My Conversation With Whole Foods Corporate Headquarters About The LBAM Spray
Friday 18 Apr 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
I have just gotten off the phone with Jessie Walker, Customer Information Specialist and assistant to Kate Lowerty, Director of Public Relations, Whole Foods Global Headquarters, Austin, Texas who was returning the message I left yesterday for Kate Lowery. Apparently, Ms. Lowery is out of town.
Jess said,
“You probably heard that it was incorrect that we’re pro-spray. We are neutral at present. We don’t have enough information to make a decision about this yet.”
He invited me to please send any relevant information, including PDFs and attachments, to the following email address for their Quality Standards Team:
customer.questions@wholefoods.com
While I had Jess’s ear, I urged him to please get Whole Foods to research what is happening. We are only weeks away from the spraying. I made the following points to him:
- This is a situation of the rulings of all our local government officials being overruled by the State
- Our doctors and scientists have stepped forward to state the spraying is unnecessary and will create chronic pesticide exposure diseases
- People currently regard Whole Foods loyally, thinking of them as a good center of health and organics in our neighborhoods in California
- People are counting on Whole Foods to live up to their standards of health for the environment and people. We are depending on them to do this.
- Both Californians and out-of-state residents will no longer trust the organic label and will not buy produce or other food products from California if the aerial spraying isn’t stopped- this makes this issue a major concern for Whole Foods and their suppliers
- CCOF is against the spraying
- Whole Foods needs to stand for human and environmental rights, not special interest profits
- If spraying isn’t stopped in California, it is our understanding that the spraying of pesticides on human beings is about to become a new U.S. policy as USDA intends to continue their hunt for the moth across the nation. We must stop this here and now.
I told Jess I was sorry to know that misinformation regarding Whole Foods’ position had gotten onto the Internet, but that maybe this was like the pebble at the start of the avalanche, warning this International company that what is happening in California is a huge issue and definitely deserved of their attention. Jess said that prior to the misinformation being published, they had received, perhaps, one letter regarding this.
Clearly - one letter to Whole Foods is not enough.
Jess went on to say,
“I understand you are very emotional about this. I have 2 little ones. I feel you.”
Please, readers, get writing to the address above. Send Whole Foods every well-researched, well documented article and report you can think of. Jess said that the address he gave me will get that information in front of their whole Quality Standards board.
We have supported Whole Foods in our California communities. Now it is their turn to determine whether they support us.
Friday 18 Apr 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
here is Whole Foods Market’s revised response to this issue.
We have consulted with numerous scientific and regulatory experts on this issue and we support the position of CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) which can be found at this link.
http://www.ccof.org/pr08-03-11LBAM.php
We encourage a proactive win/win solution to the issue and appreciate the efforts of several environmental groups towards this goal. In the meantime, we suggest consumers to thoroughly evaluate, and convey their opinions to their local, regional, and state representatives.
Warm regards,
Dear Jessie,
I really appreciate your update on this. Thank you. I’m very glad Whole Foods is supporting CCOF. Now, my next question.
What are Whole Foods’ plans for supporting this? With millions of Californians’ health at stake, we are desperately hoping that Whole Foods will come out STRONGLY on this, educate customers, use their valued position in the community as a center for organics and health to demand that the aerial spraying, which is being called by independent doctors and scientists human experimentation, be halted immediately.
Whole Foods could do so much. Your press contacts, your international presence, are considerable and your company could be instrumental in saving the lives that our doctors and scientists tell us will be lost if the spraying isn’t halted.
Please, I urge you, don’t be quiet backing CCOF. Be bold. Get heard. Demand the spraying be stopped to protect the very organics that are the heart of Whole Foods.
Thank you!
Mim
Hi There, Good Work, I wrote to Whole Foods Corporate 2 months ago . No reply. They cannot and I dare say don’t want to take a definite stand against spraying. Don’t forget they sell Stewart Resnicks, other products, PomWonderful and Fiji Water. Probably some of his commercial pistachios. If folks wanted to make a statement to Stewart Resnick, they would at once, boycott those drinks, his commercial pistachios and his citrus fruit, most often sold at Costco.
The only way to express ones self and have an effect on a huge money man like Resnick is to effect his company’s gross profit. Boycott his products if you even use any of them. I don’t.
If any folks want to come tonite to the Daly City Council meeting 7-9 P.M we are presenting oral communication to create a resolution to oppose the spraying.