JOE NOCERA: A Tussle, of Sorts, Over Organics
Has Whole Foods lost its soul as it has grown larger?A FEW weeks ago, I was alerted to a fascinating online exchange involving two people who care passionately about organic food. In one corner sat Michael Pollan, the well-known author who, in April, published “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” In the other sat John P. Mackey, the co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market, which, with over 180 stores and $5.7 billion in sales, is by far the most successful purveyor of organic products in the country.
In his book, Mr. Pollan, who is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, spends considerable space exploring the business of growing and selling organic food. He discovers that organics have become an $11 billion business and that most organic goods are now produced on very large farms, like Cascadian Farm in Washington State.
Although the farms adhere to the organic standards established by the federal government — among other things, the land has to be pesticide-free for at least three years — they aren’t exactly the kind of small, local farms many people think they are supporting when they buy organic. The farms ship produce over long distances, prepackage their food, operate through large distribution networks and in other ways mimic the nonorganic food supply. Indeed, since 1999, Cascadian Farm has been a subsidiary of General Mills.
In writing about the organic food industry, Mr. Pollan poked gentle fun at Whole Foods for what he saw as the company’s willingness to promote to its customers “the pastoral ideals upon which the industry has been built,” even though at least some of those ideals now struck him as illusory. “I think there is a disconnect between what people think organic is and what it really is,” Mr. Pollan told me a few days ago.
Given that organic is the fastest-growing sector of the food business, it seems likely that this “industrialization” of organic food will continue, and it has caused Mr. Pollan to wonder whether this seemingly inevitable process “will cost organic its soul.” Implicitly, at least, he seemed to be asking whether the same was true of Whole Foods.
...So is it any wonder that Mr. Mackey got his back up when he read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” with its suggestion that by doing so much of its business with large farms, Whole Foods was diluting the virtues of organic food? (Among his other points, Mr. Pollan writes that when, say, asparagus are shipped to Whole Foods from New Zealand, that is neither an example of sustainable agriculture nor fresh produce — nor is it even particularly environmental, given the fuel involving in getting it to the other side of the world.)Clearly, if your customers are coming into your store because they want to buy products consistent with their values, then being viewed as a good guy is absolutely crucial to your business. Whole Foods doesn’t just sell food, it sells virtue. “It is aspirational retailing,” Mr. Robb told me, and he’s right. The minute people start viewing it as just another supermarket, the halo effect will disappear, and they’ll gravitate to some other store that is more in tune with their aspirations.
And hence, Whole Foods’ difficulty in conceding that as it has grown up — and with it, the entire organic food industry — it has had to accept some compromises along the way. “Are there tradeoffs?” Mr. Robb asked. “I suppose there are.” But he quickly added that the company had already begun examining its practices and was working to improve them. “We are constantly raising the bar,” he said. For instance, he pointed out, Whole Foods had recently stopped selling lobster because it didn’t think the way they were treated was in sync with its views on animal compassion.
Which brings me back to Mr. Mackey’s exchange with Mr. Pollan. Mr. Pollan responded to Mr. Mackey’s open letter with a post of his own, in which he stressed that the company had largely turned its back local organic farmers. Mr. Mackey, in turn, wrote another lengthy open letter, in which he defended the company’s record in dealing with local farmers — but he also vowed to do better.
And sure enough, he has. The company is now allowing its store managers to do business directly with more local farmers, and is also putting aside $10 million, which will be used to make small loans to local farmers. Will it be more expensive to work directly with farmers instead of routing everything through the regional distribution center? Of course it will.
But for Whole Foods, no money will ever be better spent.
Tags: Food, /organic, /Whole_Foods
