Photo by Richard A. Huston
June 2005 | Evergreen News
Whole Foods Goes Shopping
News that the Whole Foods Markets grocery chain is expanding to the Interbay neighborhood didn’t exactly shock local business owners and competitors alike.
For one thing, entrepreneurs like Steven Villegas at Utilikilts have noticed lots of guys in suits (presumably with pants) checking out the surroundings at his store on 15th Avenue not far from our own Evergreen Monthly offices.
For another thing, the city’s Growth Management Act is stepping into reality. It favors zoning laws that accomplish higher urban density. Interbay is one of the hottest growth targets, including a Port of Seattle plan to convert 94 acres of industrial land into biotech labs supported with retail and office properties.
Certainly, Whole Foods’ local competitors are only wondering what took the natural grocer so long to fully land in Seattle. They are aware the Austin, Texas-based chain is keen on our taste in natural and organic foods plus the Puget Sound area’s reputation as literate and intelligent. One of Whole Foods’ major factors for establishing any store is potential education level of customers.
But what is surprising is that the natural grocery chain keeps building big stores. Its Interbay location will be a few organic dairy cases larger than 60,000 square feet, or about 5,000 square feet bigger than the bustling store in Bellevue, which itself is 5,000 square feet bigger than the bustling store in the Roosevelt neighborhood.
Additional stores are planned for Redmond and at 2200 Westlake in South Lake Union. The Redmond store will match Interbay at 60,000 square feet, while the Westlake store will fit into a more compact urban environment at 47,000 squares.
All of the stores are big by local and national natural grocery standards. The typical Whole Foods store is 32,000 square feet, while most PCC Markets locations are about 20,000 square feet and ideal fits for city neighborhoods.
As for Villegas at Utilikilts, he reports that he has been treated fairly and honestly by the developers and landlord while having to move his store to make room for food rather than fabric.
It’s positive to hear local businesses are honored and supported rather than papered and coldly evicted. As for who wins the local natural grocery market, it’s clear our region is ripe with willing consumers. Now it’s up to the various natural grocery companies and co-operatives to harvest the fruit and win over our taste buds.
—Andrew Mulholland
Bastyr U Partners for Mushroom Magic
While cooks and gourmets alike enjoy mushrooms for taste, flavor and texture, some researchers at Bastyr see them as active ingredients in treating breast and prostate cancers.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded Kenmore-based Bastyr University and partner University of Minnesota a three-year grant to research how the turkey tail mushroom may strengthen immune response to the two gender-dominated cancers. Bastyr’s portion of the three-year award totals $792,000.
Selected due to its long history of medicinal use in China and Japan, this mushroom is not available in local grocery stores. Turkey tail grows in many parts of Asia as well as old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. Various products containing turkey tail mushroom are often prescribed by naturopathic physicians and acupuncture/Oriental medicine providers as a component of collaborative anticancer therapies.
Laboratory and animal studies will explore mechanisms by which turkey tail mushroom extracts interact with different immune response pathways involved in host defense against tumor cells. The study will also examine the safety of using turkey tail in women with breast cancer after standard cancer treatments. Data from this safety study will be used to design future clinical trials to test whether this mushroom can improve immune function in breast cancer patients after completing conventional treatment.
"We’re excited the NIH has provided us with this opportunity,” says Cynthia Wenner, principal investigator for Bastyr. “Medicinal mushroom therapy is not accepted as part of traditional cancer treatment in the United States since no studies here have been conducted to assess safety and efficacy in people with specific cancers."
—Bob Condor
Cantwell Pushes Ahead on Local Biodiesel
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell continues to impress EM with her eco-stands. In mid-May she announced her intention to move forward with legislation that will boost local production of biodiesel fuel, about 90 percent of which will be produced from soy.
Cantwell apparently has been watching gas prices as much as any driver. She estimates Seattle-area motorists would save 25 to 50 cents per gallon filling up with biodiesel made from Washington crops rather than importing the soy from other states. Cantwell announced her plans at Laurelhurst Oil, which recently opened biodiesel pumps.
Healthy Appointment Made for Patients
The newly formed Puget Sound Health Alliance is a collective of insurance companies, health professionals, unions, local governments and employers that represent some 700,000 workers in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties. It appears yet another phantom organization to chase the seemingly impossible goal of “lowering medical costs while improving patient health.”
