July 2015 Publisher’s Letter – Achieving Food Democracy

Perhaps the key to achieving food democracy is empowering the small farms in our immediate and surrounding area by always seeking out locally grown food as the first option. In the past, we have stressed the importance of voting with our dollars because collectively, we have a great impact on the market by controlling demand. The big giants are waking up to this and are starting to snatch up smaller natural and organic food companies to “strengthen their portfolio,” which is fancy Wall Street lingo for reacquiring lost market share.

In the most recent example of this, General Mills purchased Annie’s for $820 million, and several years ago, Procter & Gamble purchased New Chapter supplements. These companies see the writing on the wall and are taking an, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join em,” position. With the Internet and the popularity of social media, it’s easier than ever for people to share information about what nourishes the body, what to avoid and what chicken nuggets are actually made of.

We could label this powerful trend “the quiet revolution” as it is becoming more and more evident that consumer demand is driving much (needed) change in the marketplace. It’s no accident that Whole Foods continues to open new stores at a rapid pace and is even coming out with a string of leaner, meaner 365 by Whole Foods stores next year. We created the demand for access to healthier and local food by creating the demand with our dollars. Thank you everyone, for the nice work—let’s stay the course to see what else we can accomplish.

Happy Birthday America!