Michael Pollan Takes A Stand On Whole Foods Boycott

Omnivore's Dilemma Author Michael Pollan has decided to weigh in on the Whole Foods health care fight, stating he will not boycott the company. Whole Foods customers around the country were outraged in recent weeks with the company's CEO wrote op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing Obama's health care reform efforts. Many, including some unions, have called for a boycott.

Pollan writes on New Majority:

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.

Read more here.

Quick Poll

Does Michael Pollan's views change how you feel about the Whole Foods Boycott?

Yes, this makes me rethink things. Maybe I shouldn't boycott.

I wasn't boycotting before, and I'm not boycotting now.

No! I'm done with Whole Foods.

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Comments

[calcedony]

Some are promoting the idea that Whole Foods pays its workers really well. A quick search on the Web shows $8-10 an hour for a starting general team member - I am not impressed. I encourage all to review what is really needed in this country - beyond health care, we really need to think about where are food is coming from and how we will become local. Is Whole Foods local? No, it is a chain. If you are in a community that has a LOCAL food coop, here's a chance to make the change -- I am doing it, and believe me, I was highly reliant on WF until 10 days ago...

[mrfreeze]

To boycott or not to boycott Whole Foods (or any other corporation) based on it's CEO's opinion about health care may make you feel good, but in the end here's the REAL issue:

Unless and until health care coverage is separated from employment, boycotts will not benefit employees or consumers.

1) It is not the job of employers to do/care about/admi­­nistrate/­o­versee the health care of their employees. If a company says it is, it says so only because it's a SELF SERVING issue for the company. It has nothing to do with a "benevolent " corporation or employer "caring" about employees. Talk to most Americans today with company provided health care and ask them just how flexible or versatile their life circumstances are. They are essentially "locked-into" the employer's cage: no portability, fewer choices, etc....

2) Company provided health care was developed during the price and wage freezes of WWII. Companies needed workers and were offering "benefits" to attract workers. This system has been encouraged for far too long. In fact, why are so many companies complaining that the "benefits" and legacy costs of their employees are killing them? This system is not sustainable.

CEOs always like to claim that health care benefits are great for their employees but if they had a chance to off-load the cost and responsibility, they'd do it in a heart beat. The current system has turned employers into despots and employees into indentured servants.

[reelcobra]

Liberals launch icons faster than NASA sends up space shuttles.

First we loved Cindy Sheehan. We loved Ward Churchill. We loved Reverend Wright. We loved John Edwards. Heck, we loved Hillary. Then we felt they no longer served us so we went for the "Hope" and "Change" bit. We rock.

[happykiddo]

I hope people protest, that would mean smaller lines. the lines at the whole foods on 14th st is ridiculous. please protest. i want healthy food, and faster. LOL.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country" -- the greatest democrat of our time.

[RealFarmer]

Micheal Pollan drives around Berkeley with the windows of his prius rolled up so he can savor his own farts.

[Antiks]

And I thought I was the only one.

[happykiddo]

i saw nancy perlosi with him in the car.

[bobo28]

Just think of all the people who could afford Whole Foods if they saved 3/4 of that $25millon a month on health care and charged less than $3 for a grape fruit. With Medicare for All, their costs, all cost would be substantially less and available to do good else where . Whole Foods won't be getting anymore of my money . . . you say I'm only hurting Whole Foods employes, well perhaps it's time they Unionized and exercised a little influence over their boss. . . after all you are supposed to be a socially responsible company !

[Kevin78703]

The auto workers union just took several hundred millions of taxpayer bailout money in the bankruptcy. If that union was so effective in curtailing corporate greed, then why did they need to be bailed out with our funds? What if that 787 billion were still available? I don see unions having an effect of lowering consumer costs. If they have then educate me please. If we had a union then I would rely on this union to negotiate for me with the company. I prefer having access to leadership in the company and like being able to present my own case for my compensation. If a union wants in all they have to do is get enough signatures. They just cant have mine because I want to speak for myself and don't need an attorney to do so. Just to be clear, your point is that by having a union, Mackey would no longer make stupid statements due to pressure? Now if Unions can prevent people from saying and doing silly things, then you have a convert.

