Posted on 05/17/2009 4:42:27 PM PDT by Shout Bits
While the world most people inhabit rarely adopts Hollywood and Berkley fads, the 'green' movement has indeed caught fire with people who actually work to eat. Bemused by Kabbalah, Scientology, earth auras, and the like, regular America seems interested in being 'green.' Naturally, wherever there is a fad, an enterprising company will step up to exploit it. In this case, the practice of exploiting the public's concerns is called 'green washing.' While most green washing is simply characterizing established practices as somehow environmentally friendly, the grocery chain Whole Foods has magically turned one of the least green practices into a core sacrament of the new religion.
Whole Foods pushes 'organic' products. While regular foods sold in the US have been conclusively proven to be safe through extensive testing, reporting, and regulation, Whole Foods was basically founded on the idea that organic foods were healthier and better tasting. Whole Foods eschewed the 'corporate' food industry in favor of a more commune like diet. Whole Foods customers responded to slogans like 'organic,' 'macro-biotic,' 'unprocessed,' and 'preservative free.' Whole Foods sold yoga magazines instead of gossip rags; they and their customers were enlightened. Many Americans bought into a healthier, purer lifestyle, and Whole Foods fueled their spiritual mission.
Of course Whole Food's health claims were at best exaggerated. Regular foods are every bit as healthy as organic. Dreaded pesticides, in the quantities found on grocery foods, are perfectly safe. Best of all, regular foods taste just fine. At worst, the anti-corporate attitude of Whole Foods's suppliers kills people. The juice company Odwalla, for inexplicable reasons, touted that its fruit smoothies were not pasteurized. Since pasteurization is what prevents the spread of deadly diseases through food products, it was only a matter of time before a young girl was killed by Odwalla products. Since then Odwalla has pasteurized its products using a special 'flash pasteurization' process. Flash pasteurization, by the way, is more health food hype, as all pasteurized foods must be heated for the same amount of time to have any benefit.
Aside from peddling snake oil, Whole Foods has morphed in to the environmentalism racket. Without changing much of their product line, they are now a temple to the green religion. Organic foods are the answer to evil corporate farms and processed foods that kill the planet. Whole Foods stores are plastered with green propaganda, and their recycling area is so complicated as to be a self parody. More than a few Priuses drop by Whole Foods on their way home from the yoga studio.
Of course hardly anything is worse for the environment than organic foods. While some organic products, like bananas, are about the same as their regular cousins, most organic foods take far more resources to grow and distribute. The average organic product requires about a third more land per unit of output than its FDA approved equivalent. Organic food subsequently requires more water and tractor fuel as well. Because the organic cannons preclude preservatives or irradiation, the ultimate amount of food consumed by the end user is smaller still.
Organic foods burn more fossil fuels, clear more wildlife lands, and consume more fresh water than regular foods. This is further evidence that the green movement is not so much about helping the environment as it is a counter culture backlash against everything deemed 'corporate.' The most environmentally safe diet choice is vegetarianism, since meats require up to ten times the natural resources as staple plants. Because even Whole Foods cares about its profits, it proudly sells the full range of animal produce.
Still, nobody is forcing the Whole Foods faithful to pay extra for inferior products. What people do with their own time, money, and bodies is their own business. Blessedly, unlike in Europe, the US does not preferentially subsidize organic farmers over their more efficient competitors. So, the next time you consider Whole Foods to fill your refrigerator, ask yourself if you are not buying food so much as buying into a green washed, counter-culture religion you might find objectionable.
Hmmmmm
Cargill (sp?) has spoken?
Lets see, natural foods or something thats been irradiated, grown in a cage, genetically modified, grown in a vat, or scraped up off the floor and sold as filler.
Seems to me something towards the natural side is a little bit better.
Welcome to Free Republic.
Thank you for not posting a one line excerpt from your blog in order to drive hits to your blog. Thank you for posting the whole article.
Again, Welcome.
However, Whole Foods is a great American success story and I have been shopping there since they only had one store on earth.
