Every summer season there are a few special items I just can’t wait to see in our stores, and Joe Soghomonian’s certified organic champagne grapes are on the top of my list come the middle of July. I’ve been eating Joe’s grapes for years and his champagne grapes are among my all-time favorite produce items.

This year we’re featuring Joe’s fruit nationwide and putting the word out about why we are feeling the love. Here’s the story:

We love champagne grapes for their unusual appearance and sweetness – small, deep purple grapes on tight clusters. The fruit is super sweet and the stems are so tender that they can be eaten along with the grapes.

We love the Soghomonians for being an authentic family farm. Joe and Johnni Soghomonian’s 540-acre certified organic ranch is located near Fresno, CA, in California’s Central Valley. Joe has been a farmer all his life, working on his parents’ farm from early childhood, eventually taking over the farm and growing it to its current size. Joe and Johnni’s daughter, Natalie, now supervises the harvest and packing of grapes and is the 3rd generation farmer on their land. FAMOUS for their champagne grapes, the Soghomonian’s also grow several varieties of table grapes as well as wine grapes. (We’re looking forward to later in the summer when the Soghomonian organic wine grapes will be ready. Fresh wine grapes are fragile and delicate, but a wonderful treat eaten out of hand!)

We love to satisfy and delight our customers! Expect to find organic champagne grapes at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide from late July through August. Enjoy!

On the produce team we’re always looking for the best fruit available in the market. Our favorite deals are those where we know the grower and have seen the fruit in production across multiple seasons. For the past two winters, Whole Foods Market buyers have trekked to Chile to learn more about the products and people of a country that provides so much summer fruit to our hemisphere when we’re out of season.

Late last month two buyers came home super excited about a high brix (extra sweet) nectarine from Chile’s Rancagua region that we’re bring into stores this week. Here’s their report:

Rancagua is an ideal growing region for stone fruits because of wide, well defined valleys and temperate conditions influenced by high pressure along the Pacific Coast.

This year we’re featuring fruit from Juan Miguel Errazuriz, a second generation grower, whose family has been involved in farming for the past 250 years.

Errazuriz traveled the world for three years to research horticultural practices and technology before deciding on a type of fertigation system that supplies water and nutrients directly to the trees’ roots.

Now, Errazuriz is one of only a few growers in Chile who uses drip irrigation to control the root system and maximize flavor. Additionally, Errazuriz shortens his trees allowing greater sun penetration for more even maturity, enhancing the fruit’s natural sweetness.

We expect to have this exceptional piece of fruit in stores from mid-February through March. Enjoy!

I put together this blog entry to explain the steps we took that led us to make this agreement.

Just before Christmas of 2007 I became aware of a slavery indictment in Florida related to a contract harvesting operation and we received some questions about whether any of our Whole Foods Market suppliers were connected to the persons named in the suit. Our suppliers were not connected to the indicted parties in any way, but the story got my attention.

Shortly thereafter, a letter from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was forwarded to me, which indicated the CIW was looking for our support in making systemic change for tomato pickers in Florida. In the letter, the CIW outlined their concerns about harsh conditions endured by workers in the tomato industry. We’d been aware of CIW’s activism relative to buyers of conventional sandwich tomatoes but hadn’t been engaged with the CIW ourselves largely because we don’t buy the type of conventional tomatoes that the CIW has traditionally targeted.

As readers of this blog know, Whole Foods Market is a mission driven company, and our core values include caring for our communities and our environment. Farm workers and consumers are part of our communities and both groups deserve assurance that our Florida tomatoes aren’t produced under inhumane conditions. Given the December indictments and subsequent customer inquiries, we decided to take a deeper look at Florida.

At no time have I had any evidence to indicate that any of our Florida growers/shippers are involved in illegal labor practices. Our produce team has an inspector based in the Southeast who regularly visits farms. He has consistently reported that workers are not working under coercive conditions and that they have free access on and off the farms.

To be diligent, we implemented a series of 3rd party farm audits including common social responsibility criteria based upon the following standards:  SA8000, Rainforest Alliance, SCS Fair Labor Practices and Community Benefits and Food Alliance. Our criteria include checks for child labor, discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours, compensation, health and safety, management systems and environmental protection. Concurrent with the 3rd party audits, a small team from Whole Foods Market made trips to Florida, both to meet with CIW members and to make spot inspections at various farms. During this process we found no evidence that our growers/shippers were out of legal compliance.

