Whole Foods Backlash: Bloggers Outraged Over CEO's Anti-'ObamaCare' Column

Whole Foods Backlash: Bloggers Outraged Over CEO's Anti-'ObamaCare' Column

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's recent Wall Street Journal op-ed on health care which argues against President Obama's health reform proposals has caused a firestorm throughout progressive communities and on HuffPost.

Mackey wrote:

"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."

He instead suggested healthy food -- preferably purchased from Whole Foods -- as an answer to our health care woes:

"Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat."

For those of you who are tempted to follow Mackey's advice (and can afford it!) be warned: not all of the foods found at Whole Foods will actually make you healthy. As Mackey himself admitted [recently], "Basically, we used to think it was enough just to sell healthy food, but we know it is not enough. We sell all kinds of candy. We sell a bunch of junk."

HuffPost bloggers have taken some strong stances on the issue.

Ben Wyskida has decided he's done with shopping at Whole Foods, not only over the health care op-ed, but because he disagrees with many public stances Mackey has taken, like his opposition the the Employee Free Choice Act:

To me, it's pretty basic: Mackey is working to oppose things I believe in, so I should stop giving him money. That's not easy: I spend a lot of money on food. I also spend a lot of money at Whole Foods.

Wyskida's blog received enthusiastic support on Facebook, with the vast majority of commenters declaring they'd boycott, and one reader stating she'd even sold her stock over the issue.

Also on HuffPost, Ethan Nichtern declared that he's no longer shopping there:

I am not going to support [Mackey's] cognitive dissonance.... with any more of my hard-earned local-organic-neo-hippie-spinach money.

Waylon Lewis says he will not boycott Whole Foods for some of the following reasons.

Whole Foods is a vast organization, with thousands of staff, many if not most of whom disagree with John's idealistic, superior Libertarian views. We live in a democracy, with a lowercase "D." We don't have to hate those we disagree with--we just have to beat them at the polls, and in the halls of Congress.

John doesn't own Whole Foods. It's public.

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