Its just-named executive director, former Regence BlueShield executive Margaret Stanley, is highly regarded as a consumer advocate with deep experience running government regulators of health insurance both here in Washington and California. She knows the insurance company strategies but is clearly able to feel the financial pain of medical cost to both patients and employers.
King Country Executive Ron Sims is chairman of the alliance board. Sims explains Stanley and the alliance will first focus on standards of practice (examples: standardizing how heart attacks are handled for women in the ER or best protocol for treatment of high blood pressure) to be followed by unions and employers such as the State of Washington, Boeing, Starbucks and Washington Mutual.
Step two, which will require three to four years, will hold doctors accountable to the same standards and include website postings of what doctors earn from various types of procedures. Sims says the alliance is the most ambitious local patient advocacy coalition in the country, mostly on the power of including all participants in the health care insurance process.
—A.M.
Envisioning a Taxing Lunch Break
Beware: Big-city governments are looking for creative ways to increase revenue streams.
For instance, Detroit is pondering if and how to tax anyone who visits a fast-food restaurant. If Detroit voters approve Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s initiative, a burger and fries—or a salad for that matter—will require an additional 2 percent tax. City officials estimate Detroit would make about $17 million per year on the proposed measure.
In New York, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has proposed a 1- percent tax on junk food, video games and TV commercials to fund anti-obesity programs.
Closer to home, the city of Portland is proposing a tax on cell phones. City leaders have noted that the long-standing tax revenue on “land lines” has dwindled because many residents, especially anyone under 30, has switched to a cell phone exclusively for service at home or on the run. If the Portland measure becomes reality, a $40 monthly bill would rise $2.
Bottom line: That lunch break and call to a friend might cost you more in the years ahead.
—A.M.
Seattle Counted Among the Greenest
The website www.thegreenguide.com just released its list of the top 10 greenest cities in America. EM is happy to report Seattle made the list (something we should not only respect but demand). Here is a capsule look at what The Green Guide Institute staff seeks in winners and what it specifically appreciates about Seattle. The Green Guide’s Jemilah Magnusson filed this report:
With 80 percent of Americans living in urban areas, The Green Guide naturally wanted to find out which cities are kindest both to the environment and our health. We often think we have to escape the city to get to where it’s green and healthy to live, but many cities have advantages unavailable in sprawling suburbs, including parks, excellent public transport and walkable commutes to work. And facilities such as bike trails that keep people out of cars can also help reduce America’s obesity problem.
For those seeking outdoor recreation, a big factor for many in where to move, cities such as Seattle, Portland and San Francisco offer quick access to mountains, beaches, and ocean.
But what else makes a city green? For our list of the top ten, we sought out good water and air quality, efficient use of resources, renewable energy leadership, accessible and reliable public transportation and green building practices. We also looked for parks and greenbelts and access to locally grown fresh food through farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture groups. Finally, we included affordability in our green criteria, since the health benefits, public parks, and other amenities of living in a greener city need to be available to more than just the wealthy.
The Environmental Protection Agency rates the ten cities below as all having good air quality most days of the year. Water quality, a major concern for most Americans, can be difficult to compare, but we checked EPA water quality reports for levels of neurotoxic lead with all cities below. We also used the Natural Resources Defense Council’s most recent "What’s On Tap" report.
Based on these criteria, the ten cities set green examples for other American cities to follow. While no city has a pristine environmental record, The Green Guide’s list acknowledges progress around the country to greener and healthier cities. We welcome reader feedback and thank our readers for stimulating debate and further investigation.
Seattle (pop 563,374) keeps a spot on the greenest cities list with its mandate that the city’s utility, Seattle City Light, meet growing demand with no net increase in greenhouse gases—achieved through self-generated wind energy thus far. This commitment to renewable energy offsets the city’s problems with short-term small particle air pollution, for which it ranked 22nd out of the American Lung Association’s top 25 most polluted metropolitan areas.
Seattle’s water quality ranked seventh out of 25 U.S. cities in Organic Style. Seattle devotes 11 percent of its city land to public parks, boasts 44 building projects registered for certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Efficiency Design (LEED), and requires all new city-funded buildings meet LEED standards. An extensive ferry system makes biking in the islands a breeze, the adjacent Cascade Mountains offer excellent skiing and nearby Mt. Rainier presents a challenge to mountaineers.
The other cities making the list (in alphabetical order; the 10 weren’t ranked against one another): Austin, Texas; Boulder, Col.; Chicago, Ill.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Madison, Wis.; Minneapolis, Min.; Oakland, Cal.; Portland, Ore. and San Francisco, Cal.
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