>> In case you missed it, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote a ridiculous editorial in the Wall Street Journal against Obama’s health care reform effort. Mackey basically says health care — and even food and shelter — are commodities people shouldn’t feel they have a right to:
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.
>> That got some people to launch a boycott against Whole Foods.
>> The Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan won’t be boycotting Whole Foods (via Ethicurean):
So Mackey is wrong on health care, but Whole Foods is often right about food, and their support for the farmers matters more to me than the political views of their founder. I haven’t examined the political views of all the retailers who feed me, but I can imagine having a lot of eating problems if I make them a litmus test.
>> Dave Murphy at Grist concurs with Michael. “A boycott of Whole Foods won’t make a difference on health care, and it might actually hurt something progressives care about — organic and natural farmers.”
I won’t be officially boycotting Whole Foods — but Mackey’s disgusting editorial’s grossed me out enough that I may just stick to shopping at Co-opportunity and the farmers’ market until the whole health care debate plays out in Washington.
However, I’m very lucky in that I live in a neighborhood with better shopping options for local, organic food than Whole Foods offers. I would hope that those living in less eco-foodie-friendly neighborhoods won’t feel like they now have to shun Whole Foods if that’s the best place they have to get local, organic food.
What do you think?
Poll closes Monday night.
Image via Whole Foods Boycott / Facebook
I read the editorial. I disagree with some of John Mackey’s words, but I would choose to switch to the high-deductible plan offered to Whole Foods employees today- if I had a choice.
Comment by Nancy — August 29, 2009 @ 12:08 pm
It’s been weird watching conservative and libertarian types jump to Whole Foods’ defense after mocking it (and people who shop there) for years. As for me, I won’t be boycotting it, only because I don’t shop there anyway. (I’m not even sure where the closest one is.) But I wouldn’t criticize anyone who did decide to take their money elsewhere. Whole Foods’ appeal rests in part on the moral imperative to treat farmers and the environment fairly. When the company’s CEO takes the decidedly immoral action of working to prevent millions of people from having access to health care, it undermines much of the company’s appeal. The same consideration doesn’t really apply to other supermarkets because there’s no expectation that the stores will behave ethically.
Comment by John — August 29, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
I don’t shop there very often, but I agree with Pollan that there are a variety of issues to prioritize. Each person has to determine those priorities for him or herself, and anyone who wants to boycott them should do so.
I’ve removed myself as a fan on their Facebook page, but I’m not sure I feel strongly enough about health care v. food integrity to formally boycott them myself.
Comment by How Green Is My Valley — August 29, 2009 @ 4:25 pm
Some will say that the lopsided support of conservatives and libertarians for the CEO seems odd since so many liberals are Whole Foods customers. There’s nothing odd about this at all.
I don’t give a crap whether it’s liberal or conservatives, I don’t believe in boycotting a business because because of an individual’s beliefs. I can be driven away from people/businesses if they try to shove something down my throat or show me outright disrespect, but otherwise boycotts are petty and harms everyone.
Flame away…
Comment by Hostile Knowledge — August 30, 2009 @ 10:37 am
HAHAHA it is hilarious to see libs so torn up. Mackey is 100% correct in his assesment that healthcare is not something that should be guaranteed by the gov’t. We used to have something called personal responsibility and providing for yourself in this country. Now we’ve got this mentality that stuff should be provided for us. You people need to get off of being dependant on the gov’t, because when you are, the gov’t controls you. Whats next, the gov’t should provide us with cars because we all need those? And whats even better is that libs put their trust so much into the gov’t, the same one that has bankrupted social security, medicare, medicaid, runs the dmv and the post office, and couldn’t organize a quick response to hurrican katrina. Hell getting back to the auto’s, thousands of car dealers are still waiting for their checks for the cash for clunkers program, and you want that same gov’t botching your healthcare? I like Whole Foods, I’ve shopped there as a conservative because they have good produce. If I a conservative can shop there without feeling bad, why is it so hard for liberals to shop at a place that shares 90% of their views?
