Achieve Health      Better Environment

How to Have a Healthier Community

The Importance of a Health Food Store

People make political and social choices when they shop: they "vote with their dollars," deciding who and what they will associate with and support. A feed store attracts the agricultural community, and an auto parts store gathers those interested in motor vehicles. Any store gathers a community of like minded people.
A health food store first and foremost offers a community another way to make informed consumer choices. It can gather people from many walks of life around the issues of environment, agriculture, health, social justice and economy. It creates community health on many fronts. It recognizes the value of offering a community food with organic certification, high nutritional value, proven health benefits, and lower levels of processing, as well as foods which are necessary for special diets and produced relatively locally, providing environmental and economic stability.

Health food stores can support holistic health and healers through education and by helping people make connections. People shopping at health food stores make lots of connections. Perhaps most obviously, they connect the environment to farming, farming to food, and food to their own health. The accepted point of view is that ingesting vitamin and mineral supplements, super foods, whole and organically grown foods, and herbs and herbal preparations can positively affect one's health. A health food store can purchase more locally produced food and other items than a large grocery chain with greater volume needs, it can be more responsive to individual customers' needs, and it can serve as a focal point for community education and activism on food related issues.

Health food stores can support an agriculture whose methods do not deplete soil, water, air, wildlife, or human community resources, as opposed to methods that rely heavily on petroleum products (like gasoline, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides) and/or exploited labor. In a time of political instability in the region where the greatest percentage of the world's oil reserves lie, and at a time when the U.S. is realizing the implications of its illegal and exploited (farm, amongst others) labor force, health food stores can offer valuable markets to farmers who practice more sustainable methods.

Farmers markets can be supported and promoted by health food stores. Many of these stores do not offer produce themselves, but even if they do, it does not need to be considered a conflict of interest. On Farmers Market days, farmers can often sell their "leftovers" to the local groceries and health food store. If a farmers market is located within city limits, many businesses will benefit from the influx of customers on what otherwise might be a slow day or time of day. Tourists are also attracted to farmers markets.

The issue of food is closely tied to our environment, health, social justice and economy, and thus, a health food store can contribute to community health in many ways.

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