Whole Foods Market Caves to Monsanto

What you say makes a lot of logical sense, but not practical sense. There is simply no way that my wife and I can research all the individual products and companies that make all the products that we purchase. There is not enough time in the day, even if we didn't have anything else to do (like work, take care of the house and spend time with our daughter).

I need these labels to mean something, and I need the grocery store to do the due diligence and screening on my behalf to ensure the labels mean something. With my limited time and knowledge, I can put food I buy into only three categories of sustainability and responsibility:

Locally produced and purchased directly from a representative or employee of the farmer (e.g., farmers markets). I can feel pretty safe about this, even if these foods are not purely organic or not certified organic. Our "apple guy" at our local farmers market does use some pesticide, but we can talk to him about it directly and decide if we agree that he's being careful and responsible about it. This is pretty time-intensive, and is only available to us in any practical way during the summer.

Certified organic, which still might mean excessive water use and tilling to manage weeds instead of pesticides. And it still might mean shipping from across the globe. And definitely means expensive.

Everything else, because none of the other labels mean anything.

This is why I need Whole Foods and others to be diligent and more clear on their labeling. They're in a position to do this--I am not.