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I’m still grateful for this food store and the great quality, great value, variety and sales of real foods. Yes, as informed consumers we need to know prices and quality in all of the food stores. I find shopping for foods a creative practice and a fun game of sorts.
We shop at about eight local food and natural health stores such as Whole Foods, Sugar Beet, Trader Joe’s, Jewel, Pete’s, the Farmers Market, Fruitful Yield and Kolatek’s. Yet we shop at Whole Foods a couple of times a week because of the great value in so many foods. I am also grateful that they have helped raise the bar on food quality in our villages during these 25 years.
As a natural foods educator in town for 40 years, I am passionate about the role of real foods for health of person and planet. As a former community relations employee of Whole Foods, I can assure you that I don’t receive any stipend for this promotion! I know great quality health-giving foods and how to shop for value, sales, variety, freshness, quality, taste and convenience as a European-style shopper. It’s a creative art form.
With our current climate crisis, the role of reviving healthy soil with biodynamic chemical-free practices is vital so the soil and plants can again grab carbon from the atmosphere. Chemical Big Ag soil is sterile, does not grab carbon well, and is not resilient against climate changes with increasing droughts and flooding. Now with Amazon owning this food chain, we need to keep them focused on continuing local foods, organic standards with even, improved soil as well as great quality, service and value.
We can all be a wise shopper for all of our foods. A common adage is that you either pay the farmer or pay the medical industry.
Be well. Mangia.
Gina Orlando, Oak Park, was a former natural health and food columnist for Wednesday Journal (1990-94) and continues to write occasional feature stories and viewpoints for this paper. She’s an adjunct science professor at DePaul University and her classes also include the role of real foods for health of person and planet.
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