I am not so sure I can agree with organic food being just as tasty and healthy as non-organic food. We buy our groceries from Trader Joe’s and anecdotally at least I can tell you that food is much better quality than what we get at other grocery stores. It is also a lot cheaper as well.
1) organic farming may well keep small US farms going, which means if the supply chain from South America goes bad, we might still eat
2) in addition to the hippy stuff, Whole Foods has lots of delicious and interesting ingredients that are hard to find elsewhere. Their produce section is a delight. Four kinds of kale! Baby artichokes!
3) I think moving away from hormone-injected livestock might be a good thing, though I don't understand what is bad about antibiotics
WF does carry and amazingly good selection of cheese and chocolate. I’d like to believe they are good for me but I know better.
I go to WF clones (Trader Joe’s mostly, Sunflower occasionally) because the food tastes good, and is often cheaper. All the “green” advertising around it I ignore, I really don’t care how many acres of rain forest are or are not destroyed for my food so long as it’s tasty.
Yet.
Nice piece. Could use some citation, though. Not because we don't trust you, but just because attribution gives cred.
I love the "Cargill speaks" one. WTF, hipster? WholeFood speaks?
There was a Whole Foods next to where I used to work in Portland and I loved getting lunch there. I got to the point of getting more of my food there, too. Some of the stuff can be quite tasty. It might be more expensive in some cases, but it’s a “whole” lot better (at least to my mouth it was...).
And boy! Did they ever have a cheese section, too. I like different cheeses from all over the world and they would have it, a great selection.
So, I wouldn’t be knocking a success story there...
Whole Foods’ organic products are probably less than 10% of their overall stock based on my personal experience shopping there.
However, I’ve found I can get basically the same stuff across the street at Trader Joe’s at a much cheaper price.
I like Trader Joe’s too. Unfortunately, we don’t have one near us.
I stop by there about once a week to purchase products otherwise not safe for me to eat when sold by "other chain stores".
What they do with the "organic" stuff is of no concern to me. I'm happy with a loaf of frozen glutenfree bread, or frozen gluten free buns. A box of highly overpriced crackers to eat along with well aged cheddar is a treat ~ but I get the cheddar at Safeway.
Depends on you what you want in a store I guess.
BTW, Safeway is now selling a frozen gluten free bread, and those Van's frozen gluten free waffles are to die for.
Trader Joe is owned by the same family that owns Aldi’s. It’s just the high priced spread.
Food procured locally does taste better.
Who can say that a tomato, picked in Mexico days before it would otherwise be ripe, packed in a reefer for days while it ripens, tastes better than a vine-ripened tomato grown in the town in which you live?
I've checked out the Whole Foods cheese cases and there's a lot of double and triple creams in there that kind of make it look like there's different stuff, but it's short on the aged end of things.
BTW, everybody carries that $22 a pound Australian 5 year old stuff these days ~ but we tried it and went back to our 2 year old Vermont white.
The Whole Foods goat cheese selection is identical to the Safeway selection and looks to be the same price. Trader Joe's is less ~ and sometimes they have hard goat cheese for less than $5 a pound (from France even).
All the more reason to locate your area’s farmers markets. Here in Denver, we have several who offer outstanding produce at terrific prices. Lots of other goodies as well.Breads, pastas, salsas..take your doggies, meet some friends and make a day of it.
“Green Police”
The green police, the rot the inside of my head.
The green police, they come to me and I dread.
The green police, they’re coming to feed me, oh no.
You know that junk is cheap, and those tumors ain’t nice.
And when I fall asleep I dont think Ill survive the night, (but I might).
cause they’re cooking for me.
They’re baking for me.
Every single meal; they’re making my gas foul.
All those greens inside my bowel.
The green police, the rot inside of my head.
(rot inside of my head.)
The green police, they come to me and I dread.
(come to me and I dread.)
The green police, make me ingest the insane.
Well, I cant tell lies, cause they’re cooking for me.
And when I get hungry, bet they’re trying to make me eat right.
cause they’re cooking for me.
They’re baking for me.
Every single meal; they’re making my gas foul.
All those greens inside my bowel.
I try to eat, they cook and bake, they won’t leave me alone.
