Okay, we're cheating a little this week and perhaps this post would be better named "What We're Watching..." 'cause that's been the preferred method of media consumption this week. A friend of mine reminded me of some excellent TED | Talks that I'd encouraged him to listen to a few months back.

• Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat

Every week I see dozens of myths and misunderstandings about food and our company come across my desk, confused thoughts ranging from "Everything Whole Foods sells is organic" to "Canola oil is a secret poison" to "Whole Foods Market is owned by Paul Newman." This is the first in a series of posts aimed at sharing - and clearing up - some of the more popular misundersta

The New York Times ran an article Wednesday called "Slow Food USA Preps for Its Big Moment" about the Labor Day weekend Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco. An interesting read.

About the only things sprouting up on lawns this summer in central Texas are "Alarm Stage Drought" signs.

In a wide ranging interview posted to his blog Chews Wise, Samuel Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc: Natural Foods and How They Grew, talked to Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey about "the Wild Oats deal, rising food prices, the company's soon-to-be-launched humane meat ratings system, and the prospects for sustainable seafood." This is a great read for anyone interested in the natural foods industry and Whole Foods Market in particular.

Check out this 20 minute video of Mark Bittman's talk at the EG (Entertainment Gathering) Conference from TED. (TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design - has a lot of great stuff from a wide variety of thought leaders.) TED describes this piece as "a fiery and funny talk" where "New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it's putting the entire planet at risk." Do you agree with Mark's suggestions for necessary changes?

Update: June 13, 2010

Since I wrote this post about two years ago, we’ve had a few changes and I wanted to make sure anyone reading this is up to speed on current information.

I’ve been hearing some questions about whether it’s possible to get organic products from China, so I went to Margaret Wittenberg to find out the inside scoop. Margaret has been with Whole Foods Market for about 27 years and she served on the National Organic Standards Board and helped write the USDA Organic Rule, so I figured she would be in the know. (Transparency alert: Margaret was my Team Leader for many years and I love this woman. Her integrity is unbelievable!) Anyway, here’s a quick blurb from Margaret on the whole organics in China deal:

From supporting a biologically diverse, healthy environment to limiting the toxic and long-lasting chemicals in our surroundings, there’s no shortage of reasons to buy organic. Take a look at our top reasons for choosing organic. Why do you choose to buy organic?