Oryana’s Buying Guidelines

  in Blog

Oryana Product Purchasing Pledge  

Oryana pledges to provide high quality food and non-food products produced in ecologically sound ways at fair value to owners and the community. We are committed to maintaining the high level of trust we have earned over the years as we balance the many factors involved in purchasing decisions.

Our Product Purchasing Guidelines help us…

  • fulfill the philosophical intent of our Mission Statement and our Ends (organizational goals)
  • meet the needs and desires of our owners and guests (quality, variety, pricing etc.)
  • return value to our owners
  • evaluate the environmental, agricultural, health and social/justice issues that surround food and food production methods
  • identify and replace products that fall short of our standards, as higher quality options become available

Oryana Managers and Buyers prioritize the following products and production methods:

  • Local Certified Organic
  • Non-Certified Local that meets Oryana’s sustainability standards
  • Certified Organic, Non-Local
  • Non-GMO project verified products

We believe our buying decisions improve health, strengthen our community, enhance our commitment to sustainable local farmers and, of course, delight our palates!

Oryana Product Purchasing Guidelines

Oryana Managers and Buyers understand the importance of sourcing high quality products to fill our shelves with an emphasis on locally produced products when available that meet our guidelines. Our local commitment is guided by the Ends policy “Localism” which states: Because of Oryana, our community has an accessible and healthy marketplace for goods produced locally that have a positive environmental and social impact.

Oryana is committed to prioritizing and selecting these products:

  • Certified Organic products with the emphasis on local or regional when available.  
  • Local for Oryana means focusing on building relationships with small family farms and businesses that align with Oryana’s Mission and Ends  policies and includes those farms and businesses that are within a 100 mile radius of the store.
  • Regional is defined as products coming from within the state of Michigan.
  • Local Non-Certified products that meet Oryana’s definition of sustainability.  

Oryana remains committed to working both short and long term with our local producers and farmers to identify creative and mutually beneficial solutions to ensure that local products sold at the store meet our standards. Those standards include:

  • Products grown, raised or processed in accordance with organic agricultural practices emphasizing sustainable growing practices such as soil building, composting waste, crop rotation, protecting water sources and building habitat for birds and other wildlife. Inputs on these farms are only those products approved for use from the National Organic Materials list.  
  • Animals raised for food production will be raised humanely without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones, will have access to pasture and/or be cage free and if fed supplemental grains those grains will be sourced from non GMO seed and produced without the use of synthetic chemicals.
  • Products verified through the Non-GMO Project, a non-profit organization committed to providing consumers with clearly labeled and independently verified non-GMO choices, including testing of at-risk ingredients.
  • Other non-genetically modified or engineered products
  • Fairly traded products with an emphasis on Certified Fair Trade products
  • Animal products that have been raised humanely in accordance with National Organic or Certified Humane standards and have not been given growth hormones or antibiotics. These animals are not fed gmo feed and, are not products of a “factory farm” or CAFO.
  • Seafood that has been fished sustainably adhering to the recommendations from the “Fish Wise Program” administered through the Monteray Bay Aquarium or Certified through the Marine Stewardship Council.
  • Products free of: artificial preservatives, colorings or flavorings, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, synthetic sweeteners, nitrates or nitrites.
  • Non-irradiated products
  • Products that do not use animals for research or testing purposes.
  • Recyclable packaging
  • Whole or minimally processed foods defined as: those traditional processes used to make food edible, to preserve it, or to make it safe for human consumption e.g. smoking, roasting, freezing, drying, fermenting, or those physical processes that do not fundamentally alter the raw product such as separating a whole raw product into component parts such as pressing fruit to produce juice. (USDA Food Standards and Labeling Policy)

Oryana is committed to providing the highest quality products we can find through staff diligence and research. We are also committed to providing excellent customer service which in part means providing products that our owners want or need to fulfill specific dietary or lifestyle needs. As a result, there may be products in the store that fall short of these guidelines but fulfill special customer needs. That said, as appropriate substitutes are found we will continue to replace those products with higher quality ones that meet our guidelines.

Oryana continues to advocate for a safer food system by supporting those actions that strengthen organic standards and organic agriculture, support the Non-GMO project and, support campaigns to label genetically engineered food. We also support other industry efforts to produce higher quality, safer, healthier foods for all consumers that respect our health and the environment.