Whole Foods Market has it’s share of issues, but overall, I think it’s a good place to shop and I’d feel fortunate to have one come into my area. In the past, Whole Foods has been criticized for selling food with unhealthy additives such as MSG and dairy that contains recombinant bovine growth hormone, and more recently, they’ve also been criticized for promoting a vegetarian agenda. However, this just emphasizes the importance of consumer awareness. The issue with Walmart has more to do with the effects of artificially pushing prices down, and as far as I know, I don’t think this is the case with Whole Foods Market. In fact, some people complain about their prices being high.

I do not know if Walmart is truly sincere in their campaign to improve their practices or if it’s just a shallow attempt to improve their image. If they are sincere, then this is obviously good news and I appreciate you bringing it to everyone’s attention.

Yes, there certainly could be tremendous benefits from major retail chains like Walmart selling organic food. An even better example is a farmer like Joel Salatin providing sustainably raised pork to his local Chipotle restaurant. (For anyone who doesn’t know who Joel Salatin is, check out Fresh the Movie or his farm’s website) However, as is seen with Horizon and Aurora Organic, the pressure for low pricing that these major retailers impose hurts the quality of organic food. In some cases, it’s questionable if the food sold as organic is really organic. This is certainly not a benefit. People don’t go to Walmart for quality food, they go for convenience and a good bargain. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and if Walmart is selling organic food for a cheap price, then chances are that the quality of the food was compromised somewhere along the way to accommodate that price.

I agree that Walmart does have an incredible opportunity to educate consumers and reduce pesticide use and soil damage, but the question is if they’ll really embrace it. I also agree that it makes sense to buy organic food at Walmart if it’s the only place accessible, but I think it’s better to buy from local farmers, health food stores, or even local grocery stores.

One thing that I certainly think we can agree on is that consumers do have a say. If people take the time to educate themselves and only purchase the quality organic products that Walmart might sell, they’ll be more likely to stop selling the organic products that are of questionable quality and are harming the integrity of organic certification.

I think you misinterpreted my statement about the millions of years that we’ve been relying on natural foods. It was meant to point out the tremendous amount of time that we’ve spent evolving on foods that were produced by nature and that food quality suffers from the modern farming practices that resist the principles of nature rather than embracing them.

For every pound of organic produce Walmart buys that is pounds to tons less pesticide spread in our fields, less damage to soil, farming practices and general health. Walmart is the largest distributor or organic foods in the US. Walmarts stand in parts of the country where “organic” is still draped clouds of incense, love beads and liberal political views. The company has a powerful opportunity to educate consumers and allow more environmentally sound options. Many of the folks who now have access to organic produce at all have Walmart to thank for it.

For each of us in the comments section who have owned up to shopping at Walmart: our spent dollars go to support the corporation, no matter what we spend it on. Walmart does indeed change their buying practices based on consumer spending habits. For instance, Walmart ceased buying milk products produced with growth hormone after CONSUMERS made a point of asking for products without it.

Also, humans have not been making our mark on the planet long enough for the authors statement of “We’ve spent millions of years depending on the foods provided to us by nature” to be valid.

There is more than one side to every story.

I agree, there are many other reasons besides the quality of organic food to not buy from retailers such as Wal-Mart that employ questionable practices. I hope more people will realize that saving money isn’t always a good thing.

In regard to Horizon barely qualifying as organic, I think some would argue that it’s not organic at all!

I agree with Stephen that the poor economy is a big part of the problem. I’m far from an economics expert, but it seems to me that the more we buy from Wal-Mart, the more money we’d be sending overseas, and the more it would hurt the economy.

I too don’t want China or any other country to have that much influence over us. I’m not against buying imported goods, but when we come to rely on them for so many of our needs, I think it’s a problem.

There’s a documentary about Wal-Mart that I bet goes deeper into these issues. Now that we’re talking about politics and economy, I may have to watch it.

For the people who truly have trouble affording organic food, I would rather see them buy it from Wal-Mart than for them to buy conventionally produced food. However, there are many Wal-Marts across the nation that are in middle to upper class residential areas where such people are a minority among the customers. My local Wal-Mart is one of them and the parking lot always seems to be packed with cars that I wouldn’t expect underprivileged people to be driving.

I think there are a lot of people who claim that they can’t afford good food when it’s really their priorities that make it so. For me, the quality of my food is more important than the type of car I drive or the size of my house. Many people who complain about the price of high quality food don’t think this way.

For Wal-Mart to maintain their low prices, they need more customers than just the underprivileged who can’t afford to shop anywhere else. Otherwise, Wal-Mart wouldn’t be big enough to have the influence they now have to push down prices. Although I would like to see organic food be more accessible to underprivileged people, there must be a better way to do it than allowing Wal-Mart to degrade quality all across the organic food industry.

I agree that government and the economy are the bigger problems, but I feel that I have very little control over that while I have complete control over how I choose to spend my money and who I support as a result.

I agree, everyone prefers cheap and convenient. While some people unfortunately don’t care about the impact of unnaturally low prices, I think many people simply aren’t aware of it. Hopefully that will change!