After years of cheering from the sidelines, I grabbed my partner and a Carmen Miranda headdress and finally got a chance to make my debut in NYC’s Gay Pride Parade thanks to Whole Foods Market. For the first time, we fielded a merry band of team members from all the Northeast Regional stores to march down famed 5th Avenue. We represented a variety of teams-from Prepared Foods to Whole Body, from Bakery to Marketing-and all wore specially designed rainbow colored t-shirts for the 4-mile march on June 28.

Our marching team joined the 500,000 other participants and nearly 1 million spectators in the march that is now New York City’s largest. The 40th Annual NYC Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Pride March (www.nycpride.org) commemorated the beginning of the LGBT civil rights movement that started as a protest at a Greenwich Village bar named Stonewall in 1969.

As a company, Whole Foods Market has always been committed to the health and happiness of all its customers and team members, including providing domestic partner benefits. So it was even more special that we encouraged team members to bring along their partners to march. Even the Regional President Christina Minardi with her partner and kids showed up to support the group! Priscilla Helen and her colleagues from the Tribeca store took the lead in rounding up all the samples we handed out along the route-everything from coconut water to moisturizer, from organic chocolate to olive oil.

It was amazing to see the diversity of the crowd lining the route-tourists and families with children cheering in Midtown, groups of 30-something gay men and women applauding in the Flatiron District, and LGBT youth waving rainbow flags along Christopher Street.

When not blowing bubbles and stopping for pictures in our fruity headdresses, my partner and I yelled out a cheeky chant, “Whole Foods loves fruits!” The crowd overwhelmingly responded with cheers, laughter, applause and often this reply, “We love Whole Foods!” Now that’s something to take Pride in!

Greetings from the great Pacific Northwest, home of magnificent wild salmon, which is now in season! In the midst of getting our best wild salmon values front and center in our seafood cases, I thought it would be a good time to bring you up to date about our unique involvement in getting wild salmon to your dinner plate.

In 2003, Whole Foods Market made a commitment to sourcing the best wild salmon by purchasing a seafood processing company in Seattle, Washington called Select Fish. For years, this small seafood company has excelled in selling the highest quality salmon found throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Yet, we felt it was important to further our direct connection to the fishing industry in Alaska. The main challenge is the state’s huge size - over twice the size of Texas. How can we cover 34,000 miles of Alaskan coastline seeking out the best salmon the state has to offer? This would take a small army, right? Actually, no! Instead, we created an Alaska Port Buyer position based out of Anchorage and brought in Whole Foods Market Team Member and Ketchikan, Alaska native Keith Harris, who has 25 years of Alaskan seafood buying experience. Check out Keith’s video blog to find out more about what he does and why it makes our wild Alaska salmon special.

Keith lives in Alaska all summer long, which provides him with an excellent purchasing perspective of the multiple salmon fisheries throughout the state. Keith will often fly out to fishing areas like Sitka, Yakutat, Cordova and western Alaska - home of Bristol Bay, the largest sockeye fishery in the world. Being on-site at these fisheries gives Keith the ability to confirm that our quality standards are being met and to directly communicate with Alaskan fishermen about what our customers expect.

No other grocer has someone like Keith overseeing standards for quality in the state of Alaska. I think it’s pretty cool. Let me know what you think. Find out more about wild Alaska salmon at Not Just Another Fish Story and visit your local Whole Foods Market store for tasty demos, salmon specials and all the other ways they are celebrating the summer wild salmon season. How do you plan on celebrating?

Why am I grinning ear-to-ear on this steamy hundred-degree day in the middle of Texas? The reason is this press release, which announces our commitment to the Non-GMO Project and represents the culmination of a very long and complicated undertaking. I’ve been working on this project - helping the company come up with a way to truly verify our efforts to avoid Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in our private label products - for just over five years, and it would be an understatement to say that I’m ecstatic about this announcement. I’d even go so far as to say that this moment makes me extremely optimistic about the future of our food supply and the persistence, energy and integrity of the natural and organic food visionaries who propel our industry forward.

What’s a GMO?

It’s simple: scientists combine the DNA of a plant with the DNA of something else and create a novel organism that has heretofore not existed in nature. The companies who make and sell the bioengineered crops will tell you all about the “exciting potential” of these crops to end hunger and create radical new super-nutritious foods. In reality, the GMO crops currently approved and marketed in the United States do one of two things: (1) make their own pesticides or (2) resist herbicides, so that farmers can spray an entire field with a strong chemical herbicide and kill everything but the GMO crop. Most of the U.S. corn, soy, canola and cotton is grown using one of these two technologies.

