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Is Whole Foods tofu really the answer?

By editor - Posted on 04 August 2008

There is an article in the new york times today here about how Whole Food is trying to groom its "Whole Paycheck" image during lean times. I have several thoughts about this article, and whole foods in general.

The interviewer points to a so-called "cheap" package of tofu for $1.50. This is not cheap. If you want cheap tofu, go to the asian market and get the same tofu for $0.35. The problem with Whole Foods, in my opinion, is that they have tied the organic movement to upscale shopping. They have made people think that organic food is only for people who drive Land Rovers and BMWs (not that there is anything wrong with that), as opposed to addressing more fundamental problems with our food supply.

There is plenty of good, organic whole food (no pun intended) at your local farmers market, but it comes with a price. You have to prepare it, and you have to know how to cook, and you have to get to the market when it is open.

I think that as our food chain continues to unravel, people will start to realize that the key to cheap foods is not the $1.50 packet of tofu at Whole Foods, but individual cooking skills and a greater public awareness of where to source inexpensive (not cheap) local food.

This website is addressing the first of these problems now, with cooing lessons and a search engine so people can get ideas and recipes when their own knowledge is exhausted. We are also working on another nifty little tool for sourcing food, but it wont be ready for a couple more months.

If you want to save some money on food, learn how to cook, and learn your local food sources. Then you can splurge on the $18/pound imported cheese every once in a while, and you can skip right over that whole foods tofu. Yuck :-p

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Organic Products at Whole Foods

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 22:37.

Whole Foods sells USDA-certified organic, that its industrial-organic foods that rely on industrial agricultural methods to produce foods, but practice input substitutions. Organic corn is fed to cattle in "an open air environment" to produce USDA-certified organic beef. I take "open air environment" to mean a feed lot.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 02:38.

Wow, food really is cheap in America.

To put this in perspective, tofu at the supermarket in Sydney Australia is about $3 for the "cheap" stuff, about $4.50 for organic.

Chinatown is much the same.

I'd love to know where you

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 08/04/2008 - 20:26.

I'd love to know where you get tofu for $0.35. I can't even make it myself for that price.

Whole Foods lost my business with the health department closing their Chicago location. In 2006 WF banned lobster and crab sales for ethical/animal welfare reasons. When the Chicago store was closed there were gluetraps in the dairy case with dead mice. Their price pushed me away, their hypocrisy slammed the door.

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