They don’t take suggestions, or let me gnaw on bones.
They spy on me, I try to hide, they won’t let me alone.
They emaciate me; they’re the judge and jury all in one.
cause they’re cooking for me.
They’re baking for me.
Every single meal; they’re making my gas foul.
All those greens inside my bowel.
The green police, I think they want me dead.
The green police, fed me roughage till my butt bled.
The green police, they’re coming to feed me again.
Oh Nooooooo…
If you want to read an extremely literate and spellbinding book about where our "food" comes from, both organic and not, PLEASE read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.
I highly recommend the above book, because Michael Pollan actually GOES to the source of various foods in America.
Which do you personally prefer to eat? A calf who has spent its entire life wallowing in its own feces, being shot up with antibiotics and medicines to counteract the horrendous conditions, separated from its mother and living sunless and miserable and then killed and kept in semi-sanitary conditions, its muscles (which you buy on sale) filled with its own stress hormones and other growth hormones shot into it? Or a steer on a grass-fed farm who was kept with its mother for a long time, then enjoys a fresh pasture for its whole life, only being supplemented with straw in winter, getting to choose whether it grazes on a little clover patch there, a little grasses there, enjoying freedom and sunshine, no medicines or hormone shots, its muscles (which you pay more for by ordering from the farm or buying at Whole Foods) filled with natural Omega 3s which prevent disease in HIM and YOU by his natural grass-fed "sunshine" diet?
Organic is not perfect. Pollan explains the difference between huge agro plants that are organic and those that are not, and there are some similarities that are not so nice. But any way you slice it, ORGANIC is better.
Not necessarily for taste. But for HEALTH.
We humans get a lot of poisons in our processed "food," and it doesn't make you sick right there and then; it becomes you. It becomes a weaker, sicker you, more prone to chronic disease and discomforts, LONG TERM. Wherever you can, avoid these toxins, so that you don't end up with a chronic disorder or cancer.
Whole Foods sells "Food for Life Ezekiel" bread, which is awesome!!.Besides, where else are you going to buy unroasted nuts, dried Goji berries and such.
Yes, they sell Mother Jones magazine at the checkout, which is stupid, but hey, I just don't buy it.
Until you bit into the worm!
I’m trying to figure out if this guy hates WF or organic foods or both. This is an opinion piece with no facts. I buy most of my organic stuff at Kroger because it’s cheaper than WF. I always buy organic milk because I don’t want my daughters ingesting hormones (they have enough of those already). I also get some of my stuff at Costco.
People get poisoned from natural foods all the time. GM foods, in many cases, help to prevent people from being poisoned. If we irradiated our food supply, especially produce, we’d have a lot fewer cases of food borne illness in this country. Ignorance, from people who have no grasp of science, is the only thing preventing us from making the food supply safer.
You get toxins every day from the foods you consume and you probably don't even know it. There will be no difference in the level of these dangerous compounds whether you buy organic or from those evil corporate factory farms. The foods you eat every day are loaded with known carcinogens and other toxic substances but, as has been the case since the beginning of time, it's the dosage that makes the poison. If it makes you feel better to fool yourself into believing that you're avoiding these chemicals by buying organic then good for you. This whole organic movement is being driven by feelings rather than facts anyway....which, I believe, is the author's point.
If your daughters are drinking milk, organic or not, they're consuming hormones. Hormones occur naturally in milk and there is no method for processing milk so that it is hormone free.
The hormones I’m talking about are the ones they inject the cows with (BGH). And you can ingest all of those and pesticides you like. I’ll not.
Trader Joe’s is pretty cheap on staples and semi-staples. They’ve got expensive stuff, but really you can live pretty cheap just shopping at TJ’s, and tasty too.
The logical extension of what you are saying is to shoot and eat wild animals. You can’t get more free-range and natural than that. You know it is fresh, and hormone free.
“Ignorance, from people who have no grasp of science, is the only thing preventing us from making the food supply safer.”
Not really, factory food just isn’t that appetizing.
