Initiative 522 will be voted on in Washington State
on November 5.Whether the initiative passes or fails, the Sehome neighborhood
and it’s only grocery store, Haggen Northwest Fresh, will be impacted by the
outcome, said Clement Stevens, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for
Haggen Northwest Fresh.
If Initiative 522 is approved, all genetically
modified organisms will have to be labeled on food that is sold through a
retailer, according to the sos.wa.gov pdf on Initiative Measure No. 522.
“This is a
huge issue; it’s not something that just impacts Haggen and our local vendors.
It’s something that as the people speak to labeling, or not labeling these
products, we will work with our vendors and again, listen to our customers and
try to deliver the products that they want,” Stevens said.
Charlie Parks, a 21-year-old checker at Haggen said
“If I-522 passes it will affect every grocery store in the same manner, so I
don’t think Haggen will carry any more of a burden than any other store, or
lose any of our customer-base to a different store. The only way I could see it
affecting Haggen, is in the products we decide to carry.”
While Parks believes Haggen could only be affected
by the products they carry, Russ Connary, a 32-year-old community member, said “I
think it will force us all to look at food differently. Whether we want to or
not, we’re all going to see the label, so we’ll all start shopping based on
what is on that label.”
“The information about GMO’s is in people’s minds
due to the initiative no matter what, so people could be influenced by the mere
thought of modified organisms in their food. Somewhere like Wal-mart, Safeway,
or Albertsons will have labels popping up on stuff they’ve bought before and
they’re going to realize it’s not good for them now. This could in turn cause
them to stray towards natural foods, no matter what the I-522 outcome is, and
Haggen carries those natural products,” Connary said.
The Sehome neighborhood, which is a nature-based
neighborhood according to the City of Bellingham’s Sehome Neighborhood Plan,
can be seen through the products Haggen offers. These offers include local and
natural food, as well as their effort to persuade customers to use reusable
bags as seen on the Haggen Northwest Fresh Website. Also on the Haggen website
under Holiday Specialty Foods, Haggen carries more than 500 natural and
gluten-free food choices.
According to Stevens, Haggen has always prided itself
in dealing with local, natural vendors throughout the years, allowing them to
connect with the community better. Stevens said that it’s not a new thing for
the stores to deal with local vendors, but something they’ve always done well.
According to Stevens, these local vendors try to stay away from adding GMO’s to
their products.
“As a
company, GMO products are inherent in a lot of products we sell. We have taken
a position lately to label the things that are non-GMO in our stores,” Stevens
said. Some of these products are the local and organic foods in the store,
according to Stevens.
Haggen always tries to be transparent with the
customers about what is actually in the food they are purchasing, according to
Stevens. Stevens feels that it’s a good policy for people to know what is in
their food, especially since I-522 is determined by voters, and not the Haggen
stores.
“Our stand is that whatever we do, we want to be an
advocate for our guests. If they’re concerned about something in their food, we
listen carefully and try to react to it accordingly,” Stevens said. “We’re
following I-522 very closely, obviously. It’s not something that we take
lightly.”
Not only could the I-522 ruling affect Haggen, but
possibly the community as well due to where people want to shop, said Connary.
“People may decide to shop for more local and organic foods which Haggen sells.
This could boost the population of people who shop there, let alone other
neighborhoods coming to Haggen to shop. That could in-turn cause more traffic
in the Sehome Village area, which would impact the immediate neighborhood.”
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