michael pollan on the wal-martization of organic foods
July 4th, 2006 by herichon
Here is a well reasoned and thought-provoking piece by Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma) on the future of organic foods in the light of Wal-Mart’s announced decision to “go organic” by encouraging suppliers to provide organic alternatives and offering them at only a marginal markup over their conventional equivalents. Superficially this is good news, but Pollan (and others) point out that Wal-Mart’s embrace of organic foods has the potential to seriously hurt organic farmers and undermine the entire concept of organic foods across the board.
In a nutshell – organic foods cost more because those who produce it are conscientious about the quality of their product, and those who buy organic foods are willing to pay a premium because they understand what goes into the preparation of those foods and accept that the producers are pricing their product responsibly. However, Wal-Mart is the antithesis of responsible pricing and product quality. Their stated goal is to get the lowest price possible for every product in their stores, and they have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to coerce suppliers by any means necessary into providing product at ever-decreasing profit margins. Too often this has the effect of lowering the bar quality-wise for everybody, since suppliers have to cut every possible corner to provide their products at prices and volumes that Wal-Mart will accept. Wal-Mart is such a huge player in the retail market that they can (and have) changed the face of entire industries to suit their needs. Applying these tactics to the organic foods market can only lead to disaster.
What can you do? If you’re still supporting Wal-Mart (or for that matter, any of the other big-box superstores) – please stop. Their products are only cheap for you to buy because the real costs are hidden elsewhere, in their massive impact on the environment, the economy, and every market they participate in. And please look elsewhere for your organics in particular. Ultimately your best source for fresh produce is your local farmers’ market or co-op, though Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and others still provide some excellent choices for prepackaged organics.
Some things to bear in mind when shopping for organics (and really, shopping in general):
Next best option: find a local grocery (ie, not a national chain) that carries organics. Zupan’s is a good option in the Portland area. Again, your money stays local and helps your community, and stores like Zupan’s are more likely to carry products from local sources.
When no hometown options exist, look for Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. These stores are a mixed blessing – they tend to have very good selections of organics and healthy foods, especially the kinds of grocery items you’re unlikely to find at local farmers’ markets. On the other hand, you’re not reinvesting in your community. (Both TJ’s and Whole Foods talk about their commitment to local communities on their respective websites, but most of the money you spend there still leaves your community.) Also remember that quite a lot of the products you buy here are imported. Now here at amphichon, we’ve got nothing against imported foods per se, but think about the big picture – environmentally speaking, is it worthwhile to buy fresh blueberries that somebody took the time and trouble to grow organically but which had to be flown halfway around the globe from New Zealand to get to your table? They may not be saturated in pesticides but they carry a significant environmental price tag, just the same. (Besides, if you’re shopping in Oregon for berries from New Zealand, you’re already missing out.)
If all else fails, you’ve always got the supermarket – your local variety of Albertsons, Kroger, Safeway, what have you. (For our Midwestern friends, Jewel is owned by Albertsons and Dominick’s is owned by Safeway.) The benefit here is convenience – most people live within fifteen minutes of a national-brand supermarket, and depending on your area they may have a decent selection of local produce and/or organics. (Then again, they may not, particularly if you live in an neighborhood where the management has decided that the “demographics” aren’t favorable to a forward-thinking product inventory, in which case, better get used to Rice-a-Roni.) There are a number of caveats with supermarkets, the obvious being that most every penny you spend is leaving your community and ending up in the pockets of national and multinational corporations. It’s always better to look for a smaller or local group whenever possible, although fewer and fewer of these exist. (Lots of Portlanders still think of Fred Meyer as a local chain, for example, and while they started out here and are still headquartered here, they were bought out in 1999 and are now a division of Kroger, a $60bn national chain.) Note also that some of these chains have better ethical records than others – Albertsons has perennial problems with labor unions and employee relations, for example, while WinCo Foods (formerly Cub Foods) is employee-owned. Lastly, quality and availability of decent organic foods vary wildly from chain to chain and even from store to store within chains – keep an eye on product labels and expiration dates to be sure you’re getting something healthy.
While I am philosophically opposed to the big-box modus operandi, I keep thinking of families with kids, with incomes less than $50k a year, for whom a cheap price on staples is everything. Go to WalMart on a weekend and that’s all you’ll see. Those of us who have the choice to stay away from big-box and pay more are way outnumbered by those for whom low cost is the only consideration. Unfortunately, this is a complex problem that won’t be solved at the consumer level, IMHO.
Heya Judy,
You’re right of course; we can only do so much and we’re not going to fix this anytime soon acting as independent consumers. I recognize that large parts of the country don’t have many options; the families-with-more-kids-than-money demographic is exactly who Wal-Mart and other megastores are targetting and most of these folks will continue to shop there because it’s all they know and all they can afford.
With that in mind, though, I think there’s still a difference to be made. Though it may sound a bit elitist, as far as the ability of consumers to affect the market goes, I tend to think of suburban America as mostly a lost cause. Big-box stores are as much a part of the suburban landscape as fast food and strip malls. This is Wal-Mart country and it’s likely to continue to be that way for quite a while, despite what liberal jerks like me write online.
I think you’ll agree though that the situation in densely populated metropolitan areas can be very different – the more dense the population, the easier it becomes for independent and niche markets to grow and thrive, and the more the local marketplace will tend to reflect the tastes and sensibilities of the local residents. You’ll still have poor neighborhoods in densely populated areas of course, but even there, you’re likely to see a more diverse range of places to shop, including local mom-and-pop shops and farmers markets, within relatively easy access. (At least as easy as the megastores, who aren’t generally represented well in poor urban areas anyway – they tend to gravitate toward the land of the huge parking lot and convenient expressway access.) And pricing isn’t always as big an issue as it seems. It’s true that you can buy in bulk at megastores and spend less than you would at a local supermarket, but the differences between a local supermarket and (say) a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods aren’t always that dramatic, especially where staples like fruits, vegetables, canned goods, and cereals are concerned. (I’ve been poor and living off Jewel, and poor and living off Trader Joe’s, and my dollars went just as far at TJs. Farther, even, since some of the less expensive things at Jewel scare me off, but I trust TJ’s product selection enough to explore their lower range.)
So I guess I’m mainly preaching to the choir, but there are still a lot of otherwise reasonable and intelligent consumers who are right on the line between the two markets, who could shop at megastores but who do have alternatives available, and as they begin to shop smarter, we can take more ground back from the Wal-Marts and give it to more progressive markets. We can’t fix everything, especially overnight, but every dollar that goes into a Wal-Mart’s till contributes to the problem, and every dollar that goes into a local alternative’s till contributes to the solution, right? It’s the perennial problem we face everywhere else, from recycling to conservation to even just picking up trash from the sidewalk. If every individual in America managed to completely eliminate their personal contribution to pollution, it’d be hardly a drop in the bucket compared to the environmental impact of the factories, refineries, agriculture, and everything else outside of our individual control. But we still recycle/reduce/reuse because it’s all we can do. Our individual votes are mostly meaningless because of the vagaries of the electoral system and corruption across the board, and in solid red or blue states the minority block makes no impact at all, but we vote anyway because it’s all we can do. I agree that ultimately the problem may not be solved on the consumer level, but the consumer level is all we can influence, so – that’s what I’m hoping to do.