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Food Chain Radio Show #1024
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Whole Foods Labeling System
This Poll is closed!!
Guests: Organic Farming Pioneers Mark Lipson & Steve Sprinkel; and Whole Foods Mobile Produce Coordinator, Matt Rogers
Consider the simple dynamics of buying food:
If we were to ask a grocer for a tomato, that grocer could procure a tomato from anywhere on earth and, so long as the tomato was red and round, we would likely buy it. Advantage: grocer.
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Whole Foods Labeling System
If we were to ask a grocer for a dry-farmed vine-ripened tomato from the Molino Creek Farm in Davenport, California, the grocer would have to procure the tomato from the Molino Creek Farm. Advantage: farmer.
In recent years, consumers have been given many different labels to define the food they want to buy, including such descriptives as “organic,” “GMO-free,” “sustainable,” “pasture-raised,” and so on. And, as we have seen from the tomato buy above, each descriptive label has a way of giving advantage to the farmer.
But wait… What if a grocer were to turn the entire food buying dynamic upside down by developing its own rating system that forced farmers to comply with its dictates, and to pay substantial sums of cash for the privilege of doing so. This thought leads us to ask…
Leave a comment below: Why did Whole Foods institute a “Responsibly Grown” food rating system?
Tune in here, for the syndicated Food Chain Radio Show #1024 August 8, 2015 Saturday 9AM Pacific
1 Comment
Whole foods is a joke. They are double dipping for more profits. I think farmers/ranchers need to monitor them because as an rancher who only eats organic food, I find Whole Foods one of the worst places to shop for good organic food. If they were truly concerned about what they sell, there wouldn’t be products sold that you can find in any other grocery store in the USA. Organic farmers and rancher already work very hard to make a living, and the labeling they are trying to force upon them only makes that more difficult. I think Whole Foods wants to do away with small farmers and ranchers because they only places that will be able to afford this are the large farms. They are promoting factory farms. The labeling requirements weren’t even done by people who understand agriculture. Example: To be step 5 for animals, only freeze brands are allowed. Freeze brands are dangerous to animals, people and the environment because of the process required to do it; much more dangerous than a hot iron brand. Freeze branding does not show up on an animal with white hair so they are selectively ruling out anyone who raises animals with white hair. Many of the questions are the same or very similar to the organic certification process. As I said, I believe Whole Foods is double dipping because they care only about money, not the way food is produced or the consumer.