In his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan uses the supermarket chain Whole Foods Market as the springboard for several of his critiques of the industrial food system. With 184 stores nationwide, Whole Foods Market has become one of the 500 largest corporations in America. Yet, Pollan says, shopping there is “a literary experience” that he has named Supermarket Pastoral.

Throughout the store are signs and brochures describing production in the most beguiling terms—eggs from “cage-free vegetarian hens”; milk from cows that live “free from unnecessary fear and distress”, etc. Pollan writes: “It’s the evocative prose as much as anything else that makes this food really special, elevating an egg or chicken breast or bag of arugula from the realm of ordinary protein and carbohydrates into a much headier experience, one with complex aesthetic, emotional, and even political dimensions.”

And from there he goes on to explore the various food items that clearly did not come from a bucolic farm setting, such as organic milk from factory farms, organic beef from feedlots and organic TV dinners. He says that although his Whole Foods Market has photos of local organic farmers, “most are long gone from the produce bins, if not from the walls.”

“Of course the trickiest contradiction Whole Foods attempts to reconcile is the one between the industrialization of the organic food industry of which it is a part and the pastoral ideals on which the industry has been built,” Pollan writes.

Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey took offense at the way Pollan’s book characterized the company. In “An Open Letter to Michael Pollan” posted on the company website, he attempts to refute the suggestion that Whole Foods Market is just a big corporation peddling corporate food while paying lip service to the ideal of the small farm.

Although Pollan found plenty of Cal-Organic and Earthbound Farms produce in his local Whole Foods Market in Berkeley, CA, Mackey says that the company’s policy is to buy from local growers as much as possible. In 2005, he wrote, 45% of the company’s produce suppliers were within 200 miles and 34% were within 400 miles of the stores where the produce was sold.

“Of our top 150 suppliers/brokers in the produce category, 22% of our purchases are from large corporate farms and 78% are from independent family farms,” he wrote.

Mackey says that, contrary to common belief, growers are not limited to selling to the company’s eight distribution centers. In fact, he says, local stores can buy directly from small farmers, if the products meet their quality standards. In Georgia and the Carolinas, Whole Foods Market set up a mini co-op to consolidate purchases from local vendors, he says, and in western Massachusetts, a large percentage of produce is purchased from local farms.

The letter, which is more than 5,000 words, concludes thus:
“In summation, Whole Foods Market has supported the growth of and driven significant demand for organic agriculture for more than 27 years. Throughout this time Whole Foods Market stores have supported local growers and food producers in store market areas. I am not sure if merely because of our size and success Whole Foods Market deserves the pejorative label “Big Organic” or “Industrial Organic,” or even to be linked to those categories. I would argue instead that organic agriculture owes much of its growth and success over the past 20 years to Whole Foods Market’s successful growth and commitment to organic. As an organization we continually challenge ourselves to be responsible and ethical tenants of the planet. Through our stores, large and small organic farmers, both local and international, can offer their products to an increasingly educated population that is more interested in organics every day.”

In response to Mackey’s “Open Letter” Michael Pollan responds with a letter almost as long. He disputes Mackey’s claims that Whole Foods wants to buy from local growers. “As we discussed, the company’s shift a few years ago from ‘backdoor sales’ to a regional distribution system has made it more difficult, if not impossible, for small local farmers to sell directly to individual Whole Foods stores. For some farmers, this may be a boon as you suggest, but for the many Bay Area farmers I have spoken to, it has shut them out – they don’t grow enough to supply a distribution center, or the centers are too far from their farms. You write that all of your stores are in fact free to buy locally, which I was surprised and delighted to hear. I hope you’ll take steps to encourage them in that direction. I have interviewed dozen of organic farmers for whom selling to Whole Foods over the years has been critical to their success; for what it’s worth, they feel much less welcome since you moved to the regional distribution model. Which leads me to my next question: is there anyone, at the regional level, charged with the specific mission of locally sourcing as much food as possible? And do Whole Foods buyers have the authority to pay a premium for local produce, in the same way they now routinely pay a premium for organic? Such a commitment by Whole Foods to local sourcing – not everything, but whatever and whenever possible – could go a long way toward rebuilding local food systems across America.”

