Organic farmers are claiming that Whole Foods Market's rating system is allowing farmers who do not meet the rigid requirements for federal organic certification to receive the same rating as organic farmers.
If true, this allegation is worrisome to both farmers and consumers who shop at Whole Foods.
"Whole Foods has done so much to help educate consumers about the advantages of eating an organic diet," five farmers wrote in a letter sent on Thursday to John Mackey, the co-founder and co-chief executive of Whole Foods, which was obtained by the New York Times. "This new rating program undermines, to a great degree, that effort."
Despite the efforts of the store to educate the public about organic farming conventional farmers can get a "best" rating while continuing to use various pesticides, which is against the federal regulations for organic farming, reported the NYT.
The Whole Foods rating system is a five-part process designed to help consumers make "informed choices about the food you eat," according to its website.
Whole Foods says the process aims to make sure farm animals have space to move around, enrichments (such as straw for chickens to peck at) that encourage behavior that's natural to them, access to outdoor areas and room to walk around outside as they please and that their well-being is kept as a first priorit and they live their entire lives on one farm.
"Organic is an incredibly deep standard, and at Whole Foods we celebrate that in very consistent, long-term ways," said Matt Rogers, associate global produce coordinator at Whole Foods who worked for more than three years to put the program together, according to the NYT.
