Chews Wise

Whole Foods Deal for Wild Oats Back in Court

As the saying goes, it ain't over til it's over.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Tuesday reversed a lower court decision that allowed the world's largest organic and natural foods grocery chain, Whole Foods Market, to buy its rival Wild Oats Markets.

In a 2-1 split, the appeals court ruled that that a lower court made an error when it gave Whole Foods approval last summer to go ahead with the merger, despite the request by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for an injunction to block the deal.

The decision sends the lawsuit back to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where Judge Paul Friedman had presided over the case before being appealed. Although the lower court was instructed to give further consideration to the case, the ruling does not undo the merger.

To date, Whole Foods has sold almost 40 Wild Oats stores, closed a dozen and converted many more to Whole Foods stores.

In a recent interview with ChewsWise, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey said: "We paid all the shareholders, we sold off the Henry stores, we integrated Wild Oats into our system, we’ve shut down several stores, changed the name of many of the stores – so the eggs are scrambled and mostly eaten."

The question now is whether the court will try to unscramble the digested eggs.

The Wall Street Journal opines: "The ruling ... may give the FTC a shot at forcing Whole Foods to sell some operations to meet competitive concerns raised by the merger."

“We await the U.S. District Court’s response so this issue can be resolved,” Whole Foods said in a statement. “Meanwhile, it is business as usual.”

- Samuel Fromartz, with contributions from Sustainable Food News

Got (rBGH) Milk? You May Not Know in Ohio

The Organic Trade Association last month filed suit against a new milk labeling rule in Ohio that bans statements about production methods, such as "no artificial hormones."

This suit was the latest bid to block the lobbying by Monsanto Corp. advocates, who are seeking to limit milk labels state-by-state. The International Dairy Foods Association filed suit too.

(Update) On Friday, the OTA filed a motion for summary judgment in the case. The Ohio Department of Agriculture has until August 15 to file its opposition and the OTA could then file a reply by August 29. The IDFA filed a similar motion.

If Ohio is successful, the label limitations would prevent consumers from choosing milk that is produced without synthetic growth hormones. Monsanto argues that there is no difference between milk produced with the added growth hormones and milk without it. But consumers advocates — and consumers themselves — take a different view. They want choice.

A similar attempt by Pennsylvania to limit the wording of milk labels was overturned by the governor in January, after a letter writing campaign by consumers and advocacy groups.

Indiana also considered similar legislation, but it failed to get traction in the state legislature. A bill in Missouri failed to pass. Kansas considered a law but it didn’t make it through the legislature, nor did an attempt in Vermont. A similar campaign in New Jersey has stalled.

Now, Kansas is revisiting the issue and Utah is considering rules similar to Ohio's.

MSC Clarifies Alaska Salmon Status

In light of Alaska's decision to shift the responsibility of certifying salmon to an industry body, the Marine Stewardship Council issued this press release. The key point: the current certificate is valid until 2012, so the certified sustainable status of Alaskan salmon is not in doubt. MSC says:

A change of clients is permitted under the MSC program and is not unprecedented.  It is also important to note that a change of client does not affect the value and credibility of a fisheries’ certificate as a globally recognized third-party verification of sustainability.  The Alaskan salmon fishery was re-certified in November 2007 and the current certificate is valid until 2012.

As the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has stated ... their position as a client for an MSC certification is unusual. More typically fisheries clients are groups of fishers and their associations or seafood industry and commercial entities, who are better placed to directly benefit from all the advantages third party certification can bring.

Doing Slow Food Nation

The Woodstock of food? For those who will be at Slow Food Nation in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend, I will be conducting a panel on Friday in the Changemakers Day series. This high-level, engaging event will focus on money and change: what food business brings to the sustainability table.

On board for the panel are Rick Schneiders, CEO of Sysco Food; Walter Robb, President of Whole Foods Market; Fedele Bauccio, CEO of Bon Appetit Management Co; and Woody Tasch, chairman of Investors Circle. Although not up yet on the Web site, it's being held Friday, August 29, from 1-2:30 p.m. Although this event is reserved for practitioners, there are limited public tickets available too.

- Samuel Fromartz

Quick Bites - Alaska Quits MSC?

(Updated) Alaska Quitting MSC? -  The state of Alaska wants another party to arrange sustainable fish certification for its salmon fisheries with the Marine Stewardship Council, Sustainable Food News reports ($-sub). The state Department of Fish and Game has been the client which arranged for this service -- a rare role for a government body. Now,it is hoping another group, such as a fisheries industry body, takes over the role. Alaska is the largest certified sustainable fishery in US waters, if not the world. Fisheries pay fees to get certified by the MSC, which independently reviews fish populations, catches, management and fishing methods. But the state feels it has a higher standard than even MSC. More on this item over at seafoodnews.com.

You Can Go Home Again - Vancouver celebrated the first return of a sockeye salmon to a lake in 100 years. "Seeing that first fish, it almost made us cry," George Chaffee, a councillor with the Kwikwetlem band, said.

