Whole Foods has offered support to small farms and allowed them to make enough to be sustainable. But now that Amazon might push to lower prices and shed the “Whole Paycheck” label, those same farmers are concerned about their future.
At the Straus Family Farm, next to Tomales Bay north of San Francisco, the feed truck that delivers food to nearly 300 dairy cows now runs on electricity generated from cow poop. That cow poop–normally a source of pollution at a typical dairy, and one of the reasons for the high carbon footprint of an average glass of milk or hunk of cheese–goes in a digester that also generates power for the rest of the dairy. The cattle graze in rotation, helping grasslands store more carbon. Workers are paid well above minimum wage and get free housing. When the nearby Straus Family Creamery delivers the resulting organic milk (also sourced from eight other local farms), it comes in glass bottles that customers can return for reuse.
