Michael Pollan (writer for the New York Times, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Professor of Journalism here at Berkeley) has been engaging Whole Food's CEO John Mackey in a blog-based debate about Pollan's portrayal of Whole Foods in The Omnivore's Dilemma.

In the book and in public talks, Pollan basically suggests that Whole Foods, while an overall improvement on the supermarket experience, sometimes "pretties up" the image of organics without really staying true to what organic foods are all about. In a nutshell, Pollan contended that Whole Foods sells foods that meet the bare minimum standard for organics and yet aren't really what people would think about as organic. As an example, he cited a story in the talk here at Berkeley about free-range organic chickens who were given the required opportunity to pasture access, and yet, because of the design of their coops and their unfamiliarity with open land, often chose not to spend any time out in it. For all intents and purposes, these chickens didn't live lives that customers would reasonably expect from "free-range, organic" chickens.

Pollan also criticized Whole Foods for not working to educate its customers about the social benefits, energy savings, and improved freshness associated with locally grown foods.

Anyhow, I wanted to follow up, because AS IT TURNS OUT, Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey listened, and has instituted an awesome and passionate five-point commitment to address Pollan's concerns. A teaser:

We've hired our first animal compassionate field buyer, Andrew Gunther, who is going to work exclusively on developing sources of animal products that meet our new strict animal compassionate standards...

Whole Foods Market is changing the job responsibilities of our Regional Buyers to focus more on sourcing local products for their stores...

Beginning soon, many of our markets where we have stand-alone stores (no other retailers sharing our parking lots) will close off major sections of the parking lots on Sunday to provide a place for local farmers to sell their products directly to customers. [emphasis mine]

Go read the whole thing!