Whole Foods Market tackles animal welfare?? - stop selling veal and CEO Mackey's compensation

Please read article below which states what they are doing for animal welfare.  So
does this mean they will stop selling dead, abused baby cow (veal)? 
Maybe this is a good time to ask. If they won't, then this seems slightly
hypocritical.  I have listed store numbers and locations below, as well
as his
contact information.  Call to tell them to live up to their standards
and stop
selling veal!  Now!

By the way...John Mackey's compensation found via
(http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/ceou/database.cfm?tkr=WFMI&pg=1)

Maybe he can start putting his money where his words are and start
donating to
the cause.  Again, even 5% of his total compensation would go very far. 
But
hey, he's so important he deserves it (right?!!)


John P. Mackey
Chairman and CEO
Whole Foods Market

In 2004, John P. Mackey raked in $885,216 in total compensation
including stock
option grants from Whole Foods Market.

From previous years' stock option grants, the Whole Foods Market
executive
cashed out $1,013,893 in stock option exercises.

And John P. Mackey has another $4,370,735 in unexercised stock options
from
previous years.


Call to tell them to live up to their standards and stop selling veal! 
Now!


Boulder
Whole Foods Market
Crossroads Common Shopping Center
2905 Pearl Street
Boulder, CO 80301
303.545.6611
303.545.6633 fax
Store hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
more store info and calendar | view map

Colorado Springs
Whole Foods Market
7635 N Academy Blvd
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920
719.531.9999
719.536.0101 fax
Store hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. everyday
Coffee bar opens at 6:30 a.m.
calendar

Denver
Whole Foods Market
Cherry Creek
2375 E. First Ave.
Denver, CO 80206
720.941.4100
720.941.8999 fax
Store hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
store calendar | view map | additional catering selections

Fort Collins
Whole Foods Market
2201 South College Ave
Fort Collins, Colorado 80525
970.267.9200
970.267.9201 fax
Store hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
store calendar

Highlands Ranch (Douglas County)
Whole Foods Market
9366 South Colorado Blvd, Ste B
Highlands Ranch, CO 80126
303.470.6003
303.470.7366 fax
Store hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
store calendar


National Office - Corporate - Call to tell them to live up to their
standards
and stop selling veal!  Now!
Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, TX 78703-4677
512.477.4455
512.477.5566 voicemail
512.482.7000 fax
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/contact/index.html - Corporate email
form for
your comments

Rocky Mountain Region - Call to tell them to live up to their standards
and stop
selling veal!  Now!

1105 N. Lamar, Suite 200
Austin, TX 78703
512.391.8400
512.477.4293 fax



Whole Foods Market tackles animal welfare
Date posted: April 11, 2005
Malleau

Anne Malleau speaks at the Livestock Care Conference, hosted by Alberta
Farm
Animal Care (AFAC) in Red Deer.

The largest organic grocery store chain in North America has its sights
set on
new animal welfare requirements for meat suppliers – a move expected to
help
drive major animal welfare changes for the agriculture and food
industry. Anne
Malleau, Executive Director of the company’s new Animal Compassion
Foundation,
discusses six key challenges to implementing standards.

Austin-based Whole Foods Market is not your average food company.

Start with its uncommon beginnings:

   * In 1981, a huge flood sent 10 feet of water and muck down several
Austin
streets, destroying Whole Foods Market's first store before it had
completed a
year of operation. The uninsured owners were set to close up shop for
good, when
a large group of neighbours showed up, shovels in hand, and spurred a
round-the-clock volunteer rescue effort. The store re-opened in less
than a
month and the experience led Whole Foods Market's co-founders to
structure their
business strategy around community involvement – a strategy they credit
as
integral to the company's dramatic rise to become North America's
largest
natural and organic grocery store.

Next, consider its bottom line:

   * Though a small company by retail sector standards, Whole Foods
Market's
network of 168 stores generates an average $800 per square foot of
retail space
– twice the industry average. Last year, it generated over 3.3 billion
dollars
worth of sales, while being named one of Fortune magazine's "100 Best
Companies
to Work For" for the eighth year in a row.

