The whole food picture

Rachel Ida Buff in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has mixed feelings about the entry of Whole Foods into the local market with its new store on the east side.

As organic and health foods have become a business, cooperative stores have faced the challenges of competition from non-cooperative health food vendors, particularly national chains like Whole Foods. On one level, this represents the mainstreaming and success of the organic and whole foods movements.

On the other hand, consumers and producers lose something when national corporations displace local businesses.

She teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, part of one of the big chains that dominate the market for higher education.