So you know how Whole Foods goes on ad nauseam about supporting local farmers? Apparently their definition of local includes China. Watch this news clip. It is not recent, so I don’t know if WF has made any major changes since, but it is an eye-opener.
To sum up the video, much of the food available at Whole Foods, especially under their own 365 brand, is from China. I just went and checked on a bag of frozen spinach in the freezer. Yup, in small type on the back, made in China. Ugh.
All I can say is, wow. Whole Foods may have started as a terrific company with integrity but they have really lost their way.
The U.S. government cannot guarantee that these products are organic. Whole Foods depends on a third-party to verify that, and they depend on the Chinese government. You know, the same food oversight regulatory system that brought you melamine in your toothpaste and pet food and lead in your kids’s toys. If this sits well with you, no worries. I, however, have little faith the Chinese government is inspecting and regulating farms in China to make sure the spinach they grow meets USDA organic standards.
Next time you’re at Whole Foods, check the country of origin.
Here’s Whole Foods rebuttal to what they describe as a” very misleading” piece.
On another note, I would like to point out the sheer hypocrisy of buying organic food from China. It’s not like we can’t grow spinach here in the USA. And I don’t mean this in a jingo-istic, America-first way, but one aspect of the organic movement is to protect the environment. How does it protect the environment to ship a product around the world to a store in Maryland when that product could be, and is, grown within 100 miles? It doesn’t. It helps with said store’s bottom line.
Yes, Whole Foods is a green company — green as in dollar bills.
This from a company that pushed vegetarianism as as solution to the world’s ills, and advocates going vegan as a way to save the environment.
Here’s an idea, eat locally-sourced meat and skip the spinach that’s been shipped in from China. That stuff doesn’t move across the globe powered by moonbeams and soy-milk. It takes fossil fuels, fools.
Wow–ok, you’re right. I think you’ve mentioned this before on my blog, but you could not be more right. Eating decent meat is more environmentally friendly than eating ‘organic’ spinach from China/Wholefoods. Yipes.
I’m glad wholefoods was always too expensive for me now!
[...] for spending less on food while promoting sustainability includes not eating meat, then this post, Whole Fools: Made in China, will probably make you stop and think (or possibly give you nightmares). It might even leave you [...]
Remember that this does not just apply to Whole Foods! I know that the hypocrisy is certainly more apparent under their mission statement, but blowing off WF in favor of another local store that has a similar practice is not accomplishing much. Make sure to demand local options from all of your city groceries!