Why do we care?

Among Americans who are even aware that there are GMOs in the food supply (less than 50%, according to one study), prevailing beliefs about GMOs range from “They’ll save the universe” to “They’re utter toxic poison.” The topic is obviously very controversial, but what Whole Foods Market knows for certain is that our customers have told us very clearly that they’d like to avoid GMOs in their food. In fact, in a poll we conducted just last month, more than 80% of those we surveyed said they would seek out non-GMO products with clear labeling and would be willing to pay more for these products. Bioengineering of food is, for many, simply inconsistent with the very basic idea of natural food. We’re drawing a very important line in the sand and supporting shoppers looking to avoid GMOs.

What’s the Non-GMO Project?

Early on in this initiative, we realized that we couldn’t do this alone. Creating a standard and a program to verify products as avoiding GMOs would take an incredible level of technical expertise, and it would take the participation and commitment of other retailers, food makers, certifiers and growers in order to even get off the ground. About three years ago, we learned about a group of retailers who shared our concerns about GMOs and were already working on the issue, as we were. They had formed a non-profit organization called the Non-GMO Project. The tenacity and energy of these early supporters - Good Earth Natural Foods, The Natural Grocery Company, The Big Carrot Natural Food Market, and others - gave the Non-GMO Project its start, and we were happy to join the project as a founding leader, along with a number of other natural food companies. Learn more about the Project’s early history here. With the incredible leadership and technical expertise of our Board of Directors and Technical Advisory Board, we created a standard and a system for keeping GMOs as far from the natural food industry as possible.

How will this affect my life as a shopper?

You’ll start to see the “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal on products in our store starting this fall. We are going to enroll our house brands - 365 Every Day Value and Whole Foods Market - in the project. In fact, a few products are already verified. A number of other manufacturers, including Eden Foods, Nature’s Path Organic and Lundberg Family Farms, have also had products verified under the standard. You can see the full list on the Non-GMO Project website.

Since they were first introduced, GMO crops have expanded continually so that they now make up an astonishingly large portion of American agriculture, and we know that they’re just plain inconsistent with what we and the people who shop with us want. The Non-GMO Project’s success is critical to the continued availability of non-GMO products in the U.S., and we hope you’ll join us in showing your support.

Consider signing up for the Project’s Consumer Pledge and becoming a fan on Facebook to stay up-to-date. To other retailers and food makers reading this, visit the site to learn how you can support the Non-GMO Project as well. Our success depends on the support of retailers, food makers, growers, shoppers and everyone with an interest in keeping natural food natural. Join us!

Thanks to warm weather all over the U.S., domestic production is reaching peak output. This time of year is perfect for picnics and other outdoor events, and few items pair better with sunshine and outdoor eating than melons.

The melon industry has changed a bunch over the years. When I was a kid, watermelons were 25-pound monsters and my sisters and I spent many a hot summer afternoon seeing who could spit the large black seeds the furthest. Most watermelons sold today are seedless and much smaller varieties, bred to be “refrigerator sized” and easier to harvest and transport. On the whole the recent changes in watermelon and other variety production and post harvest handling have been positive - particularly in the last few years as a re-emphasis on flavor has brought back some great heirloom varieties or has greatly influenced the selection of new ones.

Melon Field- Florida

Melon vines need an awful lot of water at the right time in order to produce good fruit, which can make them a hard crop to grow in places where too little (or too much) water is available. Too much water prior to the vine establishing itself will drown the plant, too little and the plant will shut down and prevent the fruit from fully developing. Over watering or rain too close to harvest will saturate the fruit causing splits in transit and diluting flavor. Drought conditions in the west have reduced the number of acres planted significantly for this summer while too much rainfall in the southeastern U.S. has made for some critical gaps in supply. Kkeeping track of all the water issues keeps our melon buyer on his toes. A good harvest makes it all worthwhile, though, as a fully matured vine-ripened melon is tough to beat.

Stressed melons - Southeastern U.S.

Melons are a member of the Cucurbitaceous (or gourd) family - this is a very large and diverse family of plants that includes cucumbers, squash (winter and summer) and pumpkins. While they all come from the same family, melons are produced in an astonishing array of varieties. The most common grouping of these varieties produced in the US are musk melons (including cantaloupes), inodorous (or dew) melons, and watermelons. All have specific characteristics and selection criteria:

Musk: Measured by the number of varieties, musk melons are the largest group commercially produced. The most common varieties are cantaloupes and even these can vary significantly depending on where they are grown. East coast production is dominated by the Athena - a large, firm, tasty musk melon. On the west coast the dominate variety is the Oro Rico. There are several growing areas in between (Pecos in Texas and Rocky Ford in Colorado to name just two) that produce fruit of exceptional flavor. Aside from cantaloupe varieties there are several old and new musk varieties that are regularly produced like Galia, Sharlyn and Charentais.

Musk melons should be uniformly firm everywhere except on the blossom end (opposite the stem end) where they should have a slight give. A musk melon will detach (or slip) from the vine when mature, so melons with a stem attached are generally immature. Your nose will also help you select a good one - musk melons have a rich “musky” fragrance.

California cantaloupes

The Honeydew is the most common inodorous melon but like the musk, there are many varieties produced over the course of the season. Fruit like the Canary, Casaba and Santa Claus will remain firm and somewhat odorless even when ripe, so the best way to tell if a melon is ripe is by touch. Immature fruit will have a slick feel to the exterior but as the melon ripens, the sugars will saturate the rind, giving it a tacky (almost sticky) feel that is the best indicator for ripe fruit.

Honeydew on the vine - Texas

Watermelons are the last and possibly the most difficult to determine the inside condition from the outside because of the wide range of varieties. The “thumping method” is certainly the most entertaining (and widely used) but is not the most reliable in my experience. It goes like this (according to my great aunt in Mississippi 35 years ago): “If the melon sounds like your head, it is too green; if it sounds like your stomach, it’s too ripe; if it sounds like your chest, it is just right.” This system never worked for me mainly because I honestly can’t figure out what my stomach should sound like (and I always get a headache when I select melons this way).

Most watermelons will have two main colors: a dark green with a lighter green or white second (or under) color. Most will also have a white spot where the melon was resting on the ground when it was growing. This is key because the rind of most watermelons, like their inodorous cousins, will turn slightly yellow as the fruit ripens. So I look for that slightly yellow tinge and I am rarely disappointed. Of course the most reliable method is to ask your local produce team member to “plug” a melon for you (cut out a small triangle to see how it looks and tastes) I like this way the best having long outlived my tolerance for bad melon choices.

Ambrosia Melons- California

Further into the summer the heirlooms emerge - varieties from all groups that are thin-skinned, irregular and often more difficult to grow (and ship).They are also high sugar, wonderfully textured, fragrant and worth the trouble if you can find them. Here on the Central Coast. the Ambrosia and Ha’ogen take the best melon honors but all over the U.S. seeds from old varieties are planted to keep these summer jewels alive. What’s your favorite?

Many thanks to Dana Peters, Bryan Doane, Nick Moless, and John Walker for contributing to this post.

For a summary of this and our other summer podcasts, click here!

Ludicrous yes. True no. We’d have to be insane to push for weaker organic standards. A strong standard gives food shoppers something to trust. The “organic” label represents a strong regulation that ensures the food is grown without toxic and persistent chemicals on environmentally friendly farms. We fought hard for decades to get that regulation established and the last thing we’d want to do is jeopardize its value by chipping it away.

A small and passionate group of people who wanted to create a natural and organic alternative to the mainstream conventional grocery stores of the era opened the doors of our first tiny store 30 years ago, about four blocks from where I’m sitting now. Since day one, we’ve supported organic agriculture, and we now offer more organic products than our founders could have imagined back in 1980. And we add more and more year after year. Here are some basic facts about our commitment to organic:

