[SustainableTompkins] FW: SFGate: Whole Foods, taking flak, thinks local

[Jennifer Dotson]

The writer makes a good point that Whole Foods is big enough to pull the 
industry, so it's a good step that they're upping their local purchases.
Jennifer

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[CGIN] FW: SFGate: Whole Foods, taking flak, thinks local
Date: 	Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:38:59 -0500
From: 	Gail Graham <ggraham at msmarket.coop>
Reply-To: 	cgin-list at cgin.coop
To: 	CGIN <cgin-list at cgin.org>



Excellent article on Whole Foods and their recent efforts to do a better
job of walking their talk.

Gail Graham
General Manager
Mississippi Market
St. Paul, MN 


 
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Wednesday, July 26, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
Whole Foods, taking flak, thinks local
Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer


   "Locally grown produce" is the promise printed on Whole Foods grocery
bags
this summer.
   Signs and banners hanging in the markets, complete with pictures of
smiling farmers, trumpet the same message. In the produce section, large
hand-written green signs point out Frog Hollow Farm peaches from
Brentwood, or T&D Willey basil grown in Madera.
   The truth is, the Whole Foods chain has grown so big -- 184 stores at
last
count -- that the bulk of its produce is neither locally grown, nor from
smaller farms like Full Belly and T&D Willey. That's true even in the
Bay
Area, despite an abundance of smaller or medium-size and sustainable or
organic farms nearby.
   But now Whole Foods, which is big and successful enough to pull the
rest
of the supermarket industry along with it, is taking a few steps to
change
that -- including requiring all its stores to buy "out the back-door"
from
at least four individual farmers. Most produce arrives from a regional
distribution center.
   The move is one of several the chain is making to bolster its street
cred
in response to stinging criticism by influential Berkeley author Michael
Pollan for not walking its talk when it comes to supporting sustainable
food systems.
   At the same time, Whole Foods feels the fiery breath of Wal-Mart's
big
move into the organic market, and needs to keep itself ahead of the
pack.
   The new initiatives were announced by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey
this
month in an extraordinary online conversation with Pollan. (Their
exchange
can be read on both men's blogs, wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jm/ and by
searching "Mackey" at michaelpollan.com/write.php.)
   In addition to buying more from smaller growers, Whole Foods plans
to:
   -- Give $10 million a year in low-interest loans to help small, local
farmers and producers of grass-fed and humanely raised meat, poultry and
dairy animals.
   -- Raise its standards of humane care for the animals who supply
meat,
eggs and dairy to the stores. Whole Foods has hired an "animal
compassionate field buyer" to work with producers to ensure that they
meet
the standards.
   -- Set up Sunday farmers' markets in the parking lots of some Whole
Foods
stores, including about 10 in Northern California.
   In announcing the initiatives, Mackey defended Whole Foods policies
of
buying globally, saying it was important to support farmers around the
world and also that he didn't want to dictate values -- such as buying
locally -- to customers. But he conceded that "Whole Foods could and
should do more to promote local agriculture."
   He also said animal food suppliers have been resistant to adopting
more
humane methods, so "we are going to have to create an alternative animal
compassionate system from the ground up," and he wants to do it locally.
   Pollan, in an interview, said he thinks the initiatives are
"meaningful."
   In his latest best-selling book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," (Penguin
Press,
2006) and in ubiquitous media appearances, he painted Whole Foods as
hypocritical for marketing its organic and sustainable values while,
among
other things, buying most of its produce from super-mechanized,
monocropping national ag giants like Earthbound Farm and
Cal-Organics/Grimmway -- which he called "industrial organic."
   Whole Foods' new moves, he said, have as much to do with competition
as
with his criticisms.
   "With Wal-Mart and Safeway getting into their market, they now need
to
raise the bar again," he said. "Because selling industrial organic is
going to be nothing special soon."
   He added, "The challenge is, can they make it work long term?"
   "Locally grown" is the hottest trend in food right now among
consumers
concerned with reducing fuel and pollution generated by moving food all
over the world, and with keeping farms in their communities.
   Whole Foods' incredible growth and the downward drive of organic food
prices is what has brought things to this turn. From one store in Austin
in 1980, Whole Foods has added stores and bought out a series of small
regional natural food chains, like Sonoma County's Fresh Fields, in 30
states plus Canada and England. The publicly traded chain has a target
of
300 stores and $12 billion in sales by 2010, up from $4.5 billion last
year, according to the company.
   "The honest truth is, we found as we grew that it got more difficult
and
complex to fulfill our desire to have local organic producers provide
our
stores with a steady and reliable supply," said Joe Rogoff, vice
president
of the Northern California region, which encompasses 19 stores from
Sonoma
and Sacramento south to Fresno. A company spokesperson said that number
is
projected to double to 40 by 2010.
   Regional produce centers
   As it has grown, Whole Foods has built regional produce centers to
consolidate supplies and buy larger amounts at better prices. Instead of
buying carrots, say, from a number of small local farms, it is more
efficient and cheaper to buy from one big producer who might grow
anywhere.
   Go into any Bay Area Whole Foods store right now, with California's
summer
harvest at full bore, and you'll see lots of green signs tagging
"locally
grown" produce on the fruits and vegetables prominently displayed in the
center of the produce section.
   Flawless Swanton strawberries from Davenport, Alterra blueberries
from
Mendocino, squash and eggplant from Wooley Farm in Gridley all make a
gorgeous summer display.
   But around the edges of the produce section, the staples -- lettuce,
broccoli, cabbage, bagged baby carrots -- all carry tags from the same
big
farms -- Earthbound, Cal-Organic and its parent company, Grimmway.
   An informal count of fruits and vegetables raised by small local
farmers
in five Whole Foods stores in the Bay Area last week found a low of 17
kinds at the Fourth and Harrison store in San Francisco, to a high of
about 40 at San Rafael, plus several kinds of mushrooms from one grower
and herbs from another.
   At this time of year, lots of the Earthbound and Cal-Organic produce
likely comes from the Salinas and Central valleys, but labels don't say
where most are grown so they weren't included in the count.
   A similar count in a New York City Whole Foods' store, festooned with
"locally grown" banners and photos of farmers, turned up 10 locally
grown
items, most of them non-organic. Most everything else came from
California. Across the street, the Union Square farmers' market teemed
with locally grown fresh organic summer fruits and vegetables.
   For most of the country, Whole Foods defines "local" as within a
7-hour
truck ride, according to Karen Christensen, regional produce coordinator
at Whole Foods' Northern California headquarters in Emeryville.
   "However, in Northern California, the general consumer perception is
that
it must be much, much closer," Christensen said.
   How local is local?
   So here, local means within about a 200-mile radius, stretching north
to
Garberville, east to the Nevada state line and south down the Central
Valley as far Reedley, south of Fresno.
   In the Bay Area survey, the same local farm names showed up in most
stores
-- indicating that the farms grow enough of at least one item to sell
through the regional distribution center, which sits in San Francisco's
produce terminal. It sends 60 tons of produce to each store every week.
   Christensen said 28 percent of that produce is locally grown,
averaged
over the year, including anything Earthbound, Driscoll or the other huge
growers harvest within 200 miles. Comparable numbers weren't available
for
other regions.
   When Whole Foods opened its first Bay Area store in Palo Alto in
1989,
stores had much freer rein to buy unusual varieties or small amounts
from
individual farmers.
   "We pick and deliver the next day -- it's really fresh," says Judith
Redmond, co-owner of Full Belly Farm, which sold to a number of Bay Area
Whole Foods in the early years. "We got to know what they liked at each
store, and we were able to improvise."
   Even after the regional center opened in the early 1990s, she and
other
farmers were still able to sell to individual stores. But about six
years
ago, she says, word came down from Whole Foods that "we mustn't make
these
deliveries, so we stopped doing it."
   As a middle-size farm, Full Belly can grow enough tomatoes or melons,
for
example, to supply the regional center, she said. But special varieties
might be right for just one or two stores.
   "For a smaller farm, I think if they have one relationship with a
store
they'll do their best for that store. Those accounts are golden for
small
farms," she says. Selling to Whole Foods is important to small farmers,
who otherwise depend mainly on labor-intensive farmers' markets and
Community Supported Agriculture sales.
   Christensen says stores weren't forbidden to buy out the back door,
and
some, especially San Rafael, continued to deal with some farmers. But
they
had limited spending authority.
   And "we haven't made it a priority," Rogoff acknowledged.
   "We have people working in our stores who are incredible produce
merchandisers -- they display beautifully, and we hire for that," Rogoff
said. Expertise in buying great local produce hasn't been a priority, he
added.