[Kevin78703]

I work for Whole Foods in Austin. It is easy to see why so many are dissappionted with the opinions of our CEO on the subject of healthcare. I can say I have world class healthcare that I spend no out of pocket money on. No co-pay, no cost for drugs, and the annual deductible is more than covered by a PWA account resulting in true no cost, high quality care. The corporation could put the roughly $25,000,000 per month spent on premiums in their pocket and support Obamacare. There are valid arguments against some of what our CEO wrote, although he will not be hurt by any boycott. You will never succeed in taking his money, or preventing him from being wealthy. The only thing a successful boycott will achieve is hurting the employees. I also find it odd that a man vilified for having an opinion on healthcare different than Obama, provides free universal healthcare to all employees.

[Heavhauler]

You do not !

[Kevin78703]

how so?

[Pierogi kid]

Whole foods what a joke, people think they are doing something principled because they buy organic pineapples but don't seem to care that they are shopping in 100k sq foot warehouse that is air-conditioned year round via coal fired power plants.

[Wardruna]

Id!iot!

[george389]

not if their reason for shopping there is simply to eat healthy. it's not hypocritical at all

[iplaw]

Plenty of conservatives shop at whole foods. You may live longer if you can afford organic.

[happykiddo]

eating healthy doesn't equal saving environment. any other questions?

[Pierogi kid]

Yes I do have another question, in fact. Why can't customers park correctly or? I never seen such a disreagrd for parking spaces. It is complete suabaru chaos there.

[charbinx]

One more thing-- has everyone who is going to boycott WF actually read his op-ed? Because I'll give him one thing-- he's right! And I am extremely liberal, very pro-Obama, and very pro health care reform. If America had a healthier diet (which does NOT equal Whole Foods, it just requires knowledge and common sense), health care costs would be lower!

[patsydecline]

charbinx,

while you probably won't be swayed by these links...
i do hope you take time to read them...esp the facebook link

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=119099537379&topic=11627

http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html

[Snow97]

I think that there's a very thin line -- one that should be carefully trod and which John Mackey arguably stepped over -- between advocating a healthier lifestyle and blaming sick people for their illnesses.

Moreover, specific points made by Mr. Mackey are weak and/or debatable -- e.g., the State of Texas evidences that enacting tort reform does not lower the cost of medical services paid by patients; the so-called "realization that every American adult is responsible for their own health" is blind to the fact that Big Pharma currently makes money (a lot of money) passing through the cost of their R&D to the person on the street; and reliance on the self-regulatory power of the market is inherently risky and potentially ruinous (as Wall Street has amply demonstrated).

Mr. Mackey has a right to voice his opinion. I have a right to believe that his health-ins­urance-ref­orm opinions are based upon fundamentally flawed personal beliefs and to take my disagreement with him to other merchants.

[Heavhauler]

The cost of health care in this country is NOT affected by the relative health of the American public.
It is set by insurance companies on a market will bear basis.
Both you and your buddy Mckey need to get involved in a little thing called reality.

[iplaw]

Even worse is the fact that free enterprise can and does result in perverse incentives such as drug makers incentive to make new drugs that are less effective than old drugs. There is no profit in curing people, maximum profit is to be had by keeping people alive and sick.

[charbinx]

People love getting angry and taking stands. I know that everyone's heart is the right place (and that I will not be liked for this one), but I really like and support Whole Foods. Yes, they are a business-- their goal is to profit off of us, just like every single other business-- but they do go out of their way to make sure they do things right. First of all, not only is their starting pay about $3 more an hour than the average grocery store, they also offer free medical insurance for full-time employees and a deep discount for family members insurance. A very high percentage (like 90, 95%) of their employees are full time, which means they are providing this insurance for the majority of their employees.