Holy Jalapeno! - Turns out tomatoes weren't the culprit in the recent outbreak of salmonella. Instead the FDA has turned its attentions to jalapeno peppers. Tomato growers predictably were angry. "They will never say that tomatoes were not implicated, because to do so would [imply] they caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damages for nothing," Tom Nassif, president of Western Growers, told the WSJ. The salmonella outbreak sickened 1,200 people across 42 states.

unHappy Meals - The WSJ also has an item on Los Angeles city council member's attempt to ban junk food in an area of the city with high obesity rates. The 32-square-mile chunk of the city is home to some 400 fast-food restaurants, where 30% of adults are obese, compared with about 21% in the rest of the city.

Behind the Green Chef

When I interviewed Michael Oshman of the Green Restaurant Association (GRA) recently for a Wall Street Journal story, he mentioned that the restaurant industry is the largest consumer of electricity in the U.S. retail sector. It also accounts for half the food budget of the average American. No doubt that's a hefty footprint, but good restaurateurs are known for being nimble, and can adapt changes quickly.

While menu-boasting of shade grown organic coffee or juicy grass-fed burgers topped with local artisanal cheese is often the easiest way to identify a restaurant that’s going green, the real impact comes from changes in the back of the house.

Oshman estimates that the installation of two high efficiency hand dryers – one each restroom – will cost $1,415, but can provide an annual savings of $2,651 and reduce 1,620 pounds of paper towels waste. The installation of a high-efficiency gas-fired charbroiler vs. a conventional one can save 10 metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

Chef Jose Duarte, of Taranta in Boston, recently embraced his inner greenness and certified his restaurant in October 2007. Since then, he’s converted his truck to run on fryer oil, offers a wine list that’s organic, biodynamic and sustainable, composts food scraps, and has a full-scale recycling program. Duarte estimates that he’s reduced 80 metric tons (176,370 pounds) of carbon dioxide a year by making changes to his operations. That’s roughly equivalent to taking 180 cars off the road annually.

But what’s interesting -- with all the changes he’s made, he’s just now starting to look at sourcing his food locally. It’s not easy to do year-round in New England, but I would have thought that would be higher up on the to-do list, since it’s a change that’s so visible to customers. But then again, maybe it’s not all about the marketing.
– Clare Leschin-Hoar

My Friend, Joe, the Butcher

My friend Joe Cloud is an eclectic guy. When we were together at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, he made a living one summer pruning all the trees in the college canyon. Now it’s a site of environmental restoration, but Joe was good with a chainsaw.

After a couple decades as a landscape architect in Seattle, Joe and his wife moved to central Virginia, where Joe’s family has a farm. Nice place, nearby Joel Salatin’s Polyface farm that was featured by Michael Pollan in his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Since the farm was already bought, by his dad, Joe figured he’d do something else. He considered a few things but then ended up buying a family-owned slaughterhouse operation in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in a partnership with Salatin, who was already renting Joe’s family’s land to graze his cattle. Salatin’s getting vertically integrated, though the slaughterhouse isn’t only processing his meat. It's a rare smaller scale facility that already has a USDA inspector on site -- which is crucial for selling meat.

Joe told me all this a couple of weeks ago, when we went out for mussels and Belgium beers here in D.C. with friends from college. Last week, he sent out a press release titled “From Omnivore's Dilemma to Carnivore's Delight:”

Known locally as T&E Meats (as in Tom and Erma), the business will continue serving the community from its current location on Charles Street, where it has operated continuously since 1939. 

 "T&E has been processing our federal inspected beef and pork for many years and its survival is critical in order for us to serve our restaurants, retail outlets, and individual customers," said Salatin.

Co-owner and general manager Joe Cloud added:  "There is enormous pent-up demand among Virginia farmers for processing services that will allow them to sell into high-value local markets, which we hope to capitalize on."

Salatin and Cloud also plan to expand the retail offering to include a variety of locally produced natural and organic meats, including Polyface Farms' unique grass-finished beef and chicken and their acorn-fed pork.

I haven’t yet visited the facility or store, nor have I tried its local specialties -- like a scrapple called pon hoss made with organ meat, of Germanic origin, that Joe is raving about -- but I do hope to get down there soon.

It’s quite a mid-career move for Joe, but if he’s as good with a butcher knife as he was with a chainsaw, I imagine he’ll do alright.

- Samuel Fromartz

Grill the Right Thing

If you’re thinking of grilling this weekend, you might take a look at this recent report, Finding Animal Friendly Food, from the World Society for the Protection of Animals. It surveyed 23 supermarket companies and rated them on humane meat -- the latest in surveys of this type. 

Whole Foods Market rated the highest, with twice as many humane meat offerings as the number 2 ranked supermarket in the list, Wegmans, a northeastern chain. Stores within larger chains, such as H.E. Butt’s Central Market and HEB Plus! stores, and Kroger’s City Market stores, also scored high. Wal-Mart ranked near the bottom.

What the survey did not include, however, were smaller stores and co-ops, which may have good choices as well.