Food. People are demanding more from it these days than taste. They want food to meet their personal health needs. They want it produced using methods that improve the health of the planet, respect the people who grow it, and more. Here, the visionary CEO of Whole Foods Market, Jason Buechel, shares his thoughts on the food of the future and how to satisfy peoples’ appetite for it.
Chapter 1: Why did Amazon acquire Whole Foods?
we all are increasingly shopping online so why did amazon spend nearly 14 billion dollars by far the most it's ever spent on any acquisition to buy whole foods a brick and mortar national grocery chain and how are the foods we eat changing and how do the food choices we make affect the environment Hi, everyone. I'm Lynne Thoman, and this is Three Takeaways.
On Three Takeaways, I talk with some of the world's best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, newsmakers, and scientists. Each episode ends with three key takeaways to help us understand the world and maybe even ourselves a little better.
Chapter 2: Who is Jason Buechel and what is his role at Whole Foods?
Today, I'm excited to be with Jason Beekle, the CEO of Whole Foods, which is the first and only certified organic national grocery store in the United States. Jason has been at Whole Foods for over 10 years, taking over from Whole Foods' amazing co-founder, John Mackey, who's also been a guest on Three Takeaways. Jason was there when Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017.
I'm excited to learn from Jason how people's food choices are changing, how the food choices people make affect the environment, and what the grocery store of the future looks like. Welcome, Jason, and thanks so much for joining Three Takeaways today.
Hi, Lynn. Happy to be here today to talk to you.
It is my pleasure. Are people eating differently now? And if so, how?
Chapter 3: Are people changing their eating habits?
Yeah, I would say consumers compared to probably any other point in history care more about not only what they're eating, but how their food was produced and what has happened upstream throughout the entire supply chain. And there's more awareness to what food does for individuals and their bodies than we've ever had before.
And this momentum, I think, is going to continue to change as we go forward. I think we have sort of two polarities that go on. We've got a lot of folks who may not be eating the best foods and are having a lot of processed foods. But as folks, as far as customers who really understand the impact, they're really seeking out.
what is best for them, their bodies, as well as making decisions for what's right for their families. And we bring that transparency to our customers. We're very clear about the ingredients, the over 550 ingredients that we ban from the products that we carry in our stores. Our products are grown and produced to the animal welfare or the sustainable seafood sourcing that's taking place.
Chapter 4: What should people know about the impact of their food choices?
This point of history, we're probably in the best position for having awareness and folks caring about what they're consuming.
What should people understand about their food choices and their impact? What is it that they don't realize yet?
Well, I think for many individuals, this comes down to what is important for them. And so in some cases, you've got individuals who are looking for special diets that might tie to their own personal preferences around an outcome that they're looking to achieve. Or it could be a dietary restriction. It could be on the impact that
what they're eating is having related to the environment or how it might impact animal welfare. And so I look at food as something that it's really personal for an individual and the different ethos and the buying decisions are gonna be different for every single consumer.
And I think what complexifies that is when you look at a household, oftentimes there's multiple decision points that have to come together. So there's many different special diets. So there might be a dietary restriction and you might have some individuals who are on a diet to achieve an outcome like losing weight as an example.
Ultimately, it's being able to bring together the information that you can have to help make those choices either as an individual or as a household.
I think we're in a spot right now where not only do we have the greatest transparency, but we have so many different digital ways that consumers can help process some of this information and be able to have the understanding around what they're eating and what outcomes may come. understand the impact that's happening at a macro level based upon the decisions of what they're buying.
And so for folks that really care about animal welfare standards, understanding the differences between actions that are taking place, you know, if you take, for example, eggs, what happens when there's cage-free or pasture-raised processes in place versus the a more industrialized facility and what's the impact that's having to that chicken through the process.
The same thing could take place as it relates for products that are being grown in fields today. The difference of what's happening with organic and regenerative and what's happening with the environment and the biodiversity that's taking place there versus what might be happening in a more industrialized farming practice.
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Chapter 5: How does Whole Foods ensure quality and ethical sourcing?
There's a difference in the taste and there's a difference in that bird's life and all of the different steps that have taken place throughout the supply chain. And so I think as consumers have more information around what is that differentiation? How was that product grown? How was it produced? You have a better understanding of what that impact is.
And I would say also different customers have different inputs that are important to them. It might be, what is the carbon footprint as an example that was taken for this particular product? Or was it using sustainable seafood sourcing practices and helping protect our waterways? And so I think every product tell sort of a story of what that impact is to their surrounding stakeholders.
Increasingly, as you mentioned, people want to know how their food is sourced, how the animals are treated. Do you only work with suppliers that meet certain standards? And if so, what are those standards?
Great question. One of our top differentiators as Whole Foods Market is the products that we carry and the quality standards that we have in place. I mentioned a little bit earlier the ingredients that we banned, and that's sort of like the first step in the process. So a supplier has to meet our requirements of not carrying those particular products.
The second step is we have, based upon the category, other criteria that comes into place. And so within our meat standards, ultimately animal welfare is really important. And so we have something that we use. It's a third party category. system called GAP that has different steps in place.
And our suppliers have to meet those requirements to ultimately have their product certified at a particular step. We have a sustainable seafood sourcing practices where, again, it has to be certified by a third party. One of the things I'm really proud of that we've put into place with produce is a new pollinator protection policy.
And for us, it was really trying to help ensure that we are supporting pollinator health and looking at pest management controls within the produce space. And so in different categories, we have different requirements. And the way I like to think about it is we do the homework for our customers so they don't have to. You know, I take things like cage free.
We were one of the key drivers of helping change that within our industry. And the other thing I'm proud of is we have our base standards that are in place. But throughout the entire store, you're going to see areas where we elevate the standard even further.
You know, in the case of eggs, the work that we've done with a number of our partners, including Vital Farms, who's based here in Austin as well, in what's happened in pasture raised.
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Chapter 6: Do Vital Farms eggs taste better?
I fully agree. And I was just making some eggs with some family members over Christmas holidays, and I was using Vital Farms eggs, and I get the call out that folks absolutely can taste the difference. Yes.
And are farmers incentivized to support what's good for people or what's good for animals or what's good for the planet?
I believe so. Many of the suppliers that I've had a chance to talk to in this space, one, we pay premiums for many of these products. One of the things that we want to be able to do is showcase the value and the work that's gone into this. And ultimately, there's a premium that comes along for these products.
And part of our transparency is making sure that customers understand that work that goes into this. making sure that animals have been taken care of, the workers have been taken care of, the community has been taken care of, the environment has been taken care of, these regenerative practices have been done, these organic practices have been done.
Whatever the criteria it is, there's a premium that the farmers and producers are getting for these products. At the same time, there's a lot of other wins that come into place as well.
So talking to so many suppliers where they're able to eliminate and reduce the fertilizer that they need to, to the extra work that has to go into maintaining their acreage, to the work that they're having to do in upkeep and maintenance, when you can do things that are great for the environment.
and great for the community and your workers, you can create an ecosystem where stakeholders together can sort of win. One of the things that I get excited about as Whole Foods is we try to find these win-win-win solutions. So it doesn't have to be for a customer to win on value. All of these other stakeholders have to lose.
plastic contamination seems to be pervasive. Even trusted brands and organic foods are not immune. Newsweek just published an article on a new study which found that well-known brands like McDonald's, Burger King, and Starbucks were all found to have products with high levels of microplastic contamination.
And the products with high plastic levels range from cheeseburgers to milkshakes to kitchen staples like salt and even to organic products. And there was even one kind of Whole Foods organic rice. What are your thoughts?
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