This week's dose of organic headlines, updates, resources, goodies, and recipes courtesy of Doug Snodgrass...
John Mackey is the CEO of the Whole Foods market chain, which is as notorious in the U.S. for its enormous selection of organic and natural groceries as it is for its stratospheric prices. Prices that only a CEO could love...or afford.
Based on his priors, it would be tough to categorize Mackey as César Chávez-ish, to put it mildly.
An internal Whole Foods document listing “six strategic goals for Whole Foods Market to achieve by 2013,” obtained by Mother Jones, includes a goal to remain “100% union-free.”
And there was this gem:
"The union is like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it's unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover."
So should it come as a shock that Mackey would view healthcare as a privilege, not a human right, a view he was willing to present publicly via an August 12th op-ed in the Wall Street Journal?
While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.
[...]
Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care - to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter? Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America.
And the backlash began, with a distaste that was neatly summarized by DarkSyde.
Mr. Mackey, I'm not sure if you understand who it is that shops at your organic grocery chain: a lot of progressives, vegetarians, professional and amateur athletes, and others who care so much about the environment and what they eat that they're still willing to shell out three bucks for an organic orange, even in the midst of the worst recession in sixty years. I was proud WFMI was based in my hometown of Austin, and defended it against most of the conservatives I knew growing up there, many of whom still hold your entire business in utter contempt. Some of them ridiculed me for shopping at Whole Foods, with all the "tree huggers and granola eaters and hippies" who, incidentally, made you a millionaire.
Mr. Mackey, you just shat all over your best customers. Given the years of pseudonymous postings on Yahoo finance slamming a competitor you were quietly trying to acquire at the time, double talk and unethical behavior arguably seems to be becoming a habit for you. So I will never, ever, shop at your stores again, unless you retract that op-ed, apologize for stabbing us in the back, or resign. In this day and age, it's just too easy to locate competitors. Until then, well, judging by the Whole Foods community forum, not to mention the discussion in Hopeful Skeptic's and Aptoklas' diaries, you've finally managed to universally piss off everyone. I predict the next few weeks of your life are going to suck, immensely.
Mackey's mea culpa was delivered a mere two days after the original article appeared, but according to him, the problem was with the article's title, not the content.
As you are probably aware, I wrote an Op/Ed piece that was published in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week on health care reform, one of the biggest and most emotional issues facing our country. I was asked to write an Op/Ed piece and I gave my personal opinions. While I am in favor of health care reform, Whole Foods Market as a company has no official position on the issue. In answer to President Obama’s invitation to all Americans to put forward constructive ideas for reforming our health care system, I wrote this Op/Ed piece called simply “Health Care Reform.” An editor at the Journalrewrote the headline to call it “Whole Foods Alternative to Obamacare,” which led to antagonistic feelings by many. That was not my intention - in fact, I do not mention the President at all in this piece. His response did not assuage all offended parties. In response, a campaign to boycott Whole Foods is burgeoning on the Internet. Loyal shoppers say they feel betrayed by Mackey's position, which, although it's his and not the company's, seems to go against his customers' values. On forums and Facebook pages, they're exchanging ideas of alternative places to buy their organic cheese and pristine produce (farmers' markets, Trader Joe's, local co-ops). "Whole Foods has built its brand with the dollars of deceived progressives," organizers wrote on the "Boycott Whole Foods" Facebook page, which boasts more than 13,000 members. "Let them know your money will no longer go to support Whole Foods' anti-union, anti-health insurance reform, right-wing activities." The movement has gained enough steam — and disgruntled consumers have been sufficiently vocal — to warrant the creation, on the company's Web site, of a Health Care Reform forum (more than 1400 discussion threads, and 10,000 posts so far). There, a hearty discussion of health-care policy has emerged; at the same time, Whole Foods has cultivated a new set of fans. "We will be patronizing the stores even more now, because they are managed by a wise CEO," one commenter wrote. "Everyone who agrees that socialism is bad for the economy should patronize Whole Foods more to offset the idiotic boycott." But even if they attract some unlikely new patrons, Whole Foods representatives know a potential PR nightmare when they see one. There is a subtle irony in the subtext. Recent events have caused Whole Foods to lose favor with progressives, while Wal freakin' Mart has actually gained karma points with some on the left. Related Reading: Tweet Tweet Tweet: Get Celsias Headlines on Twitter—Celsiastweets
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