Whole Foods has established a $30 million venture capital fund to make equity investments in artisanal food companies. This presumably comes on top of a $10 million fund set up for farmers last year.

It’s no PR charity giveaway, that’s about 20 pct of annual profits.

It means they and their board and their shareholders believe investing in the organic/local/sustainable/fairtrade space will a) return $30 mln back within a few years and b) yield substantially more on top.

We won’t know the nature of the investments. I suppose the fund could stick all its money in higher-margin “artisinal” pre-prepared foods, every dollar spent could be about competing with Trader Joe’s. But it’s still a hopeful indicator.

The most successful IPO of 2006 was Chipotle - and while it’s fastfood and its largest investor was McDonalds, the chain is a serious purveyor of natural and organic ingredients.

If sustainable food can marry morals to the bottom line then it really might just change the world. At least a little.

And let it not be assumed that America is not richer than it was last year, or the year before, or the year before. 9/11 and the internet bubble burst included, Americans are still getting richer quicker than the rest of the world. (All of us starving nonprofit professionals notwithstanding.)

But just so nobody thinks I’m not paying attention to the income inequalities in America, the food expenses number used by Mackey was “percentage of disposable income,” which means money left over after basic expenses, including basic sustainance. Which, if you are truly poor, is zero and has already priced you out of the picture.

I really don’t think there’s any real decline happening with Whole Foods, btw. They are doing really well and will only continue to grow.

It’s kind of amazing how little attention is paid in these philosophical discussions to the issue of hunger and poverty and food access. At the same time, as I wrote in comments on another blog, is it realistic to expect the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to have a critical analysis of poverty and food access and world hunger? They are a retail company after all, and retail is based around the concept of providing product to people who can pay for it. I would expect analysis of this from Pollan, not from Mackey… I hope that in the future this philosophical food ethics stuff can be combined with the work of economic justice and food access organizations. When Mackey responded to the question about money and choice, I don’t think he was thinking of people who truly cannot afford this kind of food when he answered the $$-related question, I think he was thinking of middle-income people who choose to prioritize other things and say they can’t afford it when in fact they are just unwilling to spend more than 8% of their budget on food and prioritize it over other luxuries. Which shows where his head is.

BTW I got your e-mail and will respond as soon as I get a minute!