Whole Foods

    By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

    | 11:45AM 3/13/2012
    Take a look at the receipts in your wallet. They show what you paid for the items you bought, but what's missing are the true costs -- to people and the environment. But, good news: Sustainable and fair trade products don't have to cost you more. Consider, for example, a banana ...

    By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

    | 1:55PM 3/02/2012
    At EARTH University, students don't produce papers. They produce -- organically grown crops they harvest and sell -- along with other entrepreneurial agricultural products. Is this hands-on education in working the soil and changing the world a model for a better future.

    By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

    | 2:25PM 2/15/2012
    McDonald's has finally caught up with consumer sentiment on the subject of factory farming and the inhumane treatment of animals. The fast food giant is using its massive leverage to push its pork suppliers to phase out cruelly confining gestation crates for their pigs.

    By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

    | 7:00AM 2/10/2012
    Walmart, which has long been associated with cheap, high-calorie, low-nutrition foods, wants to get healthy: Its new "Great for You" initiative aims to show shoppers it can help them eat healthy on a budget. But can the retail tiger change its spots -- or it's rep?

    By Barbara Thau

    | 7:00AM 1/20/2012
    Retailers are spicing up their brick-and-mortar stores to keep you walking through the door. Their game plan? To design environments that are equal parts high-tech and homespun. But will the changes be enough to keep physical stores from being reduced to showrooms for e-commerce sites?

    By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

    | 12:00PM 11/15/2011
    Whole Foods is asking its shoppers to help a good cause -- with "LIFE Jackets." They're reusable cup sleeves to protect your hands from hot beverages, and all proceeds go to Kenyan women and special-needs children.

    By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

    | 3:25PM 11/03/2011
    McDonald's reintroduction of the McRib sandwich has made news headlines and mouths water. However, the fans eagerly awaiting the limited-time opportunity to wolf down McRibs may not realize that McDonald's pork products contain a secret, unappetizing ingredient: pain.