• We offer more organic products and devote more space in every store to organic food than any other supermarket.
• Since 2005 we have seen our sales of organic produce increase by more than70%.
• For produce alone, we work with more than 1,000 certified organic producers.
• Since our beginning, we have done more than any other retailer to support and grow organic agriculture in the U.S. Every single year, we have increased the amount of organic products that we sell.
• Everything we sell that is not organic must pass our own strict quality standards, and we sell both natural AND organic products because our customers want us to, and because not all products are available as organic.
• We define “natural” foods in our stores as products that meet our quality standards. These standards are the product of decades of research and aren’t the least bit vague about what ingredients are allowed in our stores.
• We have always pushed for strong organic standards and will continue to work actively to ensure that the integrity of the USDA label is not diluted. Strong national standards make it easier for Americans to trust the meaning of the organic label.
• We helped create the National Organic Standards, and we served from 1995 to 2000 as the retail representative on the National Organic Standards Board.
• We are the first national certified organic grocer, becoming certified in 2003. Even though the organic standards don’t require retailers to be certified, we decided to open the doors of each of our stores to inspections by USDA-accredited certifying agents, who make sure that what we’re selling as organic is truly organic.
• Whole Foods Market will continue to take an active role in ensuring that the USDA definition of “organic” matches the expectations of our shoppers. I personally attend nearly every meeting of the National Organic Standard Board, the stakeholder group that advises the USDA on organic agriculture. We carefully monitor any proposed changes to the regulation and work actively to make sure that the standards continue to represent a clear, strong definition of organic.

Speaking of Washington, it is an extremely happy time for organics at the USDA. You’ve probably heard about Michelle Obama’s garden on the White House Lawn, but have you heard of the organic “People’s Garden” at the USDA? Creating an organic garden at USDA was one of the first acts of new Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and it serves as a very tangible representation of an unprecedented commitment to organic at the USDA. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan - #2 at the USDA - is one of the country’s foremost experts on organic agriculture. She helped author the Organic Foods Production Act and the National Organic Standards during her time as a congressional staffer, USDA administrator and National Organic Standards Board NOSB member, and most recently directed the graduate program in food policy at Tufts University. She has voiced her intention to make organic an integral part of all USDA programs, and to increasing enforcement of the organic standard. Leadership like this at the USDA is going to lead to a better-funded and more efficient National Organic Program and enable organic agriculture in the U.S. to seriously flourish.

Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables — Certified Organic Growers

Before 2002, there was no national legal definition of organic. Outside of the few states that had regulations, anyone could sell anything as organic without regulation of the agricultural practices they used. The national organic standards we have now are a huge step beyond the unregulated wilderness we had before, and it’s in all of our interest - retailers, growers, manufacturers and consumers - to stand together and make sure that definition stays strong. Undermining the standard serves no one.

Whole Foods Market is at the heart of organics, always has been and always will be.

If you’ve got questions about our support of organics, let me know and I’ll do my best to get ‘em answered.

For me, taking a shortcut doesn’t mean splurging on a completely prepared dinner, frozen or otherwise. It means buy some, make some, starting with an affordable, yet convenient packaged or prepared food. Then I add to it so it goes further and hopefully becomes a more nutritious rounded meal in the process. I usually have these basic starters on hand so I don’t fall for ordering a pizza for delivery.

Frozen Cheese Pizza

Transformation ideas: canned artichoke hearts, olives, tuna & hardboiled egg (I discovered this on menus in Malta), pineapple & ham, small cubes of packaged baked tofu, anchovies, bell pepper or mushroom slices, leftover chicken tossed in BBQ sauce, browned ground meat, slices of pre-cooked sausage. Or my favorite is to brown crumbled tempeh with garlic, sage and fennel seed to make a veggie Italian sausage topping.

Boxed Mac & Cheese or Rice Pilaf

Transformation ideas: frozen peas or broccoli or shelled edamame, canned tuna or salmon (of course!), peppers, sausage, kidney beans, bits of ham or smoked turkey, small cooked shrimp or scallops.

Canned or Boxed or Deli-made Soup

Transformation ideas: wontons or potstickers, cheese toast on top, frozen or fresh corn or other veggies, diced tomatoes, curry powder, chili powder, chipotle, chick peas, cooked rice or another whole grain, pasta, leftover meat, tofu cubes, tortilla chips, crumbled feta or goat cheese.

Frozen Chicken or Fish Nuggets

Transformation ideas: sandwiches with lettuce and tomato and mayo, soft tacos with shredded cabbage and salsa, over a big green salad with Caesar dressing, tossed with bell pepper in sweet n’ sour sauce (jarred pad thai sauce mixed with vinegar works) over rice.

Canned or Deli-made Chili

Transformation ideas: fresh tomato or onion or peppers, corn, wrapped in flour tortillas with refried beans and salsa. The best-and not always for “emergencies”-is ladled over tortilla chips or corn chips and topped with shredded cheese and chopped onions.

Yeah, I know this value concept is nothing new, but I thought if I put it out there, some folks would step up to the plate, so to speak, and provide their own tried and true takes on it. What say you?

