If you're used to running into your local 7-Eleven for Big Gulps and Snickers bars, you may need to look elsewhere. The New York Times reports the chain has added fresh, healthier fare to its more than 8,000 U.S. locations.

With the amount of real estate Whole Foods Market has amassed from its giant natural and organic supermarkets located across the country, you'd think at least one location would turn its rooftop into an organic garden and supply the store below with the freshest, local organic produce.While that hasn't happened…yet, the chain has announced that it has given a loan to support an urban organic farm project in Illinois.

Take it with a grain of hand-harvested crystallized pink Himalayan sea salt, but Whole Foods Market—the iconic gourmet natural and organic grocery chain—is reporting that more Americans than ever are opting for natural and organic foods.

In an exclusive Mashable.com report on March 21, 2012, Whole Foods Market, the nation's largest chain of natural and organic supermarkets, announced that its third annual Do Something Reel Film Festival celebrating feature and documentary films focused on food and environmental issues, is taking the event online with streaming digital content that will help fund green filmmaking grants.

In a recent project of extensive brand research conducted by Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates, Penn Schoen Berland and Esty Environmental Partners, the most trusted credible "green" brand for American consumers was found to be the manufacturer of environmentally-friendly household cleaning products and recycled paper goods, Seventh Generation.

The FDA is expected to approve the first genetically modified (GM) food animal for human consumption in the U.S. in the very near future, but that hasn't stopped Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mark Begich (D-AK) from reintroducing a bill to ban the controversial GM salmon.

In a surprising move, three well known organic brands gave a supportive nod to what they're calling "the conditional deregulation" of genetically modified (GM) alfalfa. The nation's first certified organic retail chain, Whole Foods—who has a storewide policy banning the sale of GM foods—along with the largest organic yogurt brand, Stonyfield Yogurt, and Organic Valley, the largest co-op of organic meat, egg and dairy farmers issued their formal support in lifting restrictions on growing GM alfalfa.

Go to the supermarket and start pulling products off the shelves and you'll see everything has nutrition labels, even water! And now, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says starting in 2010, nutrition labels will be mandatory on many popular cuts of meat and poultry too.