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Green Giant How Whole Foods reinvented the supermarket by making organic produce a hot commodityBy KRISTINA ZIMBALIST/AUSTIN Posted Thursday, Apr. 20, 2006You may or may not be familiar with the Whole Foods mission—to sell you organic bananas, hormone-free meat and a host of other natural products that promote health and the environment. But for anyone who steps through the door of one of its stores, a secondary agenda becomes impossible to miss: Whole Foods is hell-bent on doing nothing less than delighting you. The directive appears on the second line of the highly circulated list of core values, pithy mantras that trip off the tongues of the company's 40,000 devoted employees. The five-item diktat begins, "We sell the

highest quality natural and organic products available. We satisfy and delight our customers." If the optimism of that dreamy decree seems more like something that's found in the required reading of Disney employees than those of a natural-food store, indeed, it is that very breathless, what's-around-the-next-corner excitement that Whole Foods seeks to inspire. Delight, grocery store--style, translates to a visual and material extravaganza, an ever-changing display of creativity, artistry, abundance, charm, eclecticism, authenticity, originality and extremely high quality, with each element served up with a large dose of surprise, not only because it is designed to do so but also because the age-old American supermarket is so devoid of anything remotely resembling enchantment. http://www.time.com/time/style/article/0,9171,1185523,00.html THE FACES OF ORGANIC BLUE MOON ORGANICS: Next generation cultivates a philosophy of less-is-more - Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff WriterWednesday, May 3, 2006 Two years ago, after learning the trade at Swanton Berry Farm, Rawlings, 33, and DeYoung, 35, set out on their own. They leased 27 acres in Aptos and named it Blue Moon Organics because Rawlings' daughter, 4-year-old Malia, was born during the second full moon of the calendar month. Ideals take priority They are the latest generation of young organic farmers, who have left behind

lucrative jobs in the corporate world, and have turned to organic farming because it fits with their ideals about environmentalism, politics and health. Rawlings and DeYoung say they also want to grow berries that stand out for their taste, even if that means choosing varieties that aren't as prolific or marketable. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/03/FDG87IIOC31.DTL THE FACES OF ORGANIC EARTHBOUND FARM: Backyard farmers emerge as top organic produce brand - Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff WriterWednesday, May 3, 2006

Their company is now the biggest organic produce grower and shipper in the United States and one of the biggest organic companies in the country, with $450 million in sales this year. Its bags and plastic tubs of spring mix and other greens are everywhere -- from Whole Foods to Safeway to Costco. That total includes a substantial amount of conventional salad greens grown and bagged by Earthbound, and sold to food service companies or under its Natural Selection label. The conventional part of their business will grow with Earthbound's recent purchase of its neighbor, Pride of San Juan, which will push total production to 40 million servings of salad this year alone. Outside the San Juan Bautista plant, Earthbound fields hopscotch with other growers'

conventional fields. Late rains and cold weather meant the spinach was only 3 inches high the third week of April, and Earthbound was still trucking produce from its fields in Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. A second huge plant in Yuma, used in winter, had shut down in early March. Out in a field of struggling romaine, field manager Todd Kodet runs through the complicated methods used to grow healthy plants and avoid devastation by insects or disease, without chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Basically, it's just what any organic farm does, but bigger -- use cover crops and lots of manure to feed the soil, bring in beneficial insects to eat the pests, and keep fingers crossed. Earthbound's 26,000 organic acres (with another 1,900 in transition) are spread out so that bad weather or a bug infestation in one locale doesn't bring production to a halt. Earthbound now farms in five Western states, British Columbia, Mexico, New Zealand (kiwi) and Chile

