Organic Food

My recent tour of Whole Foods has got me thinking about how true the company has stayed to its core values despite its size. Sure, there are problems. The buying decisions are made centrally, bakery items are shipped to local stores par-baked, there are only 5 local vegetables this month in the Minneapolis location, and - most troubling - a friend recently let me know that Whole Foods has been accused of union-busting. But all things considered, Whole Foods does an excellent job of walking the talk, and helping customers find the good stuff. This post highlights the extensive process Whole Foods uses to vet potential new partners.

In yesterday's post, about Whole Foods' Local, Organic Values, I wrote about the core values of Whole Foods and how they influence the food sold at the stores. Today's post is about how purchasing happens, specifically related to the meat we get in the Minneapolis store.

About a month ago, I went to the Minneapolis Whole Foods Market looking for local meat. I’ve been a Minnesotan long enough to know that our produce choices are severely limited in the winter months, but I figured there’d be plenty of local pork and beef to bring home. Turns out I was wrong - there was almost none. I left Whole Foods confused and surprised, and I left them a note. The next day, Renee Howard sent me an email.

On my friend and neighbor Kathy's advice, I just re-read Michael Pollan's outstanding letter to our nation's "Farmer in Chief," first published in the NY Times on the eve of Barack Obama's election. It's a wonderful letter, all 9 pages of it, a true embarrassment of riches. Pollan's letter starts with a summary of where we're at currently in terms of food, health, and the environment.

2 days after I placed my order, my MixMyGranola.com custom-mixed granola arrived in the mail. I quickly opened the box, revealing a sleek white container emblazoned with the company logo. I had already been impressed by the selection of ingredients on the website (including organic muesli, dried papaya, organic flax seeds, and chocolate espresso beans) and the packaging of the food. Now I just needed to try what was inside.

My friend Chris recently pointed me to a terrific NY Times article by Mark Bittman from this past weekend. The article talks about the value of eating organic food as well as the numbers of people who are starting to buy and eat "at least some" organic food (30%, according to the article).

Alice Waters of Chez Panisse was featured on 60 Minutes this week. Not just for "the Prius driving, latte-sipping upper crust," Alice Waters feels that good, local food should be for everyone. Good food is not a privilege, Waters says, it's a right. "The way that we're eating," she says, "is making us sick...

The Birchwood Cafe, located at 3311 East 25th Street in Minneapolis (612.722.4474), serves terrific food that is local, sustainable, organic, and fair-trade. It's got a terrific neighborhood feel, a solid wine list, an amazing breakfast, and the best vegetarian Juicy Lucy well, ever. The many people who sing the Birchwood's praises include an amazing number of regulars, including my friend, Photographer Chris Bohnhoff.

A recent post on Organic Food Now entitled "How Much Poison Do You Want to Eat" provides a bunch of great information related to eating organic food, including whether it's really better for you or not and which foods are most chemical free. It's a discussion that has remained relevant for years, and has recently become even more heated due to the recent peanut butter recall that miraculously impacted several organic food companies (which had been buying non-organic peanuts, apparently).

I'm just checking out - and totally loving - the site Fair Food Fight. The whole site is designed like a circus featuring a three ring wrestling match. Here's what it says on their Why We Fight page: