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Amazon: We’re Lowering Whole Foods Prices on Monday

With a Monday closing set for Amazon to take over Whole Foods, the online product giant has announced that its first move will be to lower Whole Foods prices on select organic foods. According to CNN Money, organic avocados, brown eggs, almond butter, salmon, apples and rotisserie chicken will be the first markdowns. Other price reductions are coming, though, with Amazon Prime members getting additional price breaks.

Amazon’s takeover of Whole Foods Market is a $13.7 billion venture that has left food manufacturers quaking in their boots. As soon as the online behemoth made its announcement, grocery stocks took a nosedive, as investors worried that foods would go the way of books, with slashed prices after Amazon took over book sales. Obviously, Amazon its own footsteps by slashing food prices. What’s left to be seen is not how many organic products will become more affordable, but whether they will stay completely organic.

The allure of instant gratification and convenience is ever present in today's world. Unfortunately, when it comes to food, speed and convenience is anathema to quality and sustainability. Although you can now order organic foods with a single click and have it delivered right to your doorstep, in reality, this mentality presents a number of problems; if nothing else the barrier it will create between consumers and farmers is disturbing.

It also will contribute to the gray line defining “organic.” Ironically, Whole Foods' 365 brand organic milk, popular as it may be, is indistinguishable from conventional milk. And that’s just one problem. For this reason, I still support shopping “in real life,” where you actually get to see and inspect the organic foods you’re buying, and to meet the person selling it to you.

One of the best ways to ensure you're getting high-quality food is to get to know the grower. Establishing and nurturing such relationships, and really getting to understand where your food comes from and how it's grown, puts "soul" back into the food, nourishes the spirit and strengthens community bonds.