Huge congratulations to Arlene from the Philadelphia area who shops at our North Wales store! She is the grand prize winner of the 9-day trip to Costa Rica. Arlene will get to see first hand how our Whole Trade™ pineapples are grown in Costa Rica on farms that never compromise on providing delectable sweet and juicy fruit, and who keep the health of the planet high on their priority list. Our Whole Trade™ Guarantee ensures that these responsible farms and their workers receive equitable wages and better working conditions – and that you enjoy the best quality tropical treat, delivered to our stores at peak ripeness. A big shout out to our partners, Intrepid Travel, for making this trip possible.

Of course, we are all winners when it comes to eating these delicious Whole Trade™ pineapples that are setting a sweeter standard for quality, as well as environmental and social responsibility.

Want to know how to select a great pineapple? Carol offers some tips in her post on Busting Myths about Fresh Pineapple. Looking for ideas on how to serve some delicious pineapple? Here are some of our favorite pineapple recipes and you can also check out over 150 recipe ideas from our readers.

Sad you didn’t win? Drown your sorrows in a bowl of fresh cut Whole Trade pineapple. Yum!

Time to celebrate! World Fair Trade Day is the largest Fair Trade event in North America, with over 65,000 people having participated in 2009. In the United States, businesses, high schools, universities, churches, groups and individuals will be raising awareness about the benefits of buying Fair Trade products. The theme of this year’s event is “Fair Trade My Home.” It’s easy to get involved! By purchasing Whole Trade™ products from Whole Foods Market, you can declare your home a “Fair Trade Home.” Snap a photo of your favorite Whole Trade product and upload it to Fair Trade My Home. Note that Whole Trade products may be certified by any of three great partners: TransFair, Rainforest Alliance, or IMO. Learn more about Whole Trade in this post I wrote in February.

Why celebrate? World Fair Trade Day national campaign coordinator, and Executive Director, Fair Trade Resource Network Jeff Goldman, says it best: “There are lots of reasons to celebrate Fair Trade as we bring dignity and justice to millions of vulnerable farmers and artisans around the world. By committing to use Fair Trade goods at home, we can enjoy high quality and take action to improve our world.”

The Fair Trade system helps producers and suppliers earn a living wage and take steps to protect the environment.  It also serves to empower individuals and communities, support women’s and children’s rights, promote dignity and respect, and connect developing nations with developed nations and markets.

Products of major co-sponsors of World Fair Trade Day are available at Whole Foods Market. We currently support communities in more than 50 countries via the Whole Trade program. Check out our interactive map, which shows these countries at a glance. So celebrate World Fair Trade Day on Saturday, May 8th, and spread the fair trade joy.

At our office, we talk about flowers all year long, but this time of year it’s hard to miss all of the excitement reminding us that there is a holiday right around the corner. Mother’s Day and flowers absolutely go hand in hand!

As we were gearing up for Mother’s Day this year, I was part of a Whole Foods Market team who traveled to Colombia to visit one of the flower farms we partner with. The farm grows many of our Whole Trade Guarantee flowers including two of our favorites, gerbera daisies and mixed bouquets. These flowers have attributes far beyond their beauty. The Whole Trade Guarantee is our commitment to ethical trade, the environment and the highest quality, with each purchase supporting positive impact in the community that produces the flowers. Wouldn’t that make any mom’s day?

I took my camera along so I could share a few highlights from the trip. Enjoy!

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In case you are just tuning in, we’ve been celebrating April with our Whole Trade™ pineapples that are setting a sweeter standard for quality, as well as environmental and social responsibility.

But time is running out for you to enter to win a 9-day trip to Costa Rica! To celebrate the expansion of our ethical sourcing program in Costa Rica, we’ve partnered with Intrepid Travel to offer a chance to win a trip to Costa Rica, home to the Whole Trade pineapple found only at Whole Foods Market. The contest ends on April 30^th, so enter your name now for a chance to win.

Our Whole Trade pineapples are grown in Costa Rica on farms that never compromise on providing delectable sweet and juicy fruit, and who keep the health of the planet high on their priority list. Our Whole Trade™ Guarantee ensures that these responsible farms and their workers receive equitable wages and better working conditions – and that you enjoy the best quality tropical treat, delivered to our stores at peak ripeness.

These Whole Trade pineapples are truly amazing. I’ve been packing it in my daughter’s lunch box for quite a few weeks now and she’s still loving it! So are these customers:

I just picked up some fantastic pineapples from the Princeton Whole Foods in New Jersey. They taste amazing!  I made some fresh pineapple juice with my Norwalk Juicer. Delicious!  —  Tony

I just ate some of this pineapple and it’s the sweetest pineapple I’ve ever had. I’ll definitely be back to Whole Foods for more. I just wish it wasn’t a 45 minute drive.  —  Joy

Want to know how to select a great pineapple? Carol offers some tips in her post on Busting Myths about Fresh Pineapple. Looking for ideas on how to serve some delicious pineapple? Here are some of our favorite pineapple recipes and you can also check out over 150 recipe ideas from our readers.

