Whole Foods is a company that stands for sustainable agriculture, wise environmental practices, community citizenship, and integrity in all business dealings, at least according to their website. So you can imagine my surprise when their store brand, 365 Every Day Organic, frozen spinach says on the back “Product of China.” Please explain to me how importing spinach all the way from China aligns with sustainable agriculture and wise environmental practices. Can we not find organic spinach here in the U.S.? Or in another country not half way around the world, say Mexico? With fuel prices soaring, it seems enormously wasteful to ship spinach from China to sell in Whole Foods stores around the U.S. Not to mention a little hypocritical.
So what’s my point? That you have to be a smart consumer. Don’t trust that just because you’re shopping at a natural foods store, that their products are safe or environmentally friendly. They might be shipping their food from half-way around the world, or lining their cans with BPA, or covering their produce in dangerous pesticides. Be a conscientious shopper. And if find your local store doing something you don’t agree with, let them know!
Posted by Willene Mebane on February 5, 2010 at 8:30 am
Very informative article. I’ve found your site via Bing and I’m really happy about the information you provide in your articles. Btw your sites layout is really messed up on the Chrome browser. Would be really great if you could fix that. Anyhow keep up the great work!
Posted by Sophia on February 5, 2010 at 10:49 am
Thanks for letting me know about the Chrome browser, but when I tried it, the site seemed to look fine. What does it look like for you?
Posted by Kourtney Schurer on June 18, 2010 at 10:13 am
Man oh man – you really opened up my eyes! Health, Taken Seriously » Disappointed in Whole Foods was a wonderful read. The Internet has so much information, I get so caught up in so many different directions, it so hard to figure it all out. Thanks again for the post!