on OCA's advertisers
to stop supporting us, WFM seems to finally be "seeing the light."
After thousands of emails from OCA members demanding that the company stop
selling so many bogus "natural products" and embrace its stated mission
to sell healthy organic foods, WFM's executives apparently realized last
week that OCA will not shut up, and that they have a major problem on their
hands. You can't just simply proclaim that you are a leader in selling
organic foods, you must actually walk your talk. Last week, WFM announced
it was launching a new "healthy eating" initiative with a greater emphasis
on organics. In a highly publicized speech in the UK, John Mackey
confessed the company's product selection had veered off course. The OCA
will be monitoring WFM's practices closely to make sure that the giant
retailers' actions match its rhetoric. Instead of 2/3 of its sales being
so-called "natural" products, (with only 1/3 certified organic), OCA wants
to see 2/3 of WFM's sales be organic by the end of 2010."
"We sell a bunch of junk. We've decided if Whole Foods doesn't take a
leadership role in educating people about a healthy diet, who the heck is
going to do it?"
-- John Mackey: Whole Foods Market Founder, The Telegraph (UK), August 6, 2009
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