Comment by Nathaniel — August 30, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Umm, Green Girl, you do not have a right to health care, or to food, or to shelter. These are things you are supposed to obtain for yourself because it is a human imperative to survive.
Where exactly do you think you get a right to the services and skills of another person? Who enslaved these other people to benefit your lazy behind? What do you suppose would happen to your “right” if the folks who currently deliver health services decided to stop tomorrow?
Here’s how you can test if something is indeed a right. Pretend you are alone on a deserted island. You have rights to all the food you can find, all the shelter you can build and all the health care you can perform on yourself. You have free speech rights (you aren’t guaranteed any listeners). You can practice any religion you can invent. If somebody else shows up who happens to be a engineer or a doctor, you are free to engage in trade (commerce) to barter with them whatever you are capable of doing (maybe you can write them a story) in exchange for their skills at building you cover, or fixing your twisted ankle.
But you do not have a “right” to their skills.
Grow up. You and only you are responsible for taking care of yourself and your family.
Comment by Ron the Realist — August 30, 2009 @ 10:53 am
Mackey opposed the President’s health care plan and offered alternative methods of providing health care to people in need. Progressive Liberals can not tolerate free speech or independent thoughts that are contrary to their own. Mackey is correct, there is no “right” to free-bees such as health care, but there is a “right” to dissent and free speech. I support his “rights” and find disgust in anyone who believes they are entitled to take away Mackey’s rights and mine. I personally sought out and now shop at Whole Foods in support of our “rights”.
Pat
Comment by Pat — August 30, 2009 @ 10:57 am
I have shopped at Co-ops and Whole foods for years. I do not belong to a specific political party, since none of them represent fully what I believe in. One of those beliefs reinforced by working in and with the government, is that it is an utter failure at running any complex program. If you want to see what government health care will look like, go to a VA Hospital, and volunteer. Under staffed, and over administrated. I believe in Shopping at Whole Foods, because I believe in taking personal responcibility for my health. I pay cash for routine medical checkups and care, and I get a great price for doing so. My Dr. knows that it is my money I am spending, and she gives me the options and relevance of test and procedures, rather than ordering test just to cover her liabilities. We don’t need the government to take over health care, we need a program that helps those who slip through the cracks. And by the way, as a young man, I had to have an emergency surgery, I told the Dr. I have no insurance, and he said “we are going to take care of your health, we are not going to worry about how that gets paid for right now.” I paid for that surgery, with monthly payments over the following 4 years. Now tell me again, how Americans are being denied care, cause I don’t buy it.
Comment by Shane — August 30, 2009 @ 10:57 am
HAH! you hippies are so rediculous. Your beloved CEO of whole foods has betrayed you!!! He has spoken out against against the Messiah’s Nation destroying healthcare folly!! You crazy greenies then decide to boycott your beloved store! Why ??? Have you even considered the reson why he has spoken out againsty it. Have you ever thought about the fact that he is the CEO of the company for a reason. That reaon being that he is educated, informed and obviously intelligent. He has worked hard to earn his position. He realizes that this garbage ,that you Libs think is going to solve the problems with healtcare in this country, is exactly that . GARBAGE!!! it will destroy our Healthcare system, not fix it. What is being propsed is completely financially unsastainable, it will drive away doctors and nurses as well as the innovators of medical advancement and technology. Which doctor in their right mind would want to become a Goverment employee?!?!?. NONE!!! By the way I am not dirty hippy, or a stinkin liberal, I dont believe that Organic food is any better then just regular grocery store bought food. But I do shop at whole foods occasionally and will continue to do so. Maybe you Obama worshippers should spend less time looking for stuff for free, and get a job or a couple of jobs and actually pay for something yourself. Like Health Insurance for starters.
Comment by Brendan — August 30, 2009 @ 10:58 am
I shop at Whole Foods every chance I can get. Whole Foods provides America with really high quality vegetables and meats, and they do it with style.
By the way.. The German Chocolate Cake I bought at the Whole Foods Bakery was to die for.. excellent.
Comment by Anne Days — August 30, 2009 @ 11:01 am
If you’re wondering why the “No” vote is so high — and more importantly, why the rude derisive tone and opinions in the comments to this post don’t seem to reflect that of most green LA girl readers — it’s because Free Republic peeps have taken it upon themselves to skew the stats on this particular poll.
Comment by Siel — August 30, 2009 @ 11:06 am
“It’s been weird watching conservative and libertarian types jump to Whole Foods’ defense…”
Not weird at all. What we are defending is the right to free speech and an independent opinion. Something the left only reserves for themselves.
Your little ‘boycotts’ are backfiring on you. ;))
Comment by Chic — August 30, 2009 @ 11:14 am
Yep.. I have just re-read my Constitution and nowhere in there does it say you have the RIGHT to healthcare.. food… OR shelter. You libbies need to wake up. Have a review of YOUR Bill of Rights. A government that is big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take it away.
Comment by HLong135 — August 30, 2009 @ 11:15 am
You state that Mackey is wrong, but not only do you give no reason WHY he is wrong, you don’t even address WHAT you think he is wrong about, other than to suggest that you believe that health care is a right.
Presuming you believe that, do you believe in slavery?
Health “care” is care given by someone else. If you have a “right” to that care, it means that other person must be required, by law, to give you that care, regardless of your ability to pay for it.
Which makes the person providing the care a slave to your ‘right’. Of course, you probably expect “government” to pay the other person who is forced to provide your health care. That money comes from yet OTHER people, who are then forced to work to give their money to the government to pay for your care, making them your slaves as well.
Normally, “rights” are things people have to act on their own. I have a right to freedom of speech, to freedom of religion, to own a gun, to not have to testify against myself.
I also have a right to NOT have my property searched without cause, to peaceably assemble, and to talk to my congressman about the issues.
These are all things I CAN DO, they do not obligate others in any way (except to NOT do things).
There are one or two rights which tend to obligate others. My right to a jury trial forces government to temporarily enslave people to sit on juries.
But health care would be the first “right” that would force other people to work for you against their will, and still others to give you their money.
We don’t even have a “right” to food and shelter in this country. No government official is forced to vote to provide food stamps or homeless shelters.
Only health care is being treated as so special that employers could be forced to provide it to their employees, doctors would be forced to work for whatever the government offered, and people would be forced to buy insurance against their will (because if health care is guaranteed, you have to have some way to force people to pay otherwise everybody will free-load off of Bill Gates).
Comment by Charles — August 30, 2009 @ 11:21 am
Let me get this straight. Someone dares to (very) publicly criticize Obama’s healthcare plan, offers suggestions he believes will be more effective, and the reaction on the left is to defame and destroy? Whatever happened to free speech, and more importantly, free thought?? Since when do we all have to talk, think and walk in lock-step with each other? Is this really the world you, GreenLAGirl, wish to live?
Comment by Lisa — August 30, 2009 @ 11:27 am
You Free Republic people are so weird. So when Mackey criticizes Obama’s health care plan, that’s free speech, but when people criticize Mackey, that’s an attack on free speech?
This issue is not about free speech — No one is questioning anyone’s right to speak.
Comment by Siel — August 30, 2009 @ 11:36 am
My,my. Just because the CEO spoke his mind. Go ahead and boycott if you want. However, it seems that most liberals want to go further. With some derivative of the fairness doctrine proposed by Mark Lloyd (Obama’s man at the FCC), I hope that a few liberals still believe in the first amendment. Lloyd actually believes that Chavez has it right in putting down opposition to the Chavez regime. Is that the change you can believe in?
Come on, one liberal to give their unadulterated, unqualified support for the first amendment. Bill Press, Jeff Bingamon and that fat junior senator from Michigan, I’m waiting.
Comment by grumpygresh — August 30, 2009 @ 11:37 am
Go Mackey. I’m a Libertarian. I’ve always loved Whole Foods, so much so I bought stock in the company. The only reason those who want to boycott don’t want it is because it is NOT Govt control! And what about Dr. Zeke. Yeah… right… no rationing… yeah… right…
Comment by Julie B — August 30, 2009 @ 11:42 am
The left wingers have been calling for a “dialogue” on health care for years, just like they have been calling for a “dialogue” on race. They don’t mean a word of it.
What they really are demanding is not a dialogue but a monologue, where they get to harangue the rest of us, and we quietly and meekly accept whatever hare-brained scheme they see fit to impose upon us.
Mr. Mackey in good faith offered a well-thought-out, humane alternative to nanny-state health care, one that would affordably provide coverage for many more people than the current system, and the thanks he got for this from the Left was to call for a boycott of his company.
If you don’t allow reasonable people to disagree with you on economic policy or racial dogma or abortion number of contentious issues– if you act like only your side has the Received Truth and any dissent is not just wrong but evil– then you open the door to ruling the country via street fights and might-makes-right. As an NRA Life Member, I’m ready to play that game any day you lefties choose, but I doubt very many of you have thought out the consequences.
Comment by John Skookum — August 30, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
This administration is trying to control our thoughts, lives and the next generations…. all to destroy us… and stupid people are falling for it! Mr. Mackey.. I am glad you still have your brain and choose to use it! I wish more people would. It is becomming a lazy me me america, and I cry for our future… Please Please let someone step up and stop this atrociously greedy and ignorant Government in office!
VOTE REPUBLICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Cindy — August 30, 2009 @ 12:19 pm
Oh my gosh! It would not matter if I was liberal or conservative. A democrat or republican. I would NOT boycott a store because the CEO has given his opinion. I thought this was the United States and we had freedom of speech??? I did nnot see an exclusion to that right for CEO’s!!! This is absurd! What in the hell has happened to this country???
Comment by Tammy — August 30, 2009 @ 12:41 pm
Hurray Mr Mackey, finally someone with a brain that has actually put a system in place that works for thousands of his employees AND he’s willing to share his knowledge based on fact and experience, and you liberal big government junkies won’t even open your mind and listen, think, consider, and weigh the possibility that his plan might just work. Get your head out of you A– and really read what he just wrote in this WSJ article. It makes much better sense to me than ANY of the Obama plan. It’s simple and IT WORKS and it will save us money not cause trillions of dollars of unsustainable debt. I agree with Mr. Mackey and WILL SHOP AT WHOLE FOODS MORE NOW.
Comment by LeAnn — August 30, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
Cindy,
Haven’t you heard? CEO’s are EVIL and only want your money. They would kill your parents and feed them to ravenous wolves if it weren’t for The One beating back their unquenchable thirst for innocent blood!
CEO’s aren’t people. They are the enemy! Those evil Capitalists with their top hats and monocles. DOWN WITH CAPITALISM! DOWN WITH CAPITALISM!
/end sarcastic rant.
Comment by Shawn — August 30, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
err, my last was to Tammy, not Cindy.
Oh and, I’ve never shopped at Whole Foods, but I will now.
Comment by Shawn — August 30, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
LOL @Shawn! :0)
Comment by Tammy — August 30, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
@Lisa
You are a moron.
No one wants to silence your Paul Revere-esque call for a boycott. I just think it’s ironic that you want to boycott someone for stating a very mainstream, historically American idea and thusly discouraging free speech.
Oh an btw, this blog is pretty high on the google “Whole foods boycott” search…so that’s how I found it…not through free republic.
Moron.
Comment by Shawn — August 30, 2009 @ 2:24 pm
So, I uber fail at the comments at this site. My last was @Siel, not @Lisa. Lisa seems to be a wonderful person.
Comment by Shawn — August 30, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Siel,
I must say, you Libs are funny…the only Free Speech you guys are interested in, is when it’s your side speaking. As soon as our side speaks out, the true colors of the Left show up.
Too bad the closest Whole Foods is over 50 miles away from me, otherwise they would have gained another customer due to Mr Mackey’s courage to dissent from The 0ne and his minions.
Comment by JR — August 30, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
Lisa’s comment about a ‘scew’ is funny. 94% is quite a bit more than a ‘scew’. Are you kidding me, that is what most/almost everybody really thinks. 94% is not even close… use some common sense. I live in Austin and fall more on the convservative side, but am always open to listening and trying to understand where people are coming from. I’ve rarely had conversations w/ someone more liberal where they can really explain why they believe something. Yes it does ‘feel’ good to say everyone deserves certain things in our country. The bottom line is people need to be motivated to do for themselve. If not there is a tendancy to take advantage of others/a system that allows it. Unfortunately it’s human nature.
Comment by steve — August 30, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
Mackey’s promotion of free market principles are the efficient road to reform. I support him and will shop at Whole Foods every chance I get.
Comment by Greg Halv — August 30, 2009 @ 11:00 pm
I voted no. I’m a progressive and disagree with what Mackey proposes (and what most of these commenters are saying), but I also have celiac disease, a corn intolerance, and am vegetarian. In my area, that makes shopping anywhere but Whole Foods more expensive and inconvenient. I realize that I’m not in any way the typical consumer, but Whole Foods is actually cheaper for me. Giant and Safeway both mark up the gluten-free items much higher than Whole Foods. The GF rice pasta that I like is over 20% higher at the Safeway near me.
We have a few smaller organic markets in DC, but none are near me and they tend to have a smaller selection than the nearby Whole Foods.
I do belong to a CSA so that is where I get a lot of my produce during the summer, and I have been supplementing at the farmers market.
What I find so fascinating (and utterly demoralizing) about this whole dust-up is that Obama isn’t even proposing something that progressives want. The Democrats are showing themselves to be just as in the pockets of the health insurance industry (and the pharmaceutical industry), so I doubt we will get any real reform. I would love to be proven wrong though. I gave money to the Blue America PAC through Act Blue’s campaign to raise money for any Senators and Representatives who would stand up for the public option.
http://www.actblue.com/page/theytookthepledge
I don’t understand these people who go on and on about people needing to “take care of themselves”. People can be bankrupted by even minor health problems, and many health care providers won’t even talk to you unless you have insurance or some way to guarantee payment. And how do people “abuse” public health care? They just get sick for the fun of getting the free health-care? Should we dismantle the fire department to keep from encouraging arsonists?
I was reading somewhere (and I wish that I could remember the source to link it) that progressives just need to demand what we think is right and fight for it. If we waited on other important matters like integration or getting the vote for women until people all agreed it was the right thing to do, then we would still have separate drinking fountains.
Comment by Erica — August 31, 2009 @ 9:06 am
Oh wow. Guess I didn’t really expect all these comments!
I do believe that a decent society has an obligation to provide healthcare to everyone. So maybe healthcare isn’t a “right” necessarily, but it should be provided if we want society to be better off.
I was torn over the Whole Foods debacle. I do believe in boycotting when I disagree with an owner’s politics, because corporations donate money and can swing votes on big issues and I want to vote with my dollars.
BUT, Whole Foods is my go to source for organic, sustainable meat on my once a week meat splurge, so I’ll stick with it for that but probably reduce my incidental shopping there, for the time being.
Comment by Rachel (Heart of Light) — August 31, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
@Erica,
Our society does currently provide healthcare to our citizens. Federal law prohibits an ER from turning anyone away, regardless of their insurance coverage or ability to pay.
You say you vote with your dollars, so you understand the importance of money in our society. Money enables and, on a lesser scale, incentivizes medical research and innovation. Profits in the insurance and pharmaceudical industries in America are used for research, reward, and are eventually filtered back into the economy through spending. It’s a big synergistic cycle of goodness. Capitalism sucks, until you compare it to every other system ever tried.
Comment by Shawn — August 31, 2009 @ 1:03 pm
My last was also @Rachel
Comment by Shawn — August 31, 2009 @ 1:04 pm
@Shawn
Did I say that I was trying to take down capitalism? We have lots of services in our society that aren’t provided by purely for-profit entities because it just wouldn’t work. How we have decided that socialized fire departments are okay but health care is not just confuses me. We pay more for health care in this country than any other industrialized nation but we get less for that money. By all of the metrics used to gauge such matters, we aren’t living better or longer for that investment. Infant mortality and maternal mortality are horrible (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/health/16infant.html and http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/80743.php).
A free market solution doesn’t work for healthcare (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/why-markets-cant-cure-healthcare/), but that doesn’t preclude a regulated market solution. The Netherlands does that well (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/07/05/healthy_examples_plenty_of_countries_get_healthcare_right/?page=1). Progressives are understandably wary of anything involving regulation since Congress (and in my opinion, Republican administrations) has historically gutted regulatory power or created a revolving door between government and industry so that the regulations become ineffective.
Do you genuinely not see health care in this country as a crisis? If so, what is your solution?
Comment by Erica — August 31, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
@Erica
By all of the metrics used to gauge such matters, the world is living better for our investment. America and its privatized healthcare system leads the world in innovation and the world benefits from our discoveries. In other countries where they have cheaper “generic” medications, those are usually based off of the name-brand products that our system provides. This way, the generic drug companies don’t have to incur the cost of drug discovery, which may cost as much as $800,000,000. (http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/econ/dimasi2003.pdf) Indeed, we are better for our innovation. http://cfpub.epa.gov/eroe/index.cfm?fuseaction=detail.viewMidImg&lShowInd=0&subtop=381&lv=list.listByAlpha&r=201585 shows the decreasing mortality rates among many killers. This was only made possible by medical research…research that cost money.
I would be more willing to accept that the US government could run a healthcare system that included a public option if it hadn’t proven time and time again its complete failure to manage other social entitlement programs. Social Security is going broke. Medicare is going broke. In fact, we are going so far in to debt that in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, congress had to increase the public debt limit to $12,104,000,000,000 (that’s trillion) (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ005.pdf section 1604). The national deficit (the amount that we spend over the amount we have annually) is ever increasing, with projections putting it at about 12% of our GDP in the year 2010 (http://cbo.gov/). It is my opinion that with a single-party system we have unleashed on our country, we have effectively let loose a stampede of fat kids in a candy store.
Our healthcare needs reform, but it isn’t in nearly as much of a crisis as has been stated. That 46M figure of uninsured includes illegal and legal aliens (non Americans), people who make over $75,000/yr and can afford it on their own, as well as many young people who have decided it is an acceptable risk not to have it, and won’t need it until they are older. That leaves about 8 million people “chronically uninsured” (http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices/12706429-1.html)(note, they are referencing a study done by CNN). So we’re going to spend $1.3T over the next 10 years to insure 8 million people…that’s $16,250 per person, per year. I just saw a commercial from assurance health saying they have plans starting as low as $100/month ($1,200 a year). This public option doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. Once we run our economy completely into the ground, the public sector won’t be able to pay for a fly swatter necessitated by all the rotting pork in Washington.
My solution:
Dissuade people from adopting this feeling of entitlement. People need to learn how to take care of themselves. Allow for HSA’s and promote more catastrophic care plans (which would be a tax penalty under the currently proposed bill).
We must have tort reform. The cost of malpractice insurance is a huge factor in healthcare costs. Eliminate that looming cost, and healthcare becomes more affordable. Illegal aliens should still be treated at ERs in this country. Then they should be deported and have a bill sent to their government. If the government doesn’t pay, we impose sanctions thus making other governments enforce our immigration law
–quick sidebar: I hear people in countries such as Canada say it is unfair that in America we can just “Jump the line” for healthcare. I think it’s odd that the same people who say that in our country are the ones advocating that illegal immigrants jump to the front of the line in our system. It is simply unfair that they can do that to people who have waited patiently and followed all the rules to enter our country. end of sidebar –
I think that about covers it. If I missed something, let me know!
Comment by Shawn — August 31, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
The CEO of Whole Foods as written a well thought-out, well-considered set of options which together would have far more positive impact than any silly plan Obama has come up with.
I fully support Whole Foods in this endeavour–and backed it with my $$$ this weekend.
Good job guys!
Comment by Steven — September 1, 2009 @ 7:32 pm