How are you enjoying your pineapple?

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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Once in a while we have a new program in produce that is super exciting, and Whole Trade pineapple is one of those programs. First off, the fruit is delicious! But in addition to taste, there are plenty of reasons that we can’t stop talking about this fruit. Whole Trade pineapple is grown on farms that meet high social and environmental standards. Our purchases of this fruit contribute back to the communities that produced it (check out Matt’s blog to get the full story). Additionally, one percent of the retail sale goes to the Whole Planet Foundation, aiding in the fight against poverty in developing countries. That’s a lot of good things packed into a piece of fruit!

As we got ready to launch this program, our team visited the farms and brought back reports about pineapple growing, harvesting and selection. As they shared the scoop, it came to light just how many myths there are out there about selecting pineapple. Here are just a few that we came across!

Sue Swyt is our randomly selected winner of the $25 gift card. Thanks everyone for your entries!

Tell us your best fresh pineapple recipe (using 6 ingredients or less) in the comments below and you could win a $25 gift card!

Fresh pineapple is easy to love. A bowl of juicy pineapple chunks makes a tropical treat that’s hard to resist. And our Whole Trade Pineapples are even easier to love, as these pineapples with a purpose make a difference by supporting organics, meeting environmental and social standards, and investing in communities, research and education.

We’re celebrating all things pineapple this month, and we’ve got an exciting contest to win a 9-day trip to pineapple-rich Costa Rica happening, so be sure to enter. But in case you don’t win that, here’s another one for you: a pineapple recipe challenge!

Fresh pineapple is downright delicious in all kinds of recipes from salsas and salads to smoothies and sandwiches. Whether it’s sharing a family favorite or creating something new and exciting, we want to know what you like to make with fresh pineapple. Now, here’s the challenge: your recipe needs to feature fresh pineapple and no more than five other ingredients. We want these recipe ideas to be fabulous and simple.

Post your recipe idea in the comments below by Wednesday, April 21, and you’ll be entered to win a $25 gift card. We’ll choose a winner at random from the responses we receive.

Stumped for inspiration or just can’t wait to get your hands on some great pineapple recipes? Check out some of our favorite recipes featuring fresh pineapple, along with the scoop on why pineapple is so good for you.

Okay, time to head to the kitchen and start experimenting — have fun!

Update 5/7/10: Huge congratulations to our winner — Arlene from the Philadelphia area who shops at our North Wales store!

Our Whole Trade™ pineapples are setting a sweeter standard for quality, as well as environmental and social responsibility. Grown in Costa Rica on farms that never compromise on providing delectable sweet and juicy fruit, and who keep the health of the planet high on their priority list. Our Whole Trade™ Guarantee ensures that these responsible farms and their workers receive equitable wages and better working conditions – and that you enjoy the best quality tropical treat, delivered to our stores at peak ripeness.

Here’s your chance to taste the pineapples where they are picked!

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Our produce team has been learning a lot about pineapple lately. We had heard from various sources about environmental problems associated with pineapple production in Costa Rica and we wanted to know more. Over the past six months, we’ve toured farms, tasted lots of pineapple and met with a diverse group of knowledgeable people, including growers (large and small), farm workers, importers, certifiers, academics and others – a peace corps volunteer even took a long bus ride to tell us about her life and work in a community on the edge of a big pineapple farm.

As a result of what we’ve learned, this April (Earth Month) we’re introducing Whole Trade Pineapple. As always, the Whole Trade Guarantee™ is our commitment to ethical trade, the environment and the highest quality. In this case, the quality speaks for itself. This fruit is excellent – fresh, ripe and sweet. I’ll explain in the rest of this post why it’s also important that it meet the other requirements of the Whole Trade Guarantee.

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During Whole Trade February, we hope you’ve learned a lot about the difference that Whole Trade makes. In case you are just tuning in, The Whole Trade Guarantee is our commitment to quality, the environment and ethical trade with partners in developing countries. To wrap up the month, we wanted to revisit bananas – our first Whole Trade product and a great example of the very real, positive impact we can have on farm workers, communities and the environment while providing a quality product to our customers.

Bananas were the first product to carry the Whole Trade Guarantee. Over the past several years, we’ve built relationships with some of the world’s best and most socially and environmentally innovative banana growers. Bananas from these farms are now stickered with the Whole Trade seal and are available in our stores nationwide almost every day. Considering the social and environmental problems that have resulted from large scale banana production in many Latin American countries, we are proud to offer this excellent fruit from growers that are truly part of the solution. Read the rest of this entry »