Fun as it is to fill this space with ramblings and irreverence, as a trade-oriented site we’re obligated to share good hard data when it presents itself. And that’s just what we have for you today, courtesy of a couple state-of-the-industry reports released by the Food Marketing Institute at its banner show in Las Vegas. Though broad in scope, each one contains interesting insights into health and wellness marketing.

I’ll cut straight to the highlights.

The vast majority of retailers are using health and wellness strategies to stay competitive, numbers show. Eighty-nine percent say they’re emphasizing natural and organic products, and 85% say they’re focusing on consumer and family health. Ninety-seven percent say they’re playing up perishables, to great effect.

Economic concerns linger, however, and that could change retailers’ game plans as consumers trade down to less expensive items. Low price is the number one determining factor for shoppers, with 37% saying as much. Other studies have supported these findings, with some even stating directly that sales of premium-priced natural and organic products will suffer. But the opportunity is still there for creative retailers, according to FMI. Indeed, consumers say they’re eating out less, cooking at home more often, and consuming more leftovers than previous years.

People are also maintaining healthy attitudes that could translate into sales. Sixty-two percent say they’d like to eat healthier than they do right now. Of those who would like to improve their diets, 70% fall into the $75,000 to $100,000 annual income category, according to one study.

Sustainability remains a prominent issue for shoppers, as well. Sixty-one percent say the presence of a recycling and sustainability program is at least somewhat important when choosing a retailer. That’s because, as one study shows, more than 60% of shoppers have made a habit of recycling cans, plastic and paper products.

Given these attitudes, it’s puzzling that only 51% of retailers report that they sell reusable shopping bags. Or that more retailers don’t implement and promote bag recycling programs.

As the numbers show, wellness is an important, sophisticated category. Retailers need to make sure that they’re up to speed.

I recall reporting on a mess of problems at Safeway some years ago. They had acquired Randalls in Texas and Dominick’s in Illinois. It culminated in 2001, when the retailer bought Genuardi’s outside of Philadelphia. Shoppers were upset by the changes the parent company made after that purchase, taking away Genuardi’s local flavor and replacing it with centrally bought, cookie-cutter business practices that made it just another chain in the Safeway family of stores.

Well, chairman and CEO Steven Burd and the folks at Safeway can feel vindicated. Not only has the chain rebounded from those troublesome times, it’s flourishing. First-quarter results reported this week reached 44 cents per share, 2 cents ahead of analyst estimates. Safeway is forecasting its full-year profit will come in at $2.25 to $2.35 per share, up from the $1.99 per share earned in 2007.

More than anything, executives can thank health and wellness for the success. In 2005, the $40.5 billion chain (No. 4 in SN’s “Top 75 North American Food Retailers” list) launched the “Ingredients for Life” branding campaign. The initiative was built around health-focused Lifestyle format stores featuring upgraded perishables, a better selection of better-for-you foods and eventually, two private labels centered on wellness: O Organics and Eating Right.

Both of those store brands have been so successful they’re going global as part of a new broad distribution agreement called the Better Living Brands Agreement. Safeway officials say O Organics is the No. 1 organic food brand in the country, while Eating Right has become one of the fastest-growing health & wellness food brands. Better Living will make both labels available to all retail and food service channels in the country, supported by a network of co-packers and distribution companies.

I don’t think there’s another conventional food retailer out there that has used health and wellness to improve its own health as much as Safeway. Say what you will about conventional operators getting into the wellness business. Safeway has done it right.

When Gaylord Nelson died at age 89 on July 3, 2005, Earth Day was already established on the calendar. It was a day of awareness and education, but also of celebration.

That’s not exactly how Nelson envisioned it when, as a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin in 1969, he announced a huge, grass-roots protest against environmental desecration for the following spring. Remember, it during the height of the Vietnam War, and demonstrations and sit-ins were popular forms of protest.

“I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda,” he wrote. “It was a big gamble, but worth a try.”