Follow its history:

   * For 25 years, Whole Foods Market has followed quality standards
aimed at
delivering the highest quality natural and organic foods available. It
was a
major player in the U.S. process of developing organic certification
standards
and has championed a range of sustainability issues.

Now, glimpse its future:

   * Whole Foods Market is aiming to grow to over 300 stores by 2010,
including
expansion in Canada. The company has stores in Vancouver and Toronto,
and a new
store will open in Oakville this May. Building on its history of
driving
industry innovation, the company plans to establish a new line of meat
products
based on high animal welfare standards – a move expected to help drive
major
animal welfare changes for the agriculture and food industry.

What does this latest step mean for the future of livestock care
standards in
North America?

Anne Malleau, Executive Director of Whole Foods Market's new Animal
Compassion
Foundation, discussed the company's animal welfare initiative at the
recent
Livestock Care Conference in Red Deer, hosted by Alberta Farm Animal
Care
(AFAC). She outlined six key challenges to developing enhanced
standards.
Six key challenges

1. Ability to audit. "The most important thing is that we create
standards that
are based in science," says Malleau. "We want to make changes that are
actually
proven to be better for the animal – not just changes we think are
better for
the animal."

In 2003, the company recruited experts and stakeholders as advisors in
a process
that led to the development of a 15-stage plan for setting up welfare
standards
for various species. It started with ducks and is now at stage 13 with
that
species. Whole Foods Market has also started work on swine, lamb and
beef
cattle, and plans to have standards in place for all species sold in
its stores
by 2008. "In developing these standards, we have brought in animal
scientists
for each species, animal rights organizations, animal welfare
organizations,
producers and a third party auditor," says Malleau. "At the end of the
day, if
you don’t have something that you can audit, then you don’t have
anything."

2. Cost of production. A major challenge for any new standards that
require
producer participation is generating incentive at that level – a
challenge that
Whole Foods understands, says Malleau. "We recognize that welfare costs
money.
So with our new standards, the idea is that any producer that meets the
standards will receive an additional premium, as a profit-sharing
approach.'
Church

Susan Church, Manager of Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC).
Currently, all meat sold by Whole Foods Market is marketed under the
company's
"natural" line brand. The standards for this line, which centre on
organic
criteria, do include some animal welfare criteria. However, following a
confrontation with an animal rights organization at one of its
shareholder
meetings, the company delved deeper into the animal welfare issue and
decided to
establish the second "compassion" product line to feature enhanced
welfare
standards. "Our goal is to have the two lines run concurrently, and
each year
have the proportion of compassionately raised meat increase," says
Malleau. "The
enhanced line will be sold at a premium, so we felt a premium should
also go to
the producers that are willing to raise their bar to meet this
standard."

3. Disease risk. Another important issue at the production level is
disease
risk, she says. "Once you start looking at alternative welfare systems,
often
you start having problems with disease initially. A perfect process
requires
having the right animal on the right system and the right feed – that
takes some
work and adjustments. When you take animals selected for intensive
systems and
then throw them into alternative systems, that doesn’t always work."

4. Consumer willingness to pay. While Whole Foods Market believes in
the market
opportunity for the enhanced product line, it realizes establishing
steady
demand will take careful planning. “There are all sorts of consumers
that are
very supportive of higher standards, but it's well documented that what
consumers say they want and what they're actually willing to pay for
are often
different," says Malleau. "I think we’ll be able to get consumers to
buy the
product initially, but the challenge is to get them to do that
frequently and on
a steady basis."

5. Producer adoption. At the end of the day, everything depends on
producer
adoption, she acknowledges. "We need producers who are willing to try
new
things, and as a company we need to be prepared to help them through
some of the
issues that arise in setting new standards."

6. Constant improvement. Blazing a new trail is one thing, but Malleau
emphasizes that long-term success depends on ongoing improvement. "At
the end of
this first set of standards, we don’t expect to that we're going to
have the
answers to everything. But we're committed to continuous improvement
and having
these standards as a living document."
Related stories

More information on the Livestock Care Conference is available in these
stories:

   * Livestock Care Conference offers window on progress, challenges
for Alberta
   * Research driving Alberta livestock care progress

More information on livestock care is available on the AFAC Web site.

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