So say what you want about this place, but the claim that they "pay their workers horribly" is simply false. Obviously everyone has the right to choose where to shop, etc... but I do believe that many people have a very wrong view of Whole Foods. Now, if only John Mackey would learn to keep his mouth shut... (and, last I heard, he had also donated his stock options to charity. But who cares if he didn't? Does anyone talk about how much SuperFresh's CEO makes?)

What does this place have to do to get people to like it? They bend over backwards as it is!

[Heavhauler]

Their medical insurance is free because that is exactly what it is worth.
If you want actual insurance and you work for whole foods at a sub-par wage.
You have to pay for it.
Don't waste others time by writing "facts" about a place you obviously don't work.

[Atlas Scruggs]

Whole Foods is Wal Mart. They move in, destroy all the local businesses, pay their employees jack, buy out all the competitors, ship all their "food" in from out of state instead of buying local, and bust unions. Friends don't let friends shop at whole foods.

[ReelBusy]

I'm still boycotting.
Just because the CEO is "good for food" does not mean his actions and beliefs are "good for people".

[cookmeyer1970]

The truth is, my family stopped being able to afford Whole Foods a long time ago, but we continued to shop at the store for specific items. If their figurehead is actively pursing an agenda that undercuts healthcare reform, and their stockholders have no problem with that, it is hard to believe that their commitment to global social justice is genuine. The guy should have stayed out of the fray.

Beyond that, it would seem from many of the comments here that the company is not as socially conscious as they have led us to believe. I don't care if there is a formal boycott in place, I don't feel like shopping there anymore. It gives me that final nudge to save some money and shop at trader joe's instead. I'm not alone in this, and I hope it was worth it for this CEO. They weren't doing well in the first place following the economic meltdown, so good job alienating liberals who continued to shop there in spite of that. And as for the tea baggers shopping there and making up the difference-- give me a break. What will they be buying there? A loaf of bread? They claim they're "hard working, salt of the earth Americans", so good luck being able to afford it.

[Emmy2]

I don't shop at Whole Foods anyway--too expensive. But now I get creeped out when I walk past the store, which is in between a couple of places that I frequent. I look at the people going in and out and wonder if they are "strapped" Freepers (we have concealed-carry here) wanting to support their soul brother, Mackey.

[John Mainstream]

Glad to hear yesterday that sales at Whole Foods are going up. This boycott not only failed, but backfired. Case in point: It reminded my wife and me that we hadn't been to Whole Foods for a while. So, we went to Whole Foods a few days ago, and loaded up our shopping cart with over $200 of our favorite items.

[Eris23]

"we went to Whole Foods a few days ago, and loaded up our shopping cart with over $200 of our favorite items."

Sucker. :)

[ReelBusy]

Who carried the single bag of groceries?

[Eris23]

For real. That marked the last time my money went towards Whole Foods. About 7-8 years ago, my GF at the time went "grocery shopping" while I was at work and dropped $400 of our money on what amounted to barely 1 week's worth of food. Never again.

[ticklemonster]

Why do expensive things bother you?

[Cryostatic]

"In the ideal boycott, you temporarily stop doing business with an organization until they change some particular practice. The classic example is the Montgomery Bus Boycott that ended the segregation of city buses. But a boycott is on shakier ground when you're trying to punish somebody for their personal political beliefs rather than what their organization does. The worst example in recent years was the campaign to get radio stations not to play songs by the Dixie Chicks after one of them told an English audience that she was ashamed of President Bush."

Stolen from The Daily Sift.

[Eris23]

The boycott of the Dixie Chicks was largely an astro-turf campaign kicked off by Clear Channel. The circumstances here are a bit different.

[Snow97]

I think this point minimizes the effect the boycott has on the people doing the boycotting. Whether Whole Foods decides to reprimand John Mackey is not as important to me as the knowledge that I no longer spend hard-earned money supporting a political man -- whatever his "job" -- whose political convictions are at odds with mine.

It's ultimately about me, and what I believe, and the actions I will or won't take on the basis of those beliefs. To paraphrase Garth Brooks' song, I do it so Mr. Mackey will know that he will not change ME.