The back-and-forth between America’s premier food journalist and America’s premier natural foods CEO is great reading. You can find it by clicking on “John Mackey’s Blog” at www.wholefoodsmarket.com.
Farmers markets

Since the flap with Michael Pollan, Whole Foods has announced new efforts to help local farmers. Plans are under way to start farmers markets in the stores’ parking lots at many locations throughout the United States. And next year, Whole Foods Market will start a $10 million loan fund to help small farmers who want to scale up their businesses so that they can supply the supermarket chain.

The farmers market initiative has already begun in several cities. In Austin, which is home to Whole Foods Market’s corporate headquarters, the flagship store hosts a farmers market every Wednesday. In at least a dozen other stores, markets either started this year or will begin next year, according to Amy Schaefer of Whole Foods. The markets can be held only at stores with their own parking lots.

Not everyone is thrilled about Whole Foods’ plans, though. In Providence, Rhode Island, the Whole Foods Market started a Saturday morning market in October, to the dismay of some farmers who sell at other markets on Saturday.

“This Whole Foods store is less than one mile from the site of our established market and within the same neighborhood,” said Diana Kushner, who sells at the DownCity Farmers Market. “There is a second Whole Foods store two blocks away from our farmers market as well, which had a one-day farmers market in their parking lot in September. When I approached a staff member of the store about why they were setting up a competing farmers’ market, she said that they were only trying to help local farmers. She was aware of our market but didn’t think that another market at the same time would be a threat to us.

“The farmer members of our market disagree. We have spent years building our Providence Saturday market to be the thriving place it is now. Besides our Saturday market there are two other Saturday markets in the greater Providence metropolitan area, as well as markets on every other single day of the week except for Mondays. We believe that the area is now saturated with farmers markets, that our work should focus on building the markets that already exist. Our farmers are unanomous in thinking that Whole Foods is trying to use other small farmers to enhance their image as a company that supports local agriculture.”

Ms. Schaefer, the Whole Foods spokesperson, said “Certainly our intention is not to compete,” and promised to contact the regional office that oversees the market.

One farmer who has been selling to Whole Foods for 16 years thinks that the company wouldn’t deliberately hurt an existing farmers market. Larry Butler of Boggy Creek Farm in Austin says that farmers with complaints about local stores ought to contact the regional office and, if that doesn’t solve the problem, go to corporate managers.
“One of the things we’ve learned from dealing with them is that you have to be tenacious,” he said. “When you get your nose bloodied, you have to get back up and say ‘Read your mission statement; you say you want to support local growers.’”

Jeremy Barker-Plotkin, one of the growers who sells to the Hadley, Massachusetts, store, had no complaints. Whole Foods pays $2 a pound for his heirloom tomatoes.

Some growers suspect that Pollan’s criticisms were a wake-up call to Whole Foods that is has gotten lax about its mission of supporting small farms. Others suspect that Wal-Mart’s entry into organic foods is also threatening Whole Foods’ domination of the organic market, and that perhaps the company wants to differentiate itself by its support for local growers.

Loan program
Details of the loan program are still being developed, Ms. Schaefer said. The idea is to offer low-interest loans to farmers who need capital so that they can sell to Whole Foods. For example, a farmer might want to change their practices to comply with Whole Foods’ new Animal Compassionate Standards. A traditional bank might not look favorably at a loan request for that reason, so Whole Foods wants to be able to step in. As another example, a small cheesemaker might want to expand their facilities so they can sell to a distribution center; Whole Foods will consider making a loan.

The loan program will be administered through each regional office. GFM will publish more information when the program is established.