Our Whole Trade® Guarantee means you can give Valentine’s Day gifts that can change someone’s world, and I’m not just talking about the recipient. Our Whole Trade chocolates, body care and flowers are grown and produced to meet our commitment to ethical trade, the environment and the highest quality. But what if you are done with all that romantic gift giving? (At least for now.) There are all kinds of love, and no one said that Valentine’s Day has to be for lovers only. So how can you still spread love?
Would you rather hang out with your friends on this sometimes special/sometimes tricky day? Here are a few ideas for how you can share your love with the pals who lend you their shoulders (and who need your shoulder too). Read the rest of this entry »
For six days in January, a group of Whole Foods Market team members traveled to South America, visiting farms, meeting growers and seeing firsthand the benefits of our Whole Trade® flower program. Read part one, Flowers UnCut, and part two, An Elite Community.
Our first day in Quito was an amazing introduction to a place, a culture, and a people unlike any other. The sheer geography at over ten thousand feet in the tumultuous Andes mountain range atop the equator gave the city a powerful and immense character. The region stretches across enormous valleys with drop-off cliffs, rivers and active volcanoes throughout. The land is green and dotted with concrete and cinderblock houses.
For six days in January, a group of Whole Foods Market team members traveled to South America, visiting farms, meeting growers and seeing firsthand the benefits of our Whole Trade® flower program. Read part one, Flowers UnCut.
Our journey began in Bogota, Colombia, home of one of our largest Whole Trade® growers, Elite Flowers. Despite working for Whole Foods Market, a mission-driven company with a commitment to supporting all of our stakeholders, it can be easy to discount the powerful positive impact a company can have on its workers, their families and the greater community in which they live. Yet we were lucky enough to see that impact in action with a brief glimpse into the community of Elite Flowers, their Foundation and their Worker’s Fund. Through it all I was inspired, impressed and dutifully full on delicious food (if you are ever in Bogota, you absolutely must try Ajiaco soup!). Elite is a large company with over 4,000 employees and the work they do is changing lives on a daily basis, both inside and out of the greenhouse walls.
The Elite Foundation was initially created to improve the lives of the employees’ children, who were largely left at home to be raised by the older children. The goal was to provide quality education, nutrition and expression through art and community. When we established our Whole Trade relationship with the farm, the foundation became the natural recipient for the 10% premium we pay over the cost of the flowers (pre-shipping) that goes directly into important community programs. As those dollars rolled in, Elite was able to expand their overall services and directly fund 150 new children in the program. But to truly understand the importance and impact of these dollars, we needed to see it in person.
An avid lover of food and travel, Nick Heustis has worked for Whole Foods Market for 12 years and is currently the Associate Marketing Coordinator for the Northern California region.
Flowers are a symbol of celebration and emotion; they convey feelings, life and vitality. They add color and warmth to our homes, and at the other end of the supply chain, they provide jobs, homes and community for the people who grow, harvest and package them. For six days in January, a group of Whole Foods Market® team members traveled to South America, visiting farms, meeting growers and seeing firsthand the benefits of our Whole Trade® flower program. It was a wild ride of planes, buses, cars and missing iPads, and through it all we were inspired by the people, the culture and the practices that create some of the most impressive flowers I have ever seen. This will be the first of three posts, with the hope of sharing our journey with you. Read the rest of this entry »
Rose are red.
Violets are blue.
We’ve made a commitment to Whole Trade.
And you can too.
Small choices you make every day can make a world of difference. This Valentine’s Day, why not look for gifts that give back and really spread the love? Our Whole Trade® Guarantee ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions, and sound environmental practices. When you choose Whole Trade products, you not only show your loved ones that you care, you also use your buying power to create new economic opportunities for workers in the developing world.
These Whole Trade items are perfect for your Valentine… (Whole Trade) guaranteed:
Change the world with Whole Trade chocolate. Eating or giving chocolate is a whole lot sweeter when you know it’s doing good.
Beauty and body care with a conscience. Help your valentine feel great from head to toe with Whole Trade body care such as luxurious soaps, rich body lotions or sensuous massage oils.
Love blossoms with bountiful, beautiful blooms. Pick bouquets or assemble your own lovely creation from our selection of gorgeous Whole Trade flowers like roses, Gerbera daisies and mixed bouquets.
