[ClaudeMarkus]

I've been trying very hard to live by the philosophy "Shop Local".

I am lucky enough to have a car, so I take advantage of hitting farm stands in Jersey for fresh (and very, very cheap) produce in the summer and fall. I also try to shop the Green Markets around town, but, even amongst that crowd, you have to look for misrepresentations.

I like Fairway (local company) and Trader's Joe's.

[Sotmoigma]

Bananas gone bad at Whole Foods.

[kubekniekubek]

Ha !

[EspanaCamsInfo]

Zippy, you're sick!

[teridbruse]

*rant alert*

The only NYC greenmarket I've been to is the one in Union Square. It's an interesting visual experience but I would never shop there. The prices seem more jacked up than at Food Emporium (and that's really jacked!!).

Excuse me, but aren't farmer's markets supposed to be where you go for a deal, prices cheaper than at Food Emporium, Whole Foods, or the other thieving food stores?

Hell no...the concept of bargains at a farmer's market is another thing that just gets lost in the New York translation. Here, the prices are actually higher at the farmer's market! (unless you go to Stiles, the only real deal on produce in Manhattan). It's all backwards!

The farmers probably go home at night and laugh at all the stupid city folks they just robbed...$3.99 a pound for some gawd-damned tomatoes ought to be a crime, and don't get me started on the precious loaves of $5.00 bread...or the jars of honey hand squeezed out of an organic honeybee's bum.
The whole Union Square "greenmarket" is just too damned precious.

[exchpaypaleg]

Beyond that, it's a total zoo in regards to trying to get through from point A to B. I'm hoping it will get better once the renovations are finished.

[Eunatis]

Wow, it seems like getting fresh fruits and veggies, is tough in the City.

Thank God, I live only a few blocks away from the Paterson Farmers Market.

Not only is the produce is good, but is super cheap.

[payloansday]

Back in the stone age, produce in NY was HORRIBLE. Then the Korean grocers moved in and upped the game.

[uphokyhuP]

... It's all backwards!

... honey hand squeezed out of an organic honeybee's bum.

Backwards indeed. Are you sure that's where it comes from?

[welihiedginly]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1072/is-honey-really-bee-vomit

[Filmania]

well, admittedly I took some writer's creative license with that one

[tyclislavaify]

Bananas gone bad at Whole Foods.

Now it has invaded the candy aisle!

[55Beaphable]

1992: Whole Foods Market, Inc. buys Bread and Circus of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

[Faumpiggueria]

well, admittedly I took some writer's creative license with that one

It's a fascinating little life in the hive:

Did you know that proportionally to its body size, the genitalia of a drone bee are among the largest of any animal on earth? Mention this to the girls over bridge and you'll definitely get the conversation off Tupperware.

The size of its equipment is thought to be directly related to the drone's post-coital fate, namely death. My bee book notes, "[the genitals] are contained in the abdomen and presumably getting them out of the abdomen for the purpose of mating places such a strain on [the bee] that it dies in the process." As I understand it, the proximate cause of the drone's demise is that its privates are (urk) ripped off during the act. One more reason for caution, boys, when we are fumbling in the dark.

[rushiddink]

re: markets and the rest:

When I lived in NYC I think I prepared food maybe once. It was probably during a blizzard-of-the-century or something. I may have had a can of tuna and a stray packet of duck sauce.

There is so much take-out and order-in and so many cheap ethnic places. It's already such a chore living in NYC if you work everyday... I think it knocks out any desire to cook on a regular basis.

I love good food and love to cook and do so nearly everyday, but the culture here really supports that ... if I lived in NYC, I don't think I'd be so concerned.

[irrelaAnnekly]

But prepared food -- almost all of it, whether from a store, deli or restaurant -- has tons of sodium in it.

Eat it on a daily basis and be forewarned.

I inquired once at WF about their prepared food and was surprised to learn from the manager that none of it is geared towards low sodium, low fat diets.

Home prepared food from fresh veggies, fruit + protein is a whole different menu.

Not that I don't love somebody coming to my door with a bag of ready-to-eats now and then ...

[everlastinge]

Ain't THAT the truth?!

You hit the nail right on the head, Lofter1!!

So all their claims about so-called healthy foods went right down the toilet with that one!

[15Praxanant]

Single-Payer Health Care Advocates Picket Whole Foods

By Sewell Chan AND Jennifer 8. Lee


Whole Foods The grand-opening ceremony of a new Whole Foods store
on the Upper West Side was the subject of picketing by advocates
for a single-payer health care system.

The opening of a new Whole Foods store on the Upper West Side on Thursday has been interpreted in various ways. Some people in the neighborhood welcome the wide selection of expensive groceries and organic items that the upscale supermarket chain represents. Others bemoan the continuing gentrification of the neighborhood, noting that the new store was inserted into the middle-income Park West Village complex over protests from many residents.

To these various views on the store, add another: About 50 protesters picketed outside the store — at 97th Street and Columbus Avenue — on Thursday, around the start of its 14-hour grand-opening ceremony (which began at 8 a.m. and was scheduled to end at 10 p.m.).

The protesters were outraged by an Aug. 11 opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal, in which John Mackey, the chairman and chief executive of Whole Foods, based in Austin, Tex., criticized President Obama’s health care proposals.

“The last thing our country needs is a massive new health care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health care system,” Mr. Mackey wrote.

Josh Starcher, an organizer with Single Payer Action, which organized the Upper West Side protest, said that his group, which advocates universal health insurance access, will also picket the Whole Foods store at Columbus Circle on Friday.

“Our intention is to keep going,” Mr. Starcher said, adding, “We don’t feel that the high-deductible, low-premium plans, they don’t solve the problems of health care.”

Adding to the public relations problem for Whole Foods, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has tried unsuccessfully to organize workers at the grocery chain, has called for Mr. Mackey’s resignation, as has the Change to Win federation of unions, of which the food workers’ union is a part.

Whole Foods, for its part, has distanced itself somewhat from its chief’s statements. The company issued a statement that said, in part: While Whole Foods Market has no official companywide position on the health care reform issue, we would not want our very successful and sustainable health care coverage to be jeopardized. Our C.E.O. submitted an opinion piece last week with the intention of expressing his own viewpoints and providing constructive ideas to support reform, as President Obama invited America to do. We have heard from individuals who both agree and disagree with John’s ideas as there are many opinions and emotions surrounding the ongoing health care reform issue, including lots of differing views here inside of Whole Foods Market. We appreciate those diverse perspectives but it is unfortunate there is misinformation and confusion out there to cloud John’s good intentions.http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ds/#more-74503

[YTmWSOA5]

We need a single payer food system. In a country as "rich" as this, access to food should be a right. Food is a necessity, and it is immoral that people such as the despicable Whole Foods CEO are making a profit from it.

[Prererularl]

Oh c'mon Jasonik.