“If your daughters are drinking milk, organic or not, they’re consuming hormones. Hormones occur naturally in milk and there is no method for processing milk so that it is hormone free”
Yes there are naturally occuring hormones in milk. Thats different than feeding extra hormones to the cow.
A friend of mines 14 yr old daughter had her period for 3 years straight. The doctors were recommending removing her uterus and ovaries to correct this and other problems.
They stopped consuming the hormone milk and her problems disappeared.
post #35
The bioengineered hormone used (rBST) is identical to the one naturally produced by cows and, when injected, extends the period of milk production. That's it. If this hormone occurs naturally in cows how can it be bad for you? The amount given to cows to increase milk production is so minute that it will have no impact on the health of the cows or those consuming the milk. Your fears are unwarranted and not based on facts.
And you can ingest all of those and pesticides you like. I’ll not.
You didn't realize that the hormone injected into milk cows is identical to the one produced naturally by milk cows and now you're telling us you believe that organic food producers don't use pesticides. I don't know where you get your information but you should consider making some source changes. Their stories are costing you a lot of money.
Unless you’re killing it and dressing it yourself the food you’re eating comes from a factory — however you choose to define that term. Most of the food you eat has been genetically modified in some way over time. Your food supply is much safer for that reason. Genetic modification caused the green revolution that saved more than a billion people from starvation. If you knew anything about irradiation you’d understand how that process would further improve food safety. These changes aren’t being made because of the many Luddites out there who have no idea what they’re talking about....but think they do.
You mean she quit drinking milk altogether? Because, as I said before, there are naturally occurring hormones in milk and they are identical to the one used to increase milk production. From what you're claiming, girls who consume large quantities of milk, even if it's organic milk, will have their periods continuously for years. The more milk you drink the more hormones you're ingesting, right? That increased quantity should produce the same results your friends daughter experienced. It's not happening. Doesn't make any sense to me but you believe what you want to believe.
Considering that this blog called the President a thief last week, it was surprising that the Whole Foods blog generated the most responses of any entry to date.
Just to be clear, we agree that much of the foods they sell are not actually ‘organic.’ Their fresh produce can be very tasty and they have a nice cheese selection. Also, their pizza is excellent.
The point was that Whole Foods is cashing in on the ‘green’ movement and a quasi-hippie anti corporate ethic, which is a sham. Come on, Whole Foods, all the good things you do can easily be accomplished without the attitude, so get off your high horse and admit you are just a grocery store.
I believe in the free market. I believe WF should sell what they can, I believe Safe Way and other regular food stores should sell what they can. I believe people should shop where they want to shop and to he** with the “green” BS. In other words I believe in freedom to sell and/or shop at your pleasure.
No she quit drinking milk with the artifical hormones used to increase milk production. She still drank milk.
But that isn't happening so, even though you see a correlation between this girl's period and her consumption of milk, proving causation just isn't possible.
Start here: http://www.dirtdoctor.com. Oh, and I get my organic milk for $4.99 a gallon (sometimes $3.99 on sale!).
Don’t think they were interested in proving anything. They were interested in improving her health which occured when she stopped. The failure of a doctor or scientist to explain why stopping helped is irrevelent.
Sure there’s a middle ground to improve food safety. For a food conglomerate like cargill to claim natural foods are unsafe is the fox guarding the henhouse. They have an obvious agenda to control everyones food.
I’ve had enough of chickens grown in cages to small for them to stand up. They taste like cardboard.
It is much cheaper to ship vegetable seeds than vegetables. The very best organic vegetables are grown at home.
You are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If you had two beautiful peaches in front of you, and you knew that one had been grown from a kernel that was sprayed with a certain heavy chemical and the other was not, all else being equal, which one would you eat?
Organic is not perfect. Organic, re fruits and veggies, means your product has had LESS toxic input that non-organic.
It’s not about taste or cost, it’s about LESS non-food and poison going into it.
Maybe you can afford to shop there (for fruits, veggies, and meat /fish — forget packaged foods, they are cr@p from anywhere!), if you think about paying more to grocery and less to doctors later.
And yeah, you had to avoid all the Obamanauts that work there, but it’s worth it!
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