Although we’re confident that our suppliers are operating within Florida law, this process helped us see that Whole Foods Market has an opportunity to proactively engage in improving the situation in Florida by creating incentives to improve conditions for farm workers. We signed an agreement to support the CIW’s “penny-per-pound” approach for tomatoes purchased from Florida, with the goal of passing these additional funds on to the harvesters. We also know that there’s more that can be done. Our Whole Trade Guarantee program is an obvious place to start.

The concepts behind the Whole Trade Guarantee include meeting our quality standards, providing fair prices to our producers, ensuring better conditions for workers and caring for the environment. This program has been implemented in other countries and we are excited to have the opportunity to work with the CIW, growers and other groups to create a domestic purchasing program modeled on these concepts. Stay tuned as we work on this in the coming months.

The Whole Trade Guarantee Rose project began almost a year ago when three of us from Whole Foods Market made a trip to Ecuador to learn about Fair Trade certified roses. Right away we saw that Ecuadorian roses are gorgeous! BIG! STRONG! BOLD! After meeting with the rose workers and learning how Fair Trade benefits them, we were smitten. Before the trip was over we had the wheels in motion to bring a Whole Trade Guarantee rose to market on our stores.

This month (June ’08), we went on a follow up trip to reconnect with the grower and worker groups we met last summer and see how Whole Foods Market purchases are making an impact since we launched the Whole Trade Guarantee roses in March 2008. Here are my daily notes from the trip.

Quito is in the Andes at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. I woke up on our first day green around the gills with a headache to match. Apparently that’s what happens to lowlanders at high altitude. My fellow travelers and our hosts propped me up and gave me herbal tea until I could walk and talk on my own. Ouch! What a way to start the day.

Once I got my sea (mountain?) legs, we headed South to the Cotopaxi valley. Ecuador’s landscape is absolutely stunning. Here in the Andes, there are live and dormant volcanoes on every side. It’s the combination of volcanic soil, elevation and equatorial light that give Ecuadorian roses their unique character. The plants here grow slower than in other locations, and the roses are bigger and stronger because of it.

Our Ecuadorian rose growers are as impressive as the landscape. FLO standards (Fairtrade Labeling Organization) are exacting! (http://www.fairtrade.net/standards.html ) It takes commitment to the concepts and values associated with ethical trade to make the standard work.

After meeting with a group of growers, we moved on to meet with one of the workers’ committees to talk about how Whole Foods Market’s business is affecting their lives and their families. (The workers’ committee or joint body is an elected group of workers that determine how their Fair Trade premium will be spent according to standards that are set by FLO.)

The projects that they told us about are really awesome:
• English classes for the children of workers and 70 more children in the community.
• Computer skills classes for workers and their families.
• Financing for household appliances such as washing machines, water heaters and computers. (Hot water and a washing machine is a BIG deal if you usually wash your clothes outdoors.)
• Scholarship programs.
• Financing for livestock purchases.
• A food purchasing co-op.

William, the president of the worker joint body, told us that their dream is to purchase five hectares of land that the workers at his farm will use to build their own homes on. With the money coming from our purchases, he believes they can achieve this within five years. Imagine what it means to build your own home, to have hot water, clean clothes, computers and scholarships for your children after living without access to basic necessities or higher education.

Days 2 and 3 rolled out as planned with farm tours followed by meetings with workers’ committees at each stop. We visited farms in Latacunga, Otovalo and Cayumbe. All of the visits were fantastic (beautiful roses!) and the workers committees all expressed how impactful the Fair Trade premium is for their families and communities. We got to see our Whole Trade Guarantee roses being packed at every stop.

This is one of those weeks when I can’t believe how lucky I am to have this job!

Workers’ committees are using the premium to provide dental, medical and pediatric care, nutritional programs, literacy programs…the list goes on. Improved housing was a key project for every committee that we met.

Some of the worker groups that we met with are developing formidable business skills from their experience managing Fair Trade premium monies. After one of our meetings today we realized that a new breed of entrepreneur may emerge from the workers’ committees. Who knew? It’s a remarkable side effect that I didn’t know to expect.

It’s midnight on Thursday and I’m still a little green around the edges. It’s clear I wasn’t born to be a mountain climber! In three hours we’ll get up and head to the airport for the 14-hour trip home. As usual, I wish I had more time to see more, to meet more people and to drink in the experience. At the same time, I can’t wait to see my own family and get back to sea level where I belong.

Take care,
Karen