[Sosfbay-discuss] whole foods boycott side effects

[Paco NATHAN]

+1 for what Tian described

I spent 18 years in Austin, watching Whole Foods grow from a small
market literally around the corner from my place (the early 10th &
Lamar store) into a large corporation. Knowing some of the execs, as
well as several friends who'd worked there over the years... let's
just say that Whole Paycheck management *aren't* the kind of people
I'd want to have around my kids.

Nor is Whole Foods any friend of organic, family-run farms. That was
the "joke" around Austin, where there were so many CSAs within 50
miles of the WFM corporate headquarters building, the city-wide
farmers market held each weekend literally two blocks away -- yet WFM
barely paid lip service to recognizing, let alone helping support
them.

Foodies in Austin who want an upscale market with great organic foods
don't go to WFM as much, instead they tend to shop at Central Market
-- another large corporation, but *much* better organic produce,
better support for local farmers, stronger commitment to minimizing
packaging, composting refuse, etc.

When a group of organic consumers, organic farmers, and farm workers
recently petitioned WFM regarding their use of GMOs, their inclusion
of known carcinogens and toxins in their "natural" personal care
products, WFM threatened to sue the Organic Consumers Association.
Read the following:
  http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19057.cfm
  http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27761

The dirty little secret is that WFM has been caught, not just once,
lobbying along with factory farms to get "organic" labeling
deregulated, etc., and therefore placing pressure to displace family
farms.

Boycott or not, I have no need to support jerks like that,
particularly when I get better produce delivered closer for less
expense...

If you want to support organic farmers, a great way is to visit
farmers markets or join a CSA. Our family subscribes to Two Small
Farms in Watsonville, which delivers locally here in Mountain View.
It's absolutely wonderful. Local, seasonal, organic foods, with
emphasis on cultivating public interest in many heirloom varieties.
http://twosmallfarms.com/  If you don't need all that much weekly
produce, then consider sharing or bartering what's left in your CSA
box with neighbors. That's a great way to make friends :) What we
don't get from the CSA, then Milk Pail is nearby and also a very good
market.

Paco


On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 22:39, Tian Harter <tnharter at aceweb.com> wrote:
> For me boycotting whole paycheck is business as usual. They charge
> too much in my opinion. That's why I go to the farmers market for just
> about everything I can. Do the vendors provide health care? Probably
> not for many of them, but they work for themselves, which is good enough
> for me.
>
> I'm thinking what we should boycott is products that came off assembly
> lines. Whole Paycheck is full of that stuff, another reason to boycott
> them. Mountain View's Milk Pail Dairy has a good bulk food section.
> So does Molly Stones.
>
> Tian