   Trying to stay price-competitive means "larger and more regional
growers
have taken up more of a percentage than we would like," Rogoff said.
   Now, the new initiatives mean every store must establish
relationships
with at least four farmers. "Unfortunately, we have to start that low
with
some stores," he said.
   As soon as Mackey's announcements came down, Full Belly's Redmond
heard
from Whole Foods asking her to sell directly to six or seven local
stores.
She's focusing on four.
   In the bigger picture, she said, Whole Foods has learned that the
centralized model "isn't the whole answer" when it comes to food.
   But working small farms back into its system may be tougher than
Whole
Foods realizes, Pollan says, especially with increased competition from
price-cutting giants.
   On the other hand, he says, "If they can find an efficient way to
deal, I
think that's very important" to small and sustainable agriculture.
   Whole Foods' loans to small agriculture could prove an important
component. Loans of $10 million a year could help develop a sustainable
system by underwriting things like organic certification, or funding a
slaughterhouse so small-scale sustainable ranchers can sell to markets,
Rogoff says.
   Pointed questions
   Pollan, meanwhile, plans to respond to Mackey's initiatives with
questions
about how, exactly, all this will work.
   "I think he's looking to raise the bar again, and that's good,"
Pollan
said. "I really felt there was a strong streak of idealism in our
conversation."
   But, he pointed out, the very public exchange was also very clever
marketing -- something at which Whole Foods excels.
   "Doing it this way gave the whole effort a lot more credibility in
the
eyes of the sustainable food movement," he said.
   What remains to be seen, he said, is how far Whole Foods will go to
meet
the promise of those summertime grocery bag slogans and store signs.

   E-mail Carol Ness at cness at sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle