>> Controversial Whole Foods founder John Mackey’s no longer the chairman of the company’s board — though he’s still on the board and continues to be the CEO of the company.

>> In case you forgot, John Mackey wrote an anti health care reform editorial in the Wall Street Journal, arguing that health care — and even food and shelter — are commodities people shouldn’t feel they have a right to.

>> Despite John Mackey’s views on health care and seeming skepticism that global climate change is indeed happening, the guy’s resignation isn’t exactly cause for rejoicing, Tom Philpott points out at Grist:

The investors now taking control of Whole Foods are likely more interested in the money than in the good. When profits falter, the “power of conscious capitalism” (the subtitle of Mackey’s book) succumbs to the power of unfettered capitalism. If I were a Whole Foods “team member,” I’d be seriously considering starting a union to protect wages and benefits. And as a backup plan, I’d be agitating for universal health care.

>> Did you know John Mackey’s tried “a therapeutic session of holotropic breathing” and followed the very veg Engine 2 Diet? A long profile on the guy in The New Yorker tells you more about the guy than you probably ever wanted to know: “The right-wing hippie is a rare bird, and it’s fair to say that most of Whole Foods’ shoppers have trouble conceiving of it.”

Earlier: Whole Foods to do more fair trade

Logo via Whole Foods

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