Whole Foods carries out false and misleading marketing

The claim about "NOTHING ARTIFICIAL, EVER" is part of a grand bait-and-switch scheme of consumer deception carried out by Whole Foods. Publicly, Whole Foods runs advertising and uses corporate messages that claim it sells absolutely nothing artificial, but once you're inside the store, a huge number of products on the shelves contain not only GMOs but also hidden forms of MSG, too. Just check the labels of foods sold by Whole Foods, and you'll see masses of products made with yeast extract and torula yeast -- both are hidden forms of MSG.

On its own web page, Whole Foods describes its "quality standards." Those standards include the following six points:

1) We carefully evaluate each and every product we sell.

2) We feature foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.

3) We are passionate about great tasting food and the pleasure of sharing it with others.

4) We are committed to foods that are fresh, wholesome and safe to eat.

5) We seek out and promote organically grown foods.

6) We provide food and nutritional products that support health and well-being.

If point #1 is true, then Whole Foods "carefully evaluates" products containing GMOs and then accepts them into the store anyway! The company is fully aware that it sells GMO ingredients, but doesn't seem to think this is a problem, even when GMOs are not labeled on its foods, thereby deceiving customers . How is this anything resembling honesty?

On point #4, the store says it is "committed" to foods that are "safe to eat." Is the company not aware of the recent French research showing rats fed a lifetime of GM corn developed massive, horrifying cancer tumors?

Here's a picture of the rats, released by the French research team, showing the results of rats fed a lifetime of Monsanto's GM corn:



Importantly, that's the same Monsanto GM corn found in many products sold by Whole Foods!

If Whole Foods is committed to safe food, why is it still selling unlabeled GMOs throughout all its stores, especially when those same GMOs are seen as so dangerous around the world that they've been banned in numerous countries already?

Point #6 claims the company provides products that "support health and well-being." And that's true. Whole Foods does sell many high-quality nutritional products and certified organic food items. But that's not all they sell. They also sell products made largely with Monsanto's genetically modified corn and other GMOs. To say "we sell healthy products" while simultaneously selling products containing an unlabeled ingredient widely suspected of causing cancer is a kind of market sleight of hand. It's an effort to say here, watch what we're doing over here with organics but pay no attention to all the GMOs we're selling.

To put a giant logo on the side of the store claiming "NOTHING ARTIFICIAL, EVER" while secretly selling unlabeled GMOs all across the store is nothing less than deceptive, misleading marketing. If Whole Foods were to be totally honest with customers, it would need to add point #7:

7) We sell unlabeled GMOs and we have no intention of ever telling you about them. When you shop at Whole Foods, it's sort of like a nutritional mine field. Good luck, customers, because you're on your own!

   Ravindra Kumar

   PGDM 2nd