I’m guessing many of the readers of this blog have already noticed this: Whole Foods Market is no longer labeling its conventional (i.e., non-organic) produce as such. Instead, the conventional fruits and veggies bear this tag: Fresh From Our Fields.
I used to admire the stringency with which Whole Foods made this distinction clear to its customers. The signs were even color-coded—I don’t remember exactly what the system was, but let’s just say the yellow signs meant organic and the purple meant conventional, or something like that. If you were the kind of consumer who cared, you could see which apples to buy from across the room. This is not only convenient, but I thought it communicated something about the mission of the company: Whole Foods respected our intelligence enough to state plainly what they were selling, and let us make our own choices.
Big and pretty, but a little less responsible than before.
The signs are still color-coded, but the message is totally diluted. It’s hard to take this as anything other than an attempt to muddle the minds of less-informed shoppers. And it reminds me of the way Whole Foods uses "local food" as one of its marketing points, putting the word "local" on signs and bags, while carrying almost no truly local produce. (Just try buying a Virginia-grown apple in the Charlottesville Whole Foods.)
"Our Fields" is ridiculous too. Whole Foods is a Fortune 500 company, not a family farm.
It’s this kind of thing that makes me go to Integral Yoga more often—know what I mean? Yeah, they lack beer and eggs and a few other things I need. But they don’t make me feel jerked around.
Chime in, readers!
