Portland has long been a place to test out new ideas in the grocery game, ideas that come to shape the way Americans shop for food. In the early 1900s, local women helped spearhead a nationwide campaign to require health inspections of grocery stores. It wouldn’t be long before a man named Fred Meyer revolutionized the way Portlanders shopped, letting them hit different departments in one store instead of having to visit at separate businesses for bread, meat, and produce.
With its reputation for progressive ideals and generally warm attitude toward fringe lifestyles, the city has also been a great place to be a health food nut. Portland had four vegetarian restaurants by 1900. In the early days, though, the health food scene was mostly run by Seventh Day Adventists and weight-loss charlatans.
That changed in the late 1960s, when hippies brought their arsenal of natural foods to the West Coast. Local health nuts and secular vegetarians could shop at Rose City Nutrition Center, which advertised papaya enzymes, yogurt, and vitamins in addition to “fresh fruit and organic veg. juices.” Sure, they also sold diet products, but a more holistic approach to diet and nutrition was emerging…