The Whole Truth About Whole Foods: The Not-So-Organic Grocery Store

Whole Foods is currently under public scrutiny after launching their produce rating program. Tons of organic farmers have vocalized their concerns surrounding this new rating system, as they claim it devalues the organic label and threatens their business models.

Whole Foods’ rating system, Responsibly Grown, was designed to provide customers with more information about how their food is grown. However, suppliers must pay for this rating, resulting in a steep cost for organic farmers.

Organic produce farms are often smaller farms that aren’t owned and operated by rich and powerful corporations like Monsanto. The organic certification is costly enough already, and many farmers can barely afford that, let alone an additional rating system.

The new rating system takes into account much more.

Whole Foods is asking its suppliers to pay a fee to get into the program, then answer a long questionnaire. There are questions about how they protect the soil and wildlife on their farms, whether they limit their use of pesticides, how they conserve energy and irrigation water, and how they treat their workers.

The rating system essentially grades farmers on their produce in regards to pesticide usage, conservation efforts, water usage, and more. Based on these findings, they’re graded as Unrated, Good, Better, or Best. This in theory could create more transparency between farmers and consumers, which would be awesome.

However, farmers have been quick to point out holes in the program. NPR reported:

But here’s what is making organic farmers angry. At a Whole Foods store in Washington, D.C., I found non-organic onions and tomatoes, presumably grown with standard fertilizers and pesticides, that were labeled “Best.” A few feet away, I found organic onions and tomatoes that were graded merely “Good” or just “Unrated.”

This isn’t the only large-scale issue with Whole Foods. Just last year, Whole Foods was under public scrutiny for supporting GMOs and selling so many GMO foods in their stores. You can read more about that in the following CE article:

GMOs aren’t the only cause for concern within the ingredients lists of some of the foods sold at Whole Foods. CE covered another story on this, which you can read below:

Final Thoughts

To be clear, Whole Foods still sells some awesome products. They have a wide range of organic produce and serve as a massive supplier of plant-based and non-GMO foods that are rarely found in conventional grocery stores. For example, I visited the Whole Foods in Hawaii recently and was thrilled to purchase lots of organic plant-based foods, including some products I hadn’t been able to find in Canada, such as the vegan Beyond Meat burgers.

It’s clearly convenient for those of us interested in health to go to a big box store and be able to purchase the products we love that are not only delicious, but healthy for the body as well. However, it’s equally clear that these aren’t the only products Whole Foods sells, as they do sell some non-organic produce and GMO foods.

I’d encourage you to check out some local farmer’s markets instead of going to Whole Foods once in a while. Although local doesn’t mean organic, many markets typically offer organic options, and it’s really nice to be able to support local farms. Plus, the prices are typically a lot more affordable at organic markets than at Whole Foods, where they inflate many of the prices.

At the end of the day, this is a really important lesson for all of us to remember to read the ingredients in everything we buy, whether that be food, drinks, body products, cleaning supplies, or whatever else. Just because something is marketed as being “all-natural” or is sold at a health food store, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy.

About the Author

I work full time as a writer & in social media at Collective Evolution. My education background is in business, economics, accounting & environmental studies. I am extremely passionate about environmental sustainability, yoga, health, veganism, and animal rights. Please feel free to reach out to me by email at [email protected] or on linkedin

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