Like a lot of other things that started out as a protest movement, Earth Day lost its rebel attitude as it matured. The same happened to organic living (and about 77 million baby boomers). It’s like they say: If you’re not a rebel by the age of 20, you got no heart; but if you haven’t turned establishment by 30, you’ve got no brains.

Well, Earth Day is 38 this year, and has joined the mainstream. School children pick up litter and learn about global warming. Supermarkets distribute reusable shopping bags. Communities launch more comprehensive recycling programs.

Anyone lamenting Earth Day’s going corporate is too nostalgic. The public is listening! Wasn’t that the goal all along? The timing of world events — gas and food prices, animal die-offs and global warming — makes Earth Day even more relevant. The ideal this commemorative day represents is manifesting itself as action in everyday life. Look at the hybrid cars people are driving, and the recyclable bags they’re bringing into the supermarket; the gardens on their front lawns and the solar power panels on the roofs of their homes.

I think Sen. Nelson and his cohorts would be delighted to see just how universally successful Earth Day has become. Every participant — corporations, government, schools, families and, yes, supermarkets — deserves some of the credit.

Supervalu has the luxury of choice. It operates multiple banners in just about every state in the country. The stores are diverse and many have been allowed to retain unique features that local shoppers appreciate. With this structure, the company can cherry-pick profitable elements in any one of its retail subsidiaries, tinker with it a bit, and then make it available to all of its stores.

That’s just what executives did when they announced the rollout this week of Wild Harvest, a “new” line of natural and organic foods. The private label actually has an interesting pedigree. It was created by Star Markets, a Boston-area chain that operated 53 conventional and four natural foods stores called — you guessed it — Wild Harvest. British supermarket group J. Sainsbury acquired Star in 1998, took the Wild Harvest brand and created products and in-store boutique sections for its other U.S. holding, Shaw’s Supermarkets.

The photo at right depicts one of those in-store sections. The departments consisted of about 4,000 SKUs of national brand and Wild Harvest-brand packaged food including soy milk, rice, soups, sauces, fat-free crackers and spring water as well as dairy, meat and frozen case items. Judging by the hair, I’d guess this photo was taken very soon after the Star acquisition (for her sake, I hope it was).

Then Shaw’s/Star got bought by Albertsons, which used the Wild Harvest to rebrand and launch its own line of all-natural Angus ground beef in 2005.

In 2006, Albertsons was gobbled up by Supervalu. Through it all, Wild Harvest avoided the ax and today is sitting pretty as a nationwide store brand. And now that Supervalu has shuttered its stand-alone Sunflower Markets stores, it’ll be interesting to watch how the company takes what it learned there, and applies it to this time-tested, established natural and organic private label.

We received some interesting numbers this week from the Food Marketing Institute, the organization representing retailers in food industry matters. The group’s annual study on store development shows a strong trend towards operators embracing sustainability in their building and remodeling plans.

The report, Facts About Store Development 2007, shows that upwards of 34% of the respondents stated they’re pursuing sustainability initiatives related to new buildings or remodels, while another 40% plan to do so in the next five years. A lot of the focus right now seems to be on reducing the store’s environmental impact by adding refrigeration management programs and “making changes in store design, landscaping or transportation,” according to FMI.

As you can imagine, right now, the emphasis is on energy conservation and reduction. Retailers have joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill program like crazy in an effort to minimize leaks in refrigeration systems. They’re decreasing energy use with LED lighting, skylights, light-motion detectors and energy-efficient HVAC systems. Some of them are going so far as to install systems that reclaim heat output, and adjusting schedules in an effort to drive energy use to off-peak hours.

Customers might not see all the effort that’s going on behind the scenes. But they should be told. Retailers should be sure to publicize their efforts, using bag stuffers, in-store signage or an article in their custom publication.

Let’s see…. can you name any state agencies and what they’re famous for? Florida’s office of Secretary of State comes to mind, but this is a food industry blog, so we’ll skip over the 2000 U.S. presidential election and move right onto something more appropriate.

