Wegmans

Wegmans has a public commitment to continue to expand organic offerings on its website.

Wegmans does not have a written, publicly available pollinator health policy for food and beverage supply chains that addresses the need to reduce use of pesticides of concern to pollinator and human health and to expand healthy, bee-friendly organic offerings. A strong policy would include shifting to least-toxic farming approaches in order to avoid regrettable substitution of one toxic pesticide with another. The ecological farming methods that underpin organic farming, integrated pest management and regenerative agriculture reduce farmers’ overall need for pesticides.

Commitment to reduce pesticide use

0 out of 15 points

Avoiding regrettable substitutes

0 out of 5 points

Commitment to least-toxic approaches in non-organic supply chains

0 out of 10 points

Commitment to organic

5 out of 15 points

Wegmans supports domestic organic growers by running a store-owned organic farm and orchard that conducts research on best practices and shares findings with organic farmers that the company sources from. In 2016, Wegmans reported that organic produce sales had grown to 20% from 2% 10 years earlier. However, Wegmans’ has not publicly reported on the state of organic sales since then. Friends of the Earth recommends that Wegmans provide updated information on the state of organic sales.

Wegmans has not taken any other discernible action to reduce use of pesticides of concern to pollinator and human health or expand organic farming and other least-toxic approaches in its supply chains. The actions we evaluated include: 1) tracking use of pesticides in company supply chains, 2) measurably reducing pesticide use in the past three years and publicly reporting on data, 3) supporting farmers in non-organic supply chains to shift to least-toxic approaches such as integrated pest management and regenerative agriculture, 4) measurably expanding organic offerings in the past three years, 5) demonstrating support for U.S. growers to transition to organic farming, and 6) demonstrating advocacy for public policies aimed at reducing agricultural pesticide use, protecting pollinators and supporting the expansion of organic agriculture in the U.S.

Track pesticide use in supply chain

0 out of 10 points

Measurably reduce pesticide use

0 out of 15 points

Prioritize least-toxic approaches in non-organic supply chains

0 out of 20 points

Prioritize USDA certified organic

5 out of 25 points

Support domestic organic growers

5 out of 15 points

Support public policies

0 out of 5 points

Wegmans has a publicly available commitment to expand organic offerings on its website.

Wegmans does not have publicly available commitments or policies related to reducing use of pesticides of concern to pollinators and human health in its supply chain. Wegmans does not appear to include reduction of pesticides of concern to pollinators and human health or expansion of organic offerings in company Key Performance Indicators or other formal sustainability criteria. Wegmans does not have educational content online about pesticides or organic farming, such as a full definition of the USDA certified organic label (prohibition of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, GMOs, antibiotics, and growth hormones, and promotion of farming methods that protect soil, water and biodiversity) or content on the value to pollinator and human health of decreasing use of toxic pesticides and expanding organic offerings.

Make policies and commitments publicly available

2 out of 6 points

Oversight

0 out of 5 points

Educate consumers

0 out of 10 points

Wegmans has not communicated with Friends of the Earth via phone or email in the past year.

Wegmans has not made a public commitment to reduce or phase out use of neonicotinoids in live goods and garden plants. Wegmans has not made a public commitment to remove neonicotinoid or glyphosate products from store shelves.

Policy for live goods

0 out of 4 points

Policy for on-shelf pesticide products

0 out of 5 points