What's your policy regarding buying from local vs. national producers?

Local is the new organic! If you want your food choice to match up with your political choices (liberal in my case) it's important to take into account the oil that is used to transport out-of-season produce from around the world. If you buy from a local conventional farmer it's easier to put pressure on them to improve their practices. And if you shop at the farmer's market you can avoid the farmers who look all gross and unhealthy -- their food should probably be avoided. :)

Some stores have started listing the number of miles between the store and the farm, but I doubt Whole Foods is on that yet.

Hello Thor, Thanks for your question. I've worked for Whole Foods Market since 2001 and can attest to our support for local producers/ growers. Before jumping in though, I think it's important to recognize that as a company, Whole Foods Market, is very decentralized -- this surprises a lot of folks and isn't often fully understood, since it's definitely not the norm in the retail world. By decentralized I mean that we have 11 operating regions with regional support for each. While regional presidents of each region have the final word regarding operational decisions, store team leaders and all store Team Members for that matter are empowered to have a voice and play key role in all decisions, including how we can better support our local farmers. By empowering all Team Members, we better serve all of our customers, our communities and other stakeholders and ensure that we continue to improve as a company.

Now, to answer your question...:) Our regional and store buyers are committed to sourcing local products if and when they meet our quality standards (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/produ...), which perhaps surprising to some are rather stringent.

Often a local producer or grower will produce very limited quantities of product or crop, making it impossible to supply more than a single store and only during certain times of year for that matter. For some retailers (I won't name names...), such a limited supply makes it too costly and not worth their time to carry the product. Not a Whole Foods Market. We take the opposite approach and actually encourage regional and store buyers to search out and source small, local vendors. In fact, about half of our regions currently have "local foragers" whose primary responsibility it is to search out and source product from local sources. In addition, Whole Foods Market has an active Local Producer Loan program that aims specifically aims to support and foster the growth of local farmers and producers. You can find out more about this program here if you'd like: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/produ...

With all this said, it's important to also point out that some regions/ stores source more local products than others for a myriad of reasons. For one, obviously if there's not a lot of local product that meets our quality standards then it's tougher to carry a wide variety of local product. In addition, some of our stores choose to be more focused on sourcing local product. It is, however, a clear priority for everyone since supporting local means supporting our communities, which is one of our core values (something that's very important to all Whole Foods Market team members).

For a snapshot of some of the local producers our South region works with, you might check out the following: http://wholefoodsmarket.com/socialmed...

Thanks, again, and I hope this has helped add to your understanding of what Whole Foods Market does with regards to supporting local. I'll be sure to check back here in case you should have any additional questions or concerns. -Slaton, Whole Foods Market Team Member

Personally I prefer buying food from mostly international producers, because of the good quality.