How about the N.J. Department of Agriculture? That’s more on-point. It was 1984 when then-Secretary Art Brown unveiled the “Jersey Fresh” campaign. Sure, it got a lot of laughs at first. New Jersey? Everyone focuses on the northern reaches of the state, and forgets that New Jersey farms generate about $924 million per year and employ about 562,000 people — that’s about 12% of the state’s jobs. Currently there are about 10,000 farms working 790,000 acres, or 17% percent of the state’s land.

The irrepressible Brown (his personal advocacy of the budding program was key to its eventual success) kicked off what’s become a credible source of promotional assistance for retailers. Numerous states copied N.J.’s program with their own slogans and logos. Through these departments of agriculture, supermarket chains are today able to connect with farmers, take advantage of promotional materials and plan events. Say what you want about the Garden State, but biting into an in-season, Jersey-grown tomato still sends shivers down your back (that’s a Ramapo, a local favorite, pictured above. courtesy of Rutgers University).

This week, farmers are going to gather in the state capital to protest the plan to get rid of the Department of Agriculture. It’s a budget move expected to save $4 million. Instead, the areas the agency is responsible for — including soil conservation, food safety and commodity promotions — will be transferred to others that oversee health and environmental protection.

Two other states do not have Departments of Agriculture: Rhode Island and Alaska. New Jersey would become the third. Officials point out that eliminating the department does not mean they’re taking away support for the state’s agricultural heritage and current needs.

But it sure seems like it. I don’t think there’s one retailer operating in the state who doesn’t participate to some degree in the annual Jersey Fresh campaign. Let’s hope that, no matter what the outcome, supermarkets keep the program popular and profitable.

A number of economic reports coming out this past week reflect the grim mood shared by U.S. consumers. Most of the stories were pretty general in nature, but at least one examined the outlook for the supermarket industry.

First, we have to note that most Americans are not in dire financial straits. A relative few are burdened by job loss or a sub-prime mortgage. But read the newspapers and listen to the talking heads on television and you start wondering if it’s time to bury your life savings in the potato field out back.

Consumer confidence sank to a five-year low this month, the result of tight credit, rising prices and stalled employment. Some economists are quoted as saying the economy is already in recession, and the earliest we’ll drag ourselves out of it may be later this year, after taxpayers have had a chance to play with the money provided as part of the the government’s economic stimulus program.

Meanwhile, home prices fell almost 11.5% in January, the steepest drop since records first started being kept in 1987. Although sales of new homes were up, average prices nationwide have been growing more slowly or outright declining for 19 consecutive months.

So… let’s eat! An analyst from Banc of America Securities predicts supermarkets will get a boost from more people eating at home. “Clearly, with income growth stalling, consumers are finding it necessary to spend more of their nominal dollars on food, and particularly food at home,” he said in a note.

Scott Mushkin, vice president and a senior equity research analyst, was writing for investors, telling them large chains like Safeway and Kroger could very easily outperform the market during this period of instability, with same-store sales liable to reach as high as 7%. Each chain is actively involved in capital projects, store planning, and merchandising and pricing initiatives — all of which appeal to tight-fisted consumers.

With net profits hovering around 2%, the supermarket industry doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room. But this is a good time for them to show off and strut their stuff. Let’s show everyone what we’re capable of. It’s time to tout self-reliance and empowerment. Host more health fairs, get staff dietitians out into the stores, promote private label organics and keep stores themselves clean and accessible. That’ll give consumers something to feel good about.

With cloned meat, Monsanto sugar beets and the like making headlines these days, it seems GMOs are once again on the minds of consumers and the food industry. Judging by the buzz at this week’s Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, companies are looking to take action.

One organization that’s taking the lead is the Non GMO Project, a nonprofit working to establish a voluntary standard and label claim for GMO-free products. Right now they’re campaigning for retailer support and signing up manufacturers interested in completing the standard’s certification process, which they’ve posted for public comment until April 29th. The organization hopes to have a working standard in place by Fall 2009.

