Whole Foods CEO Mackey talks localism at Bacara

Written by Henry Dubroff
Thursday, 03 March 2011

Catering to the tastes of environmentally conscious foodies can be a challenge, and no one knows that better than Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey.

Mackey told attendees at the Wall Street Journal's annual ECO:nomics conference - which runs March 2-4 at the Bacara Resort & Spa in Goleta - that even getting his customers to agree on the term "local" can be difficult. In Texas, he said, shoppers at the $10 billion-a-year grocery chain generally define local as food sourced from within the Lone Star State.
But in Santa Barbara, where the company opened a store on upper State Street in 2009, "they define it as food grown in Santa Barbara County - not even Ventura County," he said.

During his question-and-answer session with Journal editorial board member Kimberly Strassel, Mackey said local sourcing has brought a new level of green awareness to the food industry, but some of that emphasis is misplaced.

For example, he said, about 45 percent of total food cost goes into growing and processing, and a significant portion of the cost goes to home refrigeration and cooking, while transportation only encompasses about 11 percent. "The supply chain is so efficient that it is not a huge factor. Transportation is just a small percentage," of overall cost, he said.