This Valentine’s Day will you make a commitment to ethical trade, the environment and quality products?
After several years of work by our grower and certifying partner, we’re pleased to announce that we can now offer Whole Trade® bell peppers to our customers. Grown in greenhouses outside the city of Culiacán in Sinaloa, Mexico, loose and packaged Whole Trade bell peppers will be available in most of our stores from January until May, when US production ramps up again.
Our Whole Trade® Guarantee ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions, and sound environmental practices. These Whole Trade bell peppers also generate a 1% donation of retail sale value to the Whole Planet Foundation.
These peppers come from Divemex, growers we have worked with for a few years now. We were pleased when Fair Trade USA came in as a certifier and helped the company meet their rigorous standards, which now qualifies the peppers for our Whole Trade Guarantee.
Recently, a group from our produce team visited the Divemex 175-acre greenhouse farm. They toured the facilities, learned about their production techniques and met some of the 600 people who are employed at the farm. Here’s what Matt Rogers of Whole Foods Market Produce had to say about the trip:
It was still a couple of weeks before harvest when we visited, but we saw some nice green peppers maturing on the plants. From a quality perspective, we like to see peppers with good blocky shape, full seed pack, even cavities around the seeds, and nice thick walls. Color comes on about three weeks after a pepper is mature and green. In the next five months, this farm will produce more than 10 million pounds of colored bell peppers!
With the Fair Trade certification, Whole Foods Market and our customers receive independent verification that working conditions and environmental practices on the farm meet high standards. Fair Trade also requires that a part of our purchase price be passed through to a fund controlled directly by the workers on the farm. The workers vote on how to invest the money to benefit their communities.
We met with the workers committee and they explained that the workforce had already voted to support three distinct education support programs for different interest groups:
One for children of workers to support basic needs associated with attending primary school (uniforms, transportation, etc.)
Another for workers themselves who want to continue their secondary education while they work
And a separate one for workers seeking professional training of some sort to advance their careers.
Many of the workers at this farm are migrants from other areas of Mexico and special attention has been paid to ensure the families of these workers will also have access to the programs. We’re always excited to be able to support growers like Divemex who take the quality of their product and the wellness of their workforce seriously.
We hope you’ll pick up these peppers in our stores and help make this new program a success. Tell us what you think. When you buy something like bell peppers, do you consider the impact your purchase makes?
Our floral departments are all dressed up for the holidays! Along with providing your traditional favorites in fresh, vibrant colors, we think this is the perfect time of year to reflect on how our Whole Trade® Guarantee provides beautiful blooms that can change someone’s world. From Costa Rican lilies to Ecuadorean roses, our Whole Trade flowers are grown to meet our commitment to ethical trade, the environment and the highest quality — all while bringing the warmth of the holidays to you and yours.
In Costa Rica, we buy our Whole Trade lilies from Plantas y Flores, and their deep red Asiatic Knockout lilies are perfect for the holidays. Plantas y Flores is located high in the mountains — about 6,600 feet above sea level — above San Jose near the Irazu volcano, which you can see on a clear day. They are keen on detail and, in addition to quality checks on foliage, they actually measure to ensure the head size of every lily hits our minimum specification. Once the lily stalk is cut for packing, the plant’s bulbs are taken out of the ground and used in the farm’s compost. It takes an average of 13-18 weeks to grow a lily plant from bulb to a stalk that is ready to be harvested for retail sale.
Calling all banana and pineapple fans — this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss! We’re teaming up with EARTH University to give our customers a chance to win a trip to Costa Rica to visit EARTH University’s lush campus in Guácimo, Limón. Five winners will embark on a seven-day Costa Rican adventure. No purchase necessary! Just visit our contest page to enter by September 30th.
EARTH University students are passionate about affecting societal change and improving conditions in their home countries and the tropics through their knowledge and leadership — like recent graduate Pierre Paul Audate, who advises small growers in Haiti.
Whole Foods Market started selling fresh EARTH University bananas in 2007, then added their fresh pineapples, and were excited to begin offering the new frozen EARTH University Pineapple Chunks and EARTH University Banana Chunks in early 2011. The sales of EARTH University fresh and frozen fruits help fund scholarships, and finance research and investment in organic and sustainable agriculture. (Try our collection of tasty recipes featuring EARTH University pineapples and bananas.)
