Whole Foods... is the bloom off the Ros(ie)?

I am just about to finish Michael Pollan's book 'Omnivore's Dilemma'. I will preface this by saying the I am a fan. I have read and enjoyed Pollan's previous books 'The Botany of Desire' and 'In Defense of Food'. I actually suggested the 'Botany' as a book club book. In Defense of Food changed the way I eat (and to some degree what I eat). So as I am reading Omnivore's Dilemma I am chafing a bit as he pulls the curtain back a bit on The Whole Foodies. A larger issue in the book is the industrialization of our food; a subplot is the bastardization of the whole "Organic" movement. While "Organics" have raised the argument (and captured some grocery store shelf space) to a larger populace it is raising some interesting arguments.

Pollan's features some interviews with some truly remarkable (and some whacked out)farmers resulting in some strong opinions on our food chain. While Whole Food stores are decked out in pastoral scenes, stories about local corn growers, etc. the reality is that they have had to centralize their shipping as they've grown and in some sense the quaint pictures of local farmers is just window dressing.

One of the interesting devices in Pollan's book is how he tracks his dinner up and down the food chain. Beginning with Rosie the Chicken purchased at a local Whole Foods, a trip through the McDonald's Drive Through he ends up in a CAFO in Petaluma. A CAFO is a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation; and believe me it is not a pretty picture. Rosie, as it turns out, is just the concoction of some marketing guy (damn them), but it makes for a nice label.

Now I have always admired Whole Foods ability to market the product, but I think there might be some confusion on what 'the product' is. Some buy in to the notion of natural, people oriented Whole Foods versus the colossus of Cargill and it's army of super-supermarkets (bad WalMart, bad). However, some buy in to the 'organic' orientation of the company, but at the end of the day I would argue that most buy in because the product is better. It might cost more, but if you eat more of the food you buy (I blush at how much we used to trash at the end of a week's worth of Stop & Shop) and it is better for you then doesn't that represent the value? You'll shop there as long as the wallet will support it. There is a threshold.

"Organics" as we now know it will certainly go through some serious changes as the WalMarts of the world realize that customers will pay extra for Stoneyfield Farms Yogurt. Hey, they want it, we'll stock it. Good business, right? Well, yes, but it begins to blur the lines between organics and true sustainability. Case in point while shopping for bulk amounts of stuff at the local BJ's Wholesale Food club I noticed a growing section of 'Organic' vegetables, one of which was recognizable (can't remember the name, just the logo) from the book. Well, organic carrots are great but not if they have to be trucked from California to Connecticut. See my point. Organics good; less chemicals - Organics bad; more petroleum.

The truth is you can't throw the baby out with the bath water. Organics as currently defined does result in less chemicals, which is better for consumers and workers, but the trade off results in one of those sticky arguments that ends in a carbon footprint. Does anyone understand a carbon footprint? Advertising and Madison Avenue (those Mad Men) will certainly take liberties with anything that comes close to resonating with consumers, but in the end are the fine products from S.E. Johnson (a family company) any greener than they were before green was the new pink?

Consumers vote with their wallets and so far that is allowing local growers, farmers and the like an opportunity to get their toe in the water. They are just going to need to be careful so as the sharks don't bite it off. I would like to think that WalMart is capable of integrating "organics" into it's product line, but as with anything else they touch (remember when it was 'Made in the USA'? Thank you 60 minutes) the waters tend to get a bit muddy.

Consumers buy for a variety of reasons. Provided with a compelling story they will pay more, but who knows what will happen when the industrial food processing machine gets a hold of it.

As for me, I am headed over to Whole Foods for lunch. I know that my $8 salad is better for me than the two whoppers for $4 at Burger King. What do you think?