I enjoyed your comments and the time that you must have taken to reply to Mr.Pollan’s “The Ominvores Dilemma”. There is no doubt a lot to be learned from both accounts. However, your account is more practical from a safe food point of view.

I have been involved in commercial agriculture for over 30 years, primarily producing grains and legume products. We raised our family on fresh produce, eggs, and our own farm grown beef; one of the benefits of production agriculture. We still budgeted $250.00 a month for grocery store purchases. I tell my children today, to allocate a small amount more of their disposable income for organic food for their children; that we made a mistake in our lifetime.

Unfortunately, as with your company, the business world demands a profit for “sustainability”. I’m sorry, it’s just a fact of life today. There has been tremendous economic challenges for the past 50 years in agriculture. Consequently, the quaint small “family farms” have become a rarity as they sell out to larger farming operations and urban sprawl because of economics. Believe me, production is a rewarding experience and, generally speaking, farm families would continue to farm if it were profitable. It’s sad, but true. In the late 1700’s (Thomas Jefferson’s day)over 85% of the U.S. families primary source of income came from the farm. Today, it is less than 2%. As with any industry, the farming community has had its challenges. Now we in commercial production have boxed ourselves into a corner since the advent of man-made chemicals for agricultural use. It’s been sold to us as a profitability solution and we’ve whole-heartedly accepted it. We in U.S. agriculture have resorted to pesticides and commercial fertilzers since post WWII.

In recent years, with the help and leadership of companies such as yours, the agricultural production community, has finally come to the realization that artificial man-made chemical products (practically all petroleum based) are harmful to man and to the environment. But there are huge challenges lying ahead. Organic production is very difficult for growers economically speaking; but it is the only truly safe way to produce food. In many cases, huge chemical corporations are the money behind “sustainable agriculture”. We in production agriculture are lobbied, wined and dined all winter long by those very large oil-based corporations. On a global basis, they tell use “to move to “sustainable agriculture” such as riparian buffers, grass waterways, no-till farming; that it’s the new answer for practicality and most importantly, that it appeals to the consumer” and ultimate profitability. Did you know that: on a global basis agricultural practices such as but not limited to, no-till, grass waterways, riparian buffers all use 5X the harmful pesticides as simply cultivated land. That: we have common chemical products offered at our disposal that will kill every pest in a field of wheat using only .02 of an ounce per acre! (Think if I trip on the way to the tank with a bottle full of that; and you get the loaf of bread that grain comes from.) That harmful product all trickles into our streams and rivers, ultimately the ocean. Think about it – it is written that: civilization has cultivated for pest (weeds & insects)control for the past 15,000 years and we’ve used chemicals for pest control the past 60 years. If I’m not mistaken, that’s about profit driven sustainability, not safe food. I maintain (and I’m not very popular within the commercial agricultural community) that we have the technology today to develop truly safe food without the use of harmful chemicals. The large petroleum based chemical manufacturers, many of which are some of the largest companies in the world, are launching agressive enticements for farmers to convert to “no-till” methods know full well that chemical usage on that land will increase. “SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE” although well intended is a mis-nomer with consumers, and has become an endearing term that is being capitalized on.

Agriculture is show-cased by companies such as Whole Foods and I might add that their leadership is being focused in the right direction; sorting through mis-nomers and harmful pracitices to work together to create “safe food”. Safe food and the its challenges can be “sustainable”.

Mr. Mackey and to the Whole Foods team, thank you again for a job well done, while together, we have a lot more to do. Lets do it.

Sincerely,

Douglas Moser
Genesee, Idaho USA

Thank you John for sharing your direct and detailed account of the reality you know too well, that Michael Pollan did not inquire about WF as you would have liked.

I had a tear of joy in my eye reading your words and feeling your genuine caring for the transformation of our standards to a paradigm of compassion for our fellow living beings. What you have realized already is incredible, Thank you for all your efforts and integrity.

After 28 years of eating organic foods, I am a walking example, at 42, of a vibrant, bright and joyful person. I am saddened by the obvious effects and dulling, the devastation and destruction plaguing those who are not yet aware or taking advantage of what is available.

For 17 years, I have traveled the world as a writer, and teaching permaculture and Earth Architecture while also learning all I can that contributes to peace on earth, within and without.

Thank you for creating a path and a place to fully experience and embrace healthier choices. The complications that pass for life in the modern world are all being found out on an increasingly wider and wider scale.

I write about and demonstrate the benefits of shopping only at health food stores. On a recent round-the-world freelance writing/photography job, I enjoyed health foods stores in Australia, New Zealand, Italy, & London. They all offered a special warm, human, connected feeling.

When I found myself in Whole Foods NYC, I was amazed!! What a work of art. I was awestruck, a tad giddy, that is is like Disneyland. They say Disneyland is the “Happiest Place on Earth,” because they do not yet admit that sugar, toxic infrastructure and waste does not “happy” make, but I know WHOLE FOODS is one of the happiest places on earth. What is depression but a symptom of eating toxic food, inspired by the behavior of other people eating toxic food? Eating at Whole Foods is life changing, life-giving, and life enhancing on every level. Thank you for caring as you do, for taking the actions you have, and for sharing your views with us. I applaude you and will be sharing my appreciation far and wide, as is my pleasure bringing clarity to what inspires peace.

Thank you for contributing to my happiness in ever expanding ways. Well done!!

Claire of KLARITY.org
Maui, Hawaii & Santa Barbara & Los Angeles, California

I’ve never valued Whole Foods before today. I have briefly visited your stores in Manhattan but never gone out of my way to shop there. I will now.
(And this from a hardcore Fairway shopper.) Your presence and ideas and articulation were absolutely wonderful at the Berkeley debate which I’ve just finished watching. You’ve made me aware of how lazy I’ve been in trying to make the switch to eating the right kind of food. I only wish you could tell us how to make the suffering of animals stop … immediately. (isn’t that a funny idea) As you said, we are in denial. I will no longer be. Thank you so much. You are an angel. Vic C.