We are excited to announce that Whole Foods Market now offers grass-fed and finished beef in all of our 281 stores in the United States. While this is a nationwide program, it isn’t based on national sourcing. True to our commitment to support our local communities, we partner with grass-fed producers from across the country including family farms in California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Increasingly, people are thinking about what they are eating and how it is produced. By partnering with producers across the country, Whole Foods Market hopes to help bring grass-fed ranching back into the mainstream because of its positive impact on the cattle, the environment and how it supports local communities.

For beef cattle, grass is the most natural feed available. Cattle are designed to convert grasses, legumes and herbaceous plants into protein. Because it’s their natural environment, raising cattle on grass hearkens back to traditional methods. As well, most grass-fed ranchers are either independent, selling beef from only their own property or belong to a small, locally focused producer group.

Like all meat sold at Whole Foods Market, grass-fed beef must meet our strict quality standards, which require that animals are raised on a vegetarian diet with no antibiotics or added growth hormones. In addition, all producers must meet specific and rigorous animal welfare standards that apply to all stages of an animal’s life and environment.

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It’s often easy to forget that the burger, steak or drumstick on your plate was once an animal. How was that animal raised? How was it treated? Where did it come from? What did it eat? What about hormones and antibiotics? Was its growth artificially accelerated to get to market sooner and reduce feed cost? Here are a few things to think about as you try to answer those questions.

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In your opinion, which of these is the most impactful Earth-friendly effort? Take our poll on green efforts and see how your thoughts stack up with others.

From sky-high energy usage to a floating island of trash twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean, it’s clear we need to do a better job taking care of our planet. Earth Day began in 1970 as a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment—from the rivers and lakes to our land and air—and the need for action is just as strong today.

Every one of us can make choices that will help our planet. And at Whole Foods Market, we believe that goes for companies, too. In fact, we have long believed that companies have a responsibility to be conscious about their impact on the environment, and we’re happy to lead the way with big commitments company-wide and small actions by passionate team members in our stores. After all, what we put on our plates goes way beyond food.

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When you buy beef, what are you concerned about? Take our poll on meat standards and see how your thoughts stack up with others.

It’s often easy to forget that the burger, steak or drumstick on your plate was once an animal. How was that animal raised? How was it treated? Where did it come from? What did it eat? What about hormones and antibiotics? Was its growth artificially accelerated to get to market sooner and reduce feed cost?

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According to the FDA, as much as 75 percent of processed food in the United States may contain components from genetically modified crops. In 30 other countries around the world, including Australia, Japan and all of the nations in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), due to environmental impact and concerns about GMO safety.

At Whole Foods Market we support the National Organic Standards, which prohibit GMOs in organics, and we champion informed consumer choice with regard to GMOs. Since 1992—before the commercialization of GMO foods in the United States—we’ve been informing our customers about the issues and advocating labeling of genetically modified foods.

We are proud to be a founding leader of The Non-GMO Project, working to ensure the sustained availability of non-GMO choices through an industry-wide standard, which will allow verification that products are non-GMO. Our 365 Everyday Value® and Whole Foods Market™ brand products are sourced to avoid ingredients grown from genetically engineered seed, and our partnership with the Non-GMO Project will enable us to verify and label these products. Your options for choosing non-GMO are growing!

Remember: Every bite has a story. Your conscious food choices make a world of difference. Learn more at Let’s Retake Our Plates.

What do you love most about local products? Take our poll on locally grown and see how your thoughts stack up with others.

Supporting local farmers puts a “face” behind our foods and keeps us connected to the seasons, as well as the unique flavor and diversity of local crops. Local farms are a valuable component of a community’s character, helping to maintain agricultural heritage, preserve land use diversity and moderate development. Many local farmers choose to diversify, growing a variety of crops instead of just one. This is a boon for biodiversity and your palate, since local crops are harvested at their peak of freshness and flavor. And most of the money spent on local production stays in the community, “greening up” the local economy.

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As we load our plates with more foods from more places around the world, we begin to think more about where that food began…who grew it, who processed it, who packaged it and what their working lives may be like. We also wonder if the environment was affected in order for us to enjoy a cup of coffee or a chocolate bar.

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There are lots of things to love about spring but it can be a period of dread in the produce business as we transition from the winter to the summer fruit harvest season. A lot can happen all at once: citrus starts to fade, we start losing variety in hard fruit (apples and pears), and the weather can play havoc on new crop domestic fruit (like berries).

The springtime high tension in our trade was exacerbated this year by the massive earthquake in Chile, where much of our winter soft fruit (grapes and blueberries) and summer hard fruit (apples) come from. These challenges for all fruit is doubly so for organically grown. Lower overall acreage and storage volumes can mean a sharp reduction in available organic supply in the spring. The questions every year are these: do we have enough life left in winter to carry us into summer? And what, if anything, can we do about a springtime gap in fruit?

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We’re taking a poll and we want to know what you think. What is your favorite natural alternative for sweetness in baked goods?  Take our poll and see how your thoughts stack up with others.

We say: Let’s forget the fake sweet stuff. Artificial sweeteners are purely synthetic compounds that do not exist in nature, and that work by fooling our bodies into believing we are eating sugar. Whole Foods Market doesn’t allow artificial sweeteners in our food, because why mess with a good thing?

Read more on natural sweeteners here and here.

Remember: Every bite has a story. Your conscious food choices make a world of difference. Learn more at Let’s Retake our Plates.

What concerns you most about the seafood you eat? Take our poll on seafood and see how your thoughts stack up with others.

Let’s fish for the future

From 75 to 80% of the world’s marine fishery resources are fully fished, over-exploited, depleted or recovering. With the growing demand for seafood, our choices are important. Every time we put wild-caught seafood on our plates, we can help ensure a long-term supply for ourselves and for future generations by choosing seafood that comes from healthy fish populations that are well-managed and caught using sustainable fishing methods.

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