Interesting "Whole Foods" News....

I had seen this on their frozen produce and been scratching my head about it. But it does fit with the overall impression I have of the Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey.

What I really dislike about Whole Foods is the image they project about caring about people's health and nutrition but in fact a lot of their food is far from healthy and also contributes to the obesity epidemic of kids. Just because the sugar is organic doesn't make it any less calorie-dense.

But on the other hand, what do we expect Whole Foods will do where they make the most profit, after all they are a publically traded company and accountable to their shareholder. I guess it goes back to buyer beware and keep reading labels.

I prefer to buy locally at farmers markets whereever possible and only go to Whole Foods when I can't get it anywhere else.

Thanks for posting this!!
 
You know my brother-in-law mentioned that organic foods were coming from China, I didn't even think that Whole Foods would be a part of that. Then again, it explains why their frozen produce is cheap - cheap for Whole Foods anyway.

Sigh! looks like I will have to be a super duper produce sleuth now.
 
Thank you for that info! We don't have a Whole Foods store near us but still this is useful to know. Why am I not surprised tho? I read the labels on EVERYTHING since the pet food scam and rarely buy anything from China including clothes, toys etc. I had been looking to buy Edamame (?) organic and noticed that every brand I looked at came from China. Never bought any. Having seen news coverage and video of the fish farms finished that too. What an eye opener. Really rather spend the extra $$ and buy from the USA.
 
I have never been the fans of organic food since there is really hard to certify that the food I bought is real organic, even the products were from local US or European countries.

But foods from China can be certified as organic, give me a break. That is just such a BS I have ever heard. In addition to the points mentioned in the video, the whole environment is so polluted. Even the local Chinese farmers grow plants organically, not using any fertilizer. But hey, what about the water they use to irrigate the plants. Did you see the reports in New York Times saying how toxinated one of major rivers in North - Huai He. The villages along the river are dying. Many of them have cancer due to drink water from river. Then air pollution. These things you can't control in micro level.
 
WantFit said:
I have never been the fans of organic food since there is really hard to certify that the food I bought is real organic, even the products were from local US or European countries.

But foods from China can be certified as organic, give me a break. That is just such a BS I have ever heard. In addition to the points mentioned in the video, the whole environment is so polluted. Even the local Chinese farmers grow plants organically, not using any fertilizer. But hey, what about the water they use to irrigate the plants. Did you see the reports in New York Times saying how toxinated one of major rivers in North - Huai He. The villages along the river are dying. Many of them have cancer due to drink water from river. Then air pollution. These things you can't control in micro level.
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I can see your point and agree to a certain degree. However, should we say because there is so much pollution already, the added pesticides don't matter anymore? And thus not buy organic.

I think the head scratching for me in regards to Whole Foods is that if you promote sustainable and local products how does it fit in that you import produce from China by added pollution through long transports.

I am not sure that I would be really more worried about Chinese produce being more unhealthy or more pesticides added than any "conventional" farmer in the US. In fact, overall the Chinese population appears to be much healthier than Americans with a lot less incidents of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. My issue with this report is more that WF supports additional pollution caused by the long transport but also does not get it 3rd party certified, and I am wondering why. And I also wonder how they would know that the produce is not genetically modified?

Do I think Chinese farmers can grow organic produce? Of course they can! But that's not the issue here. At least not for me.

I think if consumers don't buy it, companies won't produce it. It's pretty simple really.
 
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Hopefully they cleaned up their acts, it was posted in 2008 on youtube. I'd never buy anything from China.
 
"Wholly" smokes!! That's shocking! I'm going to forward to a friend of mine who shops almost exclusively at Whole Foods.... she's not going to be very ahppy about this!

Thanks for sharing!
 
Yeah. . . I'm sort of creeped out now. Well, at Raley's they put the country of origin on the signs/directly on the packaging. Yikes. I don't think I'm going to Whole Foods after all.
 
I don't shop at Whole Paycheck. We have so many organic, health food markets here that there's no place for them. We do have Trader Joe's, but this is an Earth Fare kind of town. Earth Fare chooses local first which I like.
 
bonvivant said:
Whole Paycheck.
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Sheesh, . .no kidding. I'm changing my ways, . .and I'm going to stop shoppin there. I'm going to farmers markets from now on and although I hate Safeway, . . I like their "Eating Right" brand. Not only is it affordable but the ingredients are pretty natural and not as processed.
 
This is very disappointing. But not surprising. I've been losing faith in Whole Foods. I loved Wild Oats, but when it got bought out by Whole Foods, it totally "sold out." Soooooo expensive and now totally untrustworthy. I buy a lot of my organics now at the regular supermarket. Our Kroger often sells organic produce cheaper than the regular kind. I recently bought a 3 lb bag of fuji organic apples for $2.99! I just shop the ads and now will be much more watchful of those labels. THANK YOU for posting this!! I've shared it on FB too!
 
Be sure when shopping at "Whole Paycheck" (hee hee) that you use your nifty bag http://www.mcphee.com/shop/products/Buy-Locally-Shopping-Bag.html#

Buy-Locally-Shopping-Bag.html
 
I'm sure Whole Foods isn't the only company doing this. I always check the labels and don't buy produce from outside the US unless it is something that's not grown here - like Bananas. Well - I do buy Canadian produce sometimes - I trust our Northern friends. :)

There's another thread about love for Trader Joe's but some of their products have stuff I wouldn't have expected (like HFCS). I shop there too but still read the labels.
 
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