How media can affect Whole Foods shopping bag design

I don't know if any of you (hmm. I say "you" as if I am imagining some sort of audience. . ..) have been following Michael Pollan's online food blog on the NYT. His most recent (as of this writing) posting is a rebuttal letter he wrote to Whole Foods in response to a long letter the CEO of Whole Foods wrote to address some of the things that Michal Pollan wrote in his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Read both (and now there appears to be another rebuttal letter from Whole Foods in response to Michael Pollan's rebuttal. Wow. I am lagging behind.), since I couldn't possibly do justice to the various threads by simply summarizing their arguments, but one of the main things both letters address is the idea of "local" food. I haven't read Pollan's book yet, but the first letter from Whole Foods basically goes on about how the company is indeed doing what it can to support local producers, etc.

Pollan's rebuttal letter challenges Whole Foods' claim that 45 percent of its products are "local". He raises the interesting question of whether Whole Foods counts the 3 big-corporation organic companies that are included in this 45 percent count. I still need to read Whole Foods' rebuttal letter #2, which seems to address Pollan's questions.

I went to Whole Foods today after work to pick up some stuff. I usually ask for a plastic bag, but today I was in a paper bag mood. I immediately noticed their new bag design: there is a picture of a ear of corn, with the text "LOCALLY GROWN" sort of diagonally written across the front. Then on the sides of the bag, there is a list of "a few of our local growers". On the back of this bag (well, as much as these sorts of bags have an actual "front" and "back"), there is a blurb about "Our regional growers" bringing us the freshest seasonal produce, etc. etc.

I can't help but wonder if this bag design was inspired by the recent exchange that has been transpiring between Michael Pollan and Whole Foods about the notion of "locally grown". I feel like I've only seen this design debut fairly recently.