(onions and radicchio). The company is so big, and depends on so many fuel-burning trucks to move its produce, that it's criticized as industrial, as not really organic. The Goodmans come right back with proof of their pure heart: 400,000 trees planted to consume carbon dioxide, 4,200 tons of chemical fertilizers and 135 tons of pesticides kept out of the environment every year. "Here, you dig the earth and there are earthworms," says Kodet. "In my 22 years working for a conventional grower, I never saw an earthworm." Organic choices Drew and Myra Goodman say their mission has always been to provide an organic alternative wherever people shop. "Our food system is industrial," Drew Goodman says. "The only way to play that game is to reach the scale that you can get into Kroger's and Whole Foods." Of people who want to go beyond organic, or tie organic to a way of life or a local food system, he asks, "Why should it be about

sacrifice? Why should you have to forgo the salad in winter because local means within 100 miles of home?" Over the years, Earthbound has brought in some of the biggest conventional lettuce growers in the area as partners -- Tanimura & Antle and Mission Ranches. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/03/FDGVTIIND31.DTL Rebuilding the food chain Health concerns are raising interest in organic foods. But can big corporations conform to the traditional ideals of organic eating? By COLETTE BANCROFT, Times Staff WriterPublished May 3, 2006http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/03/Taste/Rebuilding_the_food_c.shtml A few weeks ago, on

Tampa's Dale Mabry Highway, a clogged artery that is a visual metaphor for Fast Food Nation, thousands of people lined up for the grand opening of Wild Oats, the first bay area location for the national natural and organic supermarket chain. Author Michael Pollan isn't surprised. "People are really feeling anxious about their food supply," he says by phone from Washington state, on his way to a book signing. "They're very ripe for an alternative." Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Penguin Press, is a fascinating exploration of the alternatives in the American food supply. The book has been in the top 10 on Amazon.com since it was published in April. In it, Pollan, a journalist, professor and author of the 2001 bestseller The Botany of Desire, traces four very different meals back to their origins. A fast-food burger takes him to a nightmarish feedlot where cows fatten atop

a sea of manure, while a meal he hunts, grows and gathers himself has him marveling at the sharpening of his vision as he tracks wild pigs in an oak forest. Two of the meals focus on what Pollan calls the pastoral food chain, as opposed to the industrial food chain that produces most of what the nation eats. One is a meal whose ingredients all were produced on small family farms in Virginia. The other is the product of "big organic" - the uneasy hybrid that is one of the fastest-growing segments of the American food industry. For several decades, organic farming existed on the fringes, with small farmers selling to small markets and restaurants that catered to a small fraction of consumers. Then, in the 1990s, organic and natural foods took off amid concerns over health, the environment and animal rights. Now, they are an $11-billion industry that harvests food from every corner of the planet. Pollan

says chain markets like Wild Oats and Whole Foods, which opened its first west Florida store in Sarasota in 2004 to an ecstatic reception, are "part of an effort to rebuild the food chain." But can big corporations conform to the traditional ideals of organic eating, which were not just a narrow idea of how food was grown but a larger philosophy about the environmental, cultural, economic and political implications of our food supply? "As organic has become bigger, it has had to make certain compromises," Pollan says. "If you fly asparagus from Argentina in a 747 to a Whole Foods in Berkeley, Calif., in any deep sense of the word that's not organic. It has such a large environmental footprint. "But places like Whole Foods have to meet the expectations of the supermarket shopper." One of those expectations is information about the food offered for sale. Customers at Wild Oats, Whole Foods and the like expect to

know more than what is revealed on those little nutritional panels on the package. They want to know how, where and when their meal was produced. The result is something Pollan calls Supermarket Pastoral - a literary form of sorts that tells "the stories behind the food." In the book, Pollan, finding a free-range chicken at his local Whole Foods that has not only a cozy backstory but a name, visits the farm Rosie lived on. It turns out she grew up in a huge shed with 20,000 other chickens. Because organic regulations forbid the use of antibiotics, the chickens aren't allowed outside until they are 5 weeks old. Then, Pollan relates, small doors are opened to a strip of lawn. But the chickens are so acclimated to indoor living few of them venture out. They're slaughtered at seven weeks, so, Pollan writes, "free range" is less a lifestyle than a two-week vacation option. That may not be the idyll called

