Whole Foods ignited the organic food phenomenon 35 years ago with its first stores in Austin, Texas. It has successfully convinced Americans to go organic even for an extra cost. However, with recent reports about its declining earnings in the past few weeks, Whole Foods is still determined to be the ambassador of good health by introducing "Responsibly Grown" program which allows conventional, nonorganic growers to be recognized for good practices.
As reported by NBC News, the organic industry grew to nearly $40 billion in the United States last year according to the Organic Trade Association. As the industry grew, demand and supplies also increased creating challenges for the USDA organic certification process. To sustain quality, Whole Foods has created the "Responsibly Grown" program.
Matt Rogers, global produce coordinator at Whole Foods explained the concept behind "Responsibly Grown", "Responsibly Grown is a program that we rolled out over the course of the last year to help us add an additional level of transparency".
As the co-CEO John Macke told the analysts amidst declining sales, "[Whole Foods] first and foremost, stands for the highest quality."
The program aims to check the different aspects of agricultural production not covered by the USDA's certified organic program. "We're asking suppliers a series of questions about a range of topics: soil management, pesticide use and pest management, water conservation, energy use and greenhouse gases, topics like farmworker welfare", Rogers said.
Interested suppliers who want to be recognized as "Responsibly Grown" have to pay a fee to subscribe to Whole Foods' website and fill out a questionnaire. Next stage will include asking more questions before rating is given to a supplier. Those who get qualified will be rated as good, better or best.
Meanwhile, certified organic growers automatically get points in the "Responsibly Grown" program. However, Rogers said, "It's rare, but possible, for a conventional supplier, a nonorganic supplier, to achieve a very high rating in Responsibly Grown by performing very well on all of those topics."
The program is also open to foreign producers, "We're looking for opportunities to recognize good work in the supply chain on topics that are important to our customers, that impact human health and the environment, regardless of where the food is grown," Rogers said.
Whole Foods admits that it cannot validate every claim of the farm growers however they will utilize modern technology to make sure every produce is meets their standard.
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