by Lyon Graulty, an associate at More
Than Sound, an audio
production and publishing company dedicated to deepening our understanding of the
human experience.
A growing number of supermarkets are committing to green building, but how sustainable are the products inside? As major food retailers progress towards making their stores more sustainable, it's easy to forget about the great strides that still need to be made in the sustainability of the food itself.
Hannaford Bros new LEED certified supermarket in Augusta, ME Hannaford's newest store, which opened July 25th in Augusta, Maine, is the first supermarket in the world to be Platinum-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Their use of geo-thermal heating and cooling, solar power, and recycled and locally-sourced materials is part of a movement helping to create a more sustainable world, and they deserve recognition for their commitment to reducing their environmental footprint.
As this eco-friendly building opens its doors, many other supermarkets are following suit. The Whole Foods in Sarasota, Florida has been LEED certified with a Silver rating, and Food Lion just broke ground on a store in Columbia, South Carolina that is on track to LEED certification. As the green building and retail food industries forge new partnerships, this progress highlights a growing void: the lack of a common set of guidelines to transparently access the sustainability of the wide range of ecological, health, and social impacts involved with food production and distribution.
True, we have the Certified Organic label, which has made advances in restricting the use of toxic chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on our food. But the Organic certification system fails to recognize the wider ecological impact of a product. "Saying the product is organic is not enough anymore," says UC Berkeley Industrial Ecologist and GoodGuide founder Dara O'Rourke. "In 2009, you need to know, okay, it's organic - but is it healthy? Was it produced locally? How far did it get shipped?"
Much of the organic food that is bought every day in the U.S. actually comes from China. Newsweek reported last year that while there are 21 separate agencies that claim to certify organic farms in China, only one of them is considered legitimate outside of the country. Consider this with the fact that it’s estimated that roughly half of the organic garlic we import is coming from China. It’s hard to imagine all that garlic is certified by the recognized agency, and all this is complicated by the fact that our government doesn’t keep track of the country and farm of origin of organic food imports. In fact, we only inspect a little over 1% of all food imports. A few years ago, Wal-Mart had to pull a bunch of Chinese produce labeled organic from its Chinese stores after they tested it and found out it was loaded with pesticides.
