Wegmans Starting Its Own Organic Farm
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 09.11.07
Straight from the roots of a family grocery that became the 70+ store company known as Wegmans comes...a prototype in vertically-integrated, organic produce growth and distribution. Could this be the next trend for green grocers? Hope so.
Pay attention now Wal-Mart. The axis of the Earth doesn't protrude through the main street of Bentonville. If you're looking for a second precedent, Thomas Jefferson had this figured out a long time ago.
"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds. As long, therefore, as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into mariners, artisans, or anything else." --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1785. ME 5:94, Papers 8:426"Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred fire which otherwise might escape from the face of the earth. Corruption of morals in the mass of cultivators is a phenomenon of which no age nor nation has furnished an example." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782. ME 2:229
"Danny Wegman, [pictured] chief executive officer of Wegmans Food Markets Inc., sends his buyers around the world in search of products to sell in his upscale grocery chain. To Thailand for shrimp. To France and Italy for cheeses. To South America for winter fruit. But this summer, he and his wife, Stency, [pictured] are supplying Wegmans' Canandaigua store with fresh, organically cultivated produce that is grown less than 10 miles away, near the couple's Canandaigua Lake home."
"The Wegmans Organic Research Farm, which sits on nearly 50 bucolic acres owned by the family along West Lake Road in Canandaigua, is in its first year of production. The farm's mission, according to Wegman, is to provide locally grown fruits, vegetables and honey to nearby Wegmans stores and, eventually, to serve as an educational model for local growers, employees and consumers who want to learn about organic food production..."
"Wegman credits his older daughter, Colleen, [pictured] now president of the 70-store company, for turning him on to natural and organic foods. When Colleen Wegman graduated from the University of Colorado, her father encouraged her to take a few months off to ski. Instead, she worked six days a week in a natural foods store and later persuaded the company to launch its Nature's Marketplace departments...During the growing season, Wegmans contracts with 800 growers in the five states in which it has stores."
Via:: Gannett News Service and Star Gazette News and Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government, University of Virginia Image credit:: Gannett News Service via Star Gazette
Umm, you spelled "Wegmans" wrong in the title!
I love Wegmans, even though the closest one is over an hour away.
The "Nature's Marketplace" is the best place to go for bulk dry foods like rice and barley, and my mom, who is gluten-intolerant, loves their selection.
This is wonderful news from a wonderful company.
I love Wegmans. They are so into "where food comes from"
I also love Wegmans! I started going there when they opened their first store in our area in West Seneca, across from the old Seneca Mall. At that time they even had a fabric dept.
Back in the early 90s, I bought their green vinyl mesh reusable bags, they were 3.00 a piece and they lasted at least 15 years!! Wanna talk progressive and ahead of their times?? :)
I celebrate Wegmans' new organic farm and hope they expand it in Western New York helping to make our foods healthier and safer and being an EDUCATION MODEL to all other store chains!
WAY TO GO !!!!
Just so you know that is not Colleen Wegman in the picture - it is the farm manager. Otherwise great article.
=== author's response follows ===
Thank you for the correction. JL
Wegmans Rules!!
I live in the ROC (Rochester, NY) and shop there weekly...