All of Whole Foods Market’s EARTH University offerings are part of our Whole Trade® Guarantee, which ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions for growers and sound environmental practices.
Whole Foods Market started selling fresh EARTH University bananas in 2007, then added their fresh pineapples, and was excited to begin offering the new frozen EARTH University Pineapple and EARTH University Banana Chunks in early 2011. The sales of these fresh and frozen fruits help fund scholarships, and finance research and investment in organic and sustainable agriculture.
Plus, all of Whole Foods Market’s EARTH University offerings are part of our Whole Trade™ Guarantee, which ensures fair prices are paid for products, better wages and working conditions for growers and sound environmental practices.
If that’s not reason enough to add some EARTH University fruit in your basket, then take a look at some of our favorite recipes for using EARTH University Pineapples and Bananas:
Do you like tropical adventures, delicious bananas, sustainable agriculture, long walks on the beach, Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain? Then this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss! We’re teaming up with EARTH University to give you a chance to win a trip to Costa Rica to visit EARTH University in Guácimo, Limón.
Five winners will embark on a seven-day Costa Rican adventure where they will:
Experience, first-hand, how EARTH University is preparing young students to become tomorrow’s leaders in sustainable agriculture, responsible business and community development.
Visit with the farmers who produce the rich and creamy EARTH University bananas and learn how their innovative growing methods are helping to save our planet’s precious resources.
Explore vibrant Costa Rica, relax on the majestic beaches of Puerto Viejo, sample local cuisine and cruise along the island’s southern coast in search of dolphins.
Welcome to Whole Story, the official blog of Whole Foods Market.
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We’re lucky to have a whole bunch of smart, passionate people doing incredible things in areas like organics, supporting local growers, green practices, fair trade, micro-lending and all kinds of food related stuff. We’ll use this blog to share some of the cool things going on around here.
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Our Whole Trade® Guarantee means you can give Valentine’s Day gifts that can change someone’s world, and I’m not just talking about the recipient. Our Whole Trade chocolates, body care and flowers are grown and produced to meet our commitment to ethical trade, the environment and the highest quality. But what if you are done with all that romantic gift giving? (At least for now.) There are all kinds of love, and no one said that Valentine’s Day has to be for lovers only. So how can you still spread love?
Rose are red.
Change the world with Whole Trade chocolate. Eating or giving chocolate is a whole lot sweeter when you know it’s doing good.
After several years of work by our grower and certifying partner, we’re pleased to announce that we can now offer Whole Trade® bell peppers to our customers. Grown in greenhouses outside the city of Culiacán in Sinaloa, Mexico, loose and packaged Whole Trade bell peppers will be available in most of our stores from January until May, when US production ramps up again.
These peppers come from Divemex, growers we have worked with for a few years now. We were pleased when Fair Trade USA came in as a certifier and helped the company meet their rigorous standards, which now qualifies the peppers for our Whole Trade Guarantee.
It was still a couple of weeks before harvest when we visited, but we saw some nice green peppers maturing on the plants. From a quality perspective, we like to see peppers with good blocky shape, full seed pack, even cavities around the seeds, and nice thick walls. Color comes on about three weeks after a pepper is mature and green. In the next five months, this farm will produce more than 10 million pounds of colored bell peppers!
We met with the workers committee and they explained that the workforce had already voted to support three distinct education support programs for different interest groups:
Our floral departments are all dressed up for the holidays! Along with providing your traditional favorites in fresh, vibrant colors, we think this is the perfect time of year to reflect on how our 
Calling all banana and pineapple fans — this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss! We’re teaming up with EARTH University to give our customers a chance to win a trip to Costa Rica to visit EARTH University’s lush campus in Guácimo, Limón. Five winners will embark on a seven-day Costa Rican adventure. No purchase necessary! Just 
Mahi Mahi Pineapple Skewers with Tomatillo Salsa
Do you like tropical adventures, delicious bananas, sustainable agriculture, long walks on the beach, Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain? Then this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss! We’re teaming up with EARTH University to give you a chance to 
Experience, first-hand, how EARTH University is preparing young students to become tomorrow’s leaders in sustainable agriculture, responsible business and community development.
