Three years ago, while attending a National Cattleman’s Beef Association trade show, I learned about a new generation of growth promotants for beef cattle. The discussions left me feeling concerned as the conversations were all focused on red meat yield per animal. While I wasn’t very familiar with the term beta agonist (which is a type of growth promotant), the mechanism that was being discussed reminded me of performance enhancement drugs commonly used by athletes.

I've been in the grocery business for more than 30 years. Since I opened my first store in Weaverville, California in 1977, I've talked to customers about everything from diet choices to recipes to organic gardening. Over that time I've had the opportunity to see firsthand what Whole Foods Market customers want­ is information about the food they're buying.

At Whole Foods Market, we believe consumers have the right to know how their food is produced and this includes whether or not it contains Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

Let’s put a rest to some rumors!

I answer customer questions here at Whole Foods Market. Lately we’ve been hearing from a lot of customers who’ve seen a news story about our frozen vegetables coming from China. It’s actually an inaccurate four year-old news story that has resurfaced and is making its way around the internet again. I‘m posting here in the hopes of setting the record straight.

The story, which first aired on ABC affiliate WJLA in 2008, paints the picture that organics from China are not possible.

This is simply not true.

Blogger Lisa Johnson set out to feed her family exclusively from Whole Foods Market for a USDA-calculated “thrifty” budget of $491.10 for 30 days. Read about her success.

The less you toss the more you save. Can a few minutes of focus on your fridge contents save money AND the planet?

Find out what it means for a grocery store to be “certified organic” and why it’s so important to maintain organic integrity from seed to shopping cart.

This September, we’re celebrating National Organic Harvest Month in our stores across the US and that means we’re celebrating the organic farmers we partner with. Organic farmers not only encourage biodiversity, they depend on it — both above and below the ground.

Let’s teach kids a new way to be picky. Pick whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies along with healthy proteins.

Miyun Park, Executive Director of Global Animal Partnerships, shares how their 5-Step Animal Welfare Standards are improving the lives of farm animals.

We do not sell any meat, fresh seafood, produce or dairy products from Japan. Learn more about how we are monitoring food safety and how you can provide assistance to survivors.

We’re providing shoppers a new level of transparency about how farm animals are raised by offering beef, pork and chicken certified under the 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating™.

October 2010 is our first (and hopefully annual) Non-GMO Month, an event that introduces and celebrates the “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal, a first-of-its-kind certification program that Whole Foods Market fully supports.

Alice is the founder and president of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). NFCA’s mission is to raise awareness of celiac disease and gluten intolerance and improve the quality of life for those living with these conditions.

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?

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

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).

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

Due to the recent earthquake in Chile's central regions, we're anticipating a significant shortage of Chilean grapes within the next 10 days. We expect the shortage to extend through early April and perhaps all the way to the first of May.

This just in: The USDA published its final rule on access to pasture for organic dairy animals this afternoon. This enhancement to the National Organic Standards has been in the works for many years, and its announcement is a major victory for organic consumers, the integrity of the organic label, and the lives of organic livestock. While the National Organic Standards already require access to pasture for ruminant animals, this enhancement lays out very specific requirements:

A group of moms, who also happen to be Whole Foods Market Northern California team members, got together and created a "NorCal Moms" Facebook page as a place to offer fellow moms useful information on all aspects of mothering — from choosing healthy foods and products for babies and kids to cool community events.

I was pretty disappointed late last week to learn that there was a smear campaign afoot, by a group claiming that Whole Foods Market is working to "undermine" the integrity of the organic food label. What?!

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the government agency that's responsible for managing fisheries in U.S. waters, is asking for public comments on proposed policies for addressing what's known in the industry as illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing (a.k.a. pirate fishing) and bycatch (unintentional or incidental catch) of protected species like whales and sea turtles. Okay, there are a lot of acronyms in that first sentence (I even left some out) but the point is: as citizens we have an opportunity to express our opinion about how these public resources are managed.

I've been avoiding this post. Not because I don't love talking about what I do, but because I couldn't figure out how to shrink this topic - an overview of our Quality Standards - into an easily digestible post.

Okay, we're cheating a little this week and perhaps this post would be better named "What We're Watching..." 'cause that's been the preferred method of media consumption this week. A friend of mine reminded me of some excellent TED | Talks that I'd encouraged him to listen to a few months back.

• Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat

The New York Times ran an article Wednesday called "Slow Food USA Preps for Its Big Moment" about the Labor Day weekend Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco. An interesting read.

In a wide ranging interview posted to his blog Chews Wise, Samuel Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc: Natural Foods and How They Grew, talked to Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey about "the Wild Oats deal, rising food prices, the company's soon-to-be-launched humane meat ratings system, and the prospects for sustainable seafood." This is a great read for anyone interested in the natural foods industry and Whole Foods Market in particular.

Update: June 13, 2010

Since I wrote this post about two years ago, we’ve had a few changes and I wanted to make sure anyone reading this is up to speed on current information.