An orange doesn’t come with instructions

John Mackey, the co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Whole Foods Market recently (OK, in June) posted quite a long letter to his blog in response to another letter sent to him by author Michael Pollan.

I’ll admit to skimming the letter, but Mackey talks at length about the importance of local agriculture and the plans that Whole Foods Market has to promote and nurture this particular are of their business. One of the interesting points that Mackey asserts is that the organic, local agriculture movement would be dramatically different without Whole Foods Market.

Without Whole Foods Market’s pioneering work and without the growth of our stores and distribution centers, it is very unlikely that the organic foods movement would be where it is today. You obviously admire the retail food co-op movement (which I supported myself in Austin prior to co-founding Whole Foods Market), but in fact this movement has never been large enough to successfully grow the organic foods movement. In 2005 the total sales of all the retail food co-ops in the United States combined was only about $700 million (source–National Cooperative Grocers Association), which was less than 15% of Whole Foods Market total sales that year. The simple truth is that the organic foods movement was largely a fringe movement with the number of adherents numbering only in the thousands before Whole Foods Market came into existence. The year-round supply of organic foods across the United States today consumed by millions and millions of people is in large part due to the success and growth of Whole Foods Market.

This is of course the CEO of Whole Foods Market making this statement. But it may hold some truth. I have on occasion shopped in Berkeley, CA at the Berkeley Co-op, which is a great store if you ever get the chance to visit. However, it’s clear that the store itself is a local phenomenon, and that it operates as such. By comparison, Whole Foods Market presents a more main-stream, approachable image to consumers. (And yes, there is a Whole Foods Market in Berkeley.)

One interesting aspect of the co-op is that it requires a monthly time commitment on the part of its members. The goal is to promote ownership of the store as well as a sense of community amongst members. I wonder how such a process would help shoppers at Whole Foods Market better understand and appreciate the mechanics of food delivery. I’m aware that Whole Foods Market already does a lot to educate customers through, for example, their signs. But that’s information about the food itself and not about the food processes: how did it get to this store, what was it packaged in, how heavy is it, etc.

It reminds me of someone’s rant I saw on Craigslist a while ago, where a person who worked in a supermarket was complaining about how when he brought a new pallet of corn out to the display area, people would immediately start picking out corn from the pallet and ignore the stuff in the display area. Their comments: Ooooh, fresh corn! And of course the employee was saying to himself while trying to refill the display area, it’s all the same corn, it came out of the exact same truck, and it’s all sitting back there. We just don’t have enough room to show all of it at once.

Why would it be important to know about the mechanics of food? Appreciation for what it takes to get food to your table. A closer connection between the customer and the producer. And, I’d say, a better understanding of what food is. That might sound silly, but I think there’s a bit of a mystique surrounding “raw” foods, which I think stems from an impartial understanding of where food comes from. Put it this way: when you eat a hamburger, do you think of the cow it came from? Do you think of the dirt the potatoes grew in before being transformed into French Fries? I think that disconnect is harmful because it creates this sense of food as an end product, rather than an object in a continuum, an object which is malleable.

Perhaps a better way of explaining it: an orange doesn’t come with instructions. Your participation is mandatory in altering that orange, and its eventual forms are potentially limitless: peel it, squish it, slice it. In some senses, one could call this process co-creation. And just as people are reticent to step into the storied arena of design because they “aren’t designers”, perhaps people are reluctant to alter their food because they “aren’t chefs”. However, once you see the process of design, its mystique diminishes or disappears. Yes, to be a good designer you need that something extra. Just as to be a really good cook you need to have that special sauce (so to speak). But in reality, it’s just food. Perhaps the curtain needs to be removed so that people can recognize this reality: it’s just food.

Try your hand at design, and you probably won’t be a superstar. Try your hand at cooking, and maybe it won’t be spectacular. But in the process of doing you’ll learn a whole lot, and the next time you’ll do better. By comparison, microwaving instant tacos doesn’t leave much room for learning. The instructions are rather clear, and the contents of the package pretty much limit the possibilities of what you could do with them food-wise: it’s an end product, non-malleable, and perhaps non-digestible (although that’s debatable).

Logically and obviously instant tacos and oranges are completely different foods. But their appearance at the supermarket makes no distinction of their disparate paths to the display stands: they just appear there, one in a box, one in a rind. Taken at face value, the food fairy might as well have delivered both foods to the shelves, and no further consideration is required of those who pick them out. As I mentioned before, Whole Foods Market challenges this perception by providing greater insight into the origins of foods, but that’s one type of understanding. Another type of understanding is to realize that food is a continuum, that your table is just a stop along its journey.

Some grocery delivery services enable their customers to visit the farms which supply their groceries. But I’m not aware of supermarkets providing the same service. I’m curious whether there are more ways to promote understanding of the food process other than to visit the source.