The Non GMO Project’s standard looks to address three areas: traceability, segregation, and sourcing. Each step focuses on keeping a product out of contact with genetically modified ingredients, and accredited labs throughout the country will do the testing to make sure that happens.

Supporters said that a certification like this can’t come soon enough. The majority of American commodity crops contain GMO ingredients, which the FDA has OK’d but have been linked to harmful health effects in some studies.

“I don’t believe we’re winning this war,” said Michael Funk, CEO of United Natural Foods and one of the founders of the Non GMO Project, during a presentation on the topic. He went on to tell audience members to “Educate consumers. Talk to your neighbors and make them aware of what’s going on.”

A lot of the top players in the natural and organics industry are behind the project: Whole Foods, Nature’s Path, Organic Valley, UNFI and White Wave Foods, to name a few. So the issue is definitely gaining momentum, not to mention publicity.

But for supermarket retailers, GMO labeling like this is a tricky prospect. After all, with so many products that do contain GMOs on shelves, how do you promote a label like the Non GMO Project’s without disparaging much of your inventory? And perhaps the most difficult hurdle is defining that term “GMO” for consumers.

Still, the organic industry had many of these same challenges, and look at where it’s ended up.

Water has become a fairly accurate barometer of society’s attitudes about health and sustainability. The fact that the human body is up to 75% water makes H2O safety an issue very close to our hearts… and in our hearts, and probably flowing through our hearts.

News that prescription drug residues were found in municipal and regional water systems throughout the United States is worrisome on several levels. Of course, what is the impact of this repeated, low-level exposure on the body, particularly young people? Even though the levels of the pharmaceuticals detected in the water supply were infinitesimal, consumers have voted very clearly with their dollars in favor of milk without hormones, produce without pesticides and meat without antibiotics. Those were detected teeny-tiny amounts, too.

Other disturbing aspects to this story: The lack of testing and the reluctance of the various water providers to talk about the subject; finding out that bottled water and home purifiers aren’t an effective option to tap water; and being reminded, yet again, that much of the water we drink is treated sewage (with many intervening steps for purification, etc., but the bottom line is it’s recycled).

What’s the retail food industry take on all this? Finding pharmaceutical residues in the supply casts the whole debate over tap water vs. bottled water in a new light. Before any more talk about plastic and bottles and litter, perhaps we should start with the product itself. Let’s first ask what it will take to make potable water itself sustainable.

According to a recent poll by the NPD Group, 79% of consumers believe the U.S. economy is in a recession or at least headed toward one. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said as much on Monday. Who can blame them? The price of gas increased almost a dollar per gallon from this time last year, and some economists believe that it could puncture the $4 mark by spring. Food, healthcare and energy costs have also shot up. And, oh yeah, the housing market is stagnant.

Restaurants are already feeling the heat. New numbers from research firm Technomic show companies’ overall growth dropped this past year, largely due to the “struggle against fuel prices, increasing cost of labor and commodities and menu price increases,” according to Technomic’s president, Ron Paul.

Normally, this could be considered good news for much of the supermarket industry, which traditionally becomes the go-to for consumers during a recession, capturing the dollars that are no longer being spent on restaurant food and other “luxuries.”

This time matters are a bit more complicated, however. For the past few years, organics and other categories associated with wellness have helped drive growth in the supermarket sector. These better-for-you products and services brought premium prices and better margins to the shelves. Now that the economy is turning sour, what will become of this scenario?

Simple logic dictates that sales of organic, all-natural and other premium-priced offerings will slow down. But consumers are fickle, and retailers might be surprised to see them striving to minimize medical problems by eating better and smarter.

One thing is for sure: The modern supermarket industry has been around for more than 60 years, and has taken plenty of rides on the economic roller coaster. Everyone should be healthy enough to survive this trip.