up by the phrase "free range," but, Pollan says, there is a good side to large-scale organic farming. Take soft drinks, which are made primarily from high-fructose corn syrup, made from industrial corn, which is genetically modified, highly subsidized and so heavily treated with toxic petrochemicals that in the heart of corn country each spring, authorities in Des Moines, Iowa, issue "blue baby alerts" because the fertilizer runoff from corn in local rivers makes tap water unsafe for children. Imagine, Pollan says, organic Coca-Cola. "It's a bad thing in that organic is supposed to be healthier, and it's still a soft drink. "But it's a good thing if all the land used to grow all that corn for all that high-fructose corn syrup is no longer treated with pesticides." Research into whether organically

grown foods are safer and more nutritious is not conclusive, but it does exist. Pollan cites research into atrazine, a herbicide banned in Europe but widely used in this country on corn. "One part per billion will chemically emasculate a male frog. I don't want any of that in my son's diet." Studies do show that organic fruits and vegetables may be higher in many nutrients. "It only makes sense, since the soil they're grown in is richer and more complex." And diets rich in whole foods - whole grains and fresh fruits, vegetables and meats - are more healthful than those that rely on processed foods. But eating organic, whether big organic or small, is more expensive. Pollan says in Berkeley, where he lives, people call Whole Foods "Whole Paycheck." If we want a healthier population, he says, we need to find a way to make organic foods more accessible. "Wal-Mart is getting into organic in a big way, and they will

lower the prices." But it's important to understand, he says, that cheap food isn't really cheap. "The costs of that kind of food are not reflected in its price - the costs to your health, to the environment, to the farmers, to the taxpayer. The cost of organics reflects the real cost of producing food, or comes closer to it." Besides, Pollan says, maybe we should spend more on our food. It might make us more mindful eaters. "We only spend 9 percent of our income on food. That's the smallest percentage of any population in history. We're happy to spend a lot on a good car or on good clothes. But we think it's outrageous to spend it on good food." Colette Bancroft can be reached at (727) 893-8435 or bancroft. 'Clear lead needed' on green life Environmental advisers to the UK government are urging more radical action to promote green lifestyles. The Sustainable Consumption Roundtable (SCR) says people need a clear lead from government. Its report, I Will If You Will, urges measures such as taxing flights, rewarding water conservation and banning over-fishing of cod. It says consultation shows that people want to adopt greener habits, but many believe individual action is futile. Action stimulated by regulation can be effective and go down well with the public, it adds, citing the example of standards mandating energy-efficient boilers. HAVE YOUR SAY Going

green can be smart and stylish, but it is not yet simple Ed Mayo The SCR report comes after 18 months of consultations with members of the public, businesses and other stakeholders across Britain. "Going green can be smart and stylish," commented SCR co-chair Ed Mayo, "but it is not yet simple. "We want to call the bluff of politicians, to take action to make the sustainable choice the easier choice." In the mainstream The report's main conclusion is that people are generally quite happy with measures which bring positive environmental results, even at some cost to themselves, so long as those measures are applied fairly. This means, says the SCR, that government must take a lead in mandating and implementing such measures rather than waiting for

consumers or business to act first. "Government and business must focus fairly and squarely on mainstream consumers, rather than expecting the heroic minority of green shoppers to shop society's way out of unsustainability," it declares. Among the concrete measures it proposes are: a tax, with an opt-out mechanism, on air travel to compensate for carbon emissions making on-site energy generation common in homes and public buildings rolling out "smart" meters to raise awareness of energy consumption creating a major cost incentive to buy efficient cars removing threatened fish such as cod from sale until stocks recover Government could take a clear leadership role, the SCR feels, by committing to making all its own activities carbon-neutral. The SCR is a joint initiative between the Sustainable Development Commission and the National Consumer Council, supported financially by Defra and the DTI. Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4962416.stmPublished: 2006/05/02 03:24:26 GMT© BBC MMVI "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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