Whole Foods Market (WFM) are a supermarket chain that makes a lot of their ‘ethical’ credentials. In some cases, they go rather further than I would expect (or see as necessary): for example, they have gone into a remarkable amount of detail in considering the ethics of keeping live lobsters. I was thus surprised to see that WFM were, as reported in the Food for the Brain (FFTB) September E-Newsletter, making FFTB their ‘Charity of the Month’ in their Kensington branch: I wasn’t sure whether they knew about the type of interventions advocated by FFTB.
I therefore e-mailed WFM to raise some concerns about this. Among other things, I asked them for their comments on FFTB’s advocacy of unreliable allergy, intolerance and nutritional tests for children, the poor quality of the evidence FFTB offered re. allergies and intolerance, and their links to the anti-psychiatry Safe Harbor organisation (which has connections to a number of prominent Scientologists).
Given the amount of detail in which WFM has considered issues like lobster-keeping, I was expecting a comprehensive response. Instead, WFM’s helpful press office simply told me that WFM have “declined to comment on this occasion.” So – no detailed report of WFM research, no discussion of how supporting FFTB might impact on Britain’s children, just a simple ‘no comment’.
Well, at least WFM have conducted and published relatively detailed research on the ethics of lobster husbandry…
I was initially surprised at their consideration for the pain of what are essentially the “cockroaches of the sea”. Are they as nice to their actual cockroaches? It’s amazing how people will justify their luxuries through “carbon credits” and obtuse notions of “sustainability” in order to pay more for something and ‘feel good’ about it.
Have just been looking at their ‘Allergies’ leaflet – http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/wholebody/begood/allergies.pdf – homeopathy, supplements. Got to go now and find a brick wall to bang my head against
Blenster- yep, interesting how people relate to killing lobsters as opposed to other creatures. There’s even been a ‘crustastun‘ machine developed to do it more ‘humanely’ – whereas we, for example, regularly kill animals like rats using slow-acting and pretty unpleasant poison…
Claire- yep, that leaflet’s pretty dire. Odd, as well – I gather WFM are better than many stores re. providing ‘free from’ food etc. Just not with their advice leaflet on allergy, apparently :(
Free from foods are a great convenience for those who really need them – I well remember my aunt in rural West of Ireland, bringing up two coeliac children in the 60s, immensely hard work trying to keep the gluten free diet going while also rearing a large family and doing a lot of the farm work. But it’s a lucrative market now and I wonder if all the consumers of these foods are doing so because of valid medical reasons.
That leaflet is good example of what much allergy ‘woo’ does, i.e. borrowing scientific respectability byselectively quoting authoritative sources from mainstream medicine.
Certainly, ‘free from’ foods can be very useful for those with allergies and intolerances. I’m also a bit cautious about some of the marketing, though – people often seem to think that, e.g. gluten free bread is somehow healthier even for those of us without any problem with gluten.
One more thing re. lobsters – reminded me of this podcast. They were chatting about a small version of the crustastun – which you can have at home to kill lobsters if you’ve got space in your kitchen “and you’re an idiot” ;)
Whole Foods Markets also distributes, and at times has had special partnerships with, Mothering Magazine. Mothering has taken a strong HIV-denialist position, urging pregnant women to avoid HIV testing, and urging HIV+ women to avoid perinatal prophylaxis and other interventions proven to reduce mother-to-child transmission from 25% to less than 2%. Mothering has celebrated Christine Maggiore, putting her on the cover with AZT behind a red circle and slash on her belly when she was pregnant with the daughter who later died, according to the LA County Coroner’s report, of AIDS-related pneumonia. Asked about this, Whole Foods described Mothering as “reputable.”
Hmm. I’ve just spent a few minutes meeting the Mothering experts: http://www.mothering.com/sections/experts/meet_the_experts.html
Thanks Jeanne. That is depressing to know…