It sounds like you’re taking issue with some things that went unsaid, not with what I actually said. If that’s the case, I’ll say this: It’s a radio interview that moves quickly and you always have about three things you’d like to say, but just don’t have enough time. I’ll stand by my book as “addressing this stuff” directly. I’d love to hear your feedback on it if/when you read it. Thanks for fighting the good fight.

One particular instance was in reference to the concept of bargain vegetables in supermarkets and the immovable resistance that idea is met with. You left the question to bewilderment without touching upon the obvious: The store’s GM’s want to avoid, at all costs, a discount culture where products not easily differentiated from one another are sold in two price tiers.

Empathy would suggest that the GM’s are thinking of the raft of customer interaction problems this can create (and the paid time wasted dealing with the hassle) and then, feel that the practice will also put the store’s ‘gourmet’ status in jeopardy.

Packaged, prepared foods? These are also thrown away, first, to protect the prestige of the brand (I’m betting Whole Foods would be unhappy to have their logo seen daily at soup kitchen’s near their best customers) and second, because even store employee’s have to pay to take them (or risk being fired for ‘stealing’). I’ve seen firsthand, trash bag upon bag of these foods utterly destroyed by bitter employee’s who’re of the ‘If I can’t have it, no way anybody get’s it free’ mindset and it’s shameful. This even at stores that collect money at the register for City Harvest(!).

I bring this stuff up not to inspire bad feelings but to point out that one critically important element of your mission is to reform some cultural hypocrisy (and move the bar on some societal + business taboo’s). I can’t see how you’ll gain fundamental change without addressing this stuff more directly.

Thanks again!!!