Did you know that over 50% of adults in the U.S. don’t get regular physical exercise? Yep, so says the CDC. If you aren’t exercising, I guess you can take some small comfort in knowing that you aren’t alone. But better than that, get off your duff and do a little something!

The good news is that you don’t have to train like an athlete - or even like a weekend warrior - to reap substantial health benefits. (Of course, if you are getting tons of exercise, don’t let this stop you!) The Department of Health and Human Services reports that ANY FORM of physical activity, exercise or movement of the body uses energy and studies show that even a modest effort to improve physical activity can provide health benefits.

So, what are those health benefits? According to the Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health, pretty impressive stuff like protecting against type 2 diabetes, certain forms of cancer (such as colon), heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, weight gain, depression and anxiety. Not too shabby, huh? Physical activity can also contribute to greater self esteem and a healthier mental outlook. And you know those sluggish bowel issues that so many people have these days? Well, good muscle tone helps keep bowels working better, and exercise helps move digested food through your intestines, speeding transit time.

About now I bet you are itching to add more activity to your day, right? Here are a few very simple ways to get you started without feeling overwhelmed.

• Because taking that first step to get you going is often the hardest, get a friend involved! It’s fun, you keep each other motivated and it helps you stay accountable.
• Pick something that you really truly enjoy: gardening, walking in nature, dancing, swimming, canoeing and even house cleaning!
• Begin at a comfortable level; increase your pace gradually and steadily. You’ll find you start to feel really wonderful and your body actually craves the movement!
• Find a time that works best for you - could be after dinner or first thing in the morning or over your lunch break.
• Put on some dance music when doing household chores or cooking a meal. Dance around the house a bit, dance around the kitchen (carefully of course!); make it fun!
• Put some lively music on your iPod when walking the dog, cleaning the garage or taking a walk. Extra rhythm means extra movement!
• Going grocery shopping, to the mall, or simply to work? Whatever your destination, park your car a distance away and walk at a brisk pace to the entrance.
• Take the stairs whenever you can; go as slow as you need to build up your strength.
• Work at a desk all day? Take five-minute breaks whenever possible and go for a walk around the office. Not possible? If you have an hour for lunch, spend the first 20 minutes taking a brisk walk, and the other 40 minutes enjoying a delicious, healthy lunch.
• Break 30 minutes of exercise such as walking or riding a stationary bike into three 10-minute sessions during your day.
• Vary your routine: go for a walk one day, dance around the house the next day, and then take the stairs on the next day.
• Take a class that sounds fun - maybe water aerobics or a hiking club.
• Instead of taking the dog for a walk, let the dog take you. Keeping up with Rover keeps you on your toes and alert.
• Join the kids outside for some fun activities in the sun.
• If you have some exercise equipment at home, use it with your iPod, a magazine, a good book, or the T.V.
• Set short-term goals that are reasonable to achieve.
• If your office has a gym or you are already a member of one, consider hiring a personal trainer for a session or two. Keep it up, and hire that person once a month or once every two months to stay on track.

Remember that weight-bearing exercise is best for bone health. That means hiking, jogging, dancing, tennis, stair climbing and weight training. Also, when you exercise, your body burns extra glucose (blood sugar) to fuel your muscles. The greater your muscle mass, the more glucose your muscles will use, keeping your blood sugar lower. Both aerobic exercise and strength training are beneficial for keeping blood sugar levels balanced, critical for people with diabetes. Learn more in this pdf about the connection between physical exercise and diabetes.

Remember that any amount of activity is better than none at all! Anybody, regardless of size or shape can reap the benefits of daily activity. Of course, if you are starting an exercise program, you should check with your health care provider for the best form of activity for your needs.

Got any fun tips for staying active? I’d love to hear what you’re up to!

Joe & Jerry Watson, Monetta, SC

In their second year of growing organic peaches along the “Ridge” section of South Carolina, Jerry and Joe Watson are pioneers in organic peach farming on the East Coast. In a region full of conventional peach orchards, the humid environment deters most farmers from trying to grow the fragile fruit organically. Four generations of Watsons have been active in farming at Watsonia Farms, where they currently farm 900 acres of peaches and 180 acres of organic produce in Monetta, South Carolina.

In this installment of Dispatches from the Field, Steve and Philip brave oxygen deprivation and “Death Road” (renowned as the most dangerous road in the world) to reach folks in the rural communities of Bolivia with not only financial services, but also health and education.