Michael Pollan is his effusively urbane self in speaking out against the Whole Foods boycott.
Whole Foods is not perfect, however if they were to disappear, the cause of improving Americans’ health by building an alternative food system, based on more fresh food, pastured and humanely raised meats and sustainable agriculture, would suffer. I happen to believe health care reform has the potential to drive big changes in the food system, and to enlist the health care industry in the fight to reform agriculture…
So [CEO John] 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.
Exceptionally thoughtful points. But…
My question: Why would Michael Pollan care? I mean, really. Unless the boycott was roiling out of control (it isn’t), or he had info that the boycott was having an impact (right here maybe?), or Mackey asked him for some political cover (ding ding ding!), it’s hard to understand why a champion of farmers markets and a critic of Whole Foods himself would enter this fray.
Your thoughts?
Since when is there any danger that Whole Foods would “disappear”? This blow to their image is hardly of that magnitude. Why is Pollan wasting his breath defending Mackey from the consequences of his actions, and implying that criticizing Mackey is somehow going to stop the building of an alternative food system?
Whole Foods is making whatever contribution it is to the food system in order to satifsy consumer demand. If it were to disappear, the demand would remain, and other entrepreneurs would find ways to satisfy it. Hell, think of the market space it would open up to co-op groceries, CSAs and other business forms that haven’t even been invented yet. We have the power and we have the righteous intent. Whole Foods can cooperate with us or take a hike.
Yeah, you nailed it, man. Pollan’s reaction is a bit hysterical under the circumstances. Which leads me back to concluding that someone confided in him that the boycott is having an impact on actual sales, on WFM board members’ resolve, or on brand perception in some measurable way.
My own theory is that Mackey read my piece on WFM “core” shoppers and called in the High Priest of the Core, Michael Pollan. Yeah, that’s the ticket….
Who died and made Pollan “God of the sustainable food movement”?? I mean really…many of us have been doing this for years. He’s just catching up. I can live with or without Whole Foods and I’m guessing your inference of a ear tug from Mackey for Pollan to speak out is RIGHT ON THE “MONEY”.
I agree with “TrueMosquito” (although, I find the user names on here a bit odd…lol).
KyFarmersMatter
Oh, our names are odd??
Yes, I agree. Pollan isn’t saying much that’s new (he uses phrases in Omnivore’s Dilemma that were batted around the grocery co-op world years before his book came out). But there’s no arguing that he describes the intricacies of sustainability on a pop level better than anyone. Which is why his weigh-in actually means something. People listen to him.
For this reason, I’m more interested in why he jumped in than what he actually says.
So I see he’s trying to woo Mackey by standing up for Whole Foods.
I can understand feeling bad for the farmers (who did nothing wrong) and might lose business because of the boycott. Instead of trying to get us to continue shopping there, why doesn’t Pollan appeal to Whole Foods to fire Mackey and fix the real problem, which is the head of the company? Once the customers have seen a real change, they will go back, wo’n’ they?
I think Astroglide is far superior to KY. Just sayin’.
Yes, there’s an interesting fallacy in Pollan’s argument, i.e., that WF, nay, the sustainable food movement, can’t survive without Mackey.
I’m neutral on the boycott, myself. I shop at WF every couple of years, or if I’m travelling, etc. But they should make clear on their facebook page under what conditions they’ll call off the boycott. Would they be happy with Mackey’s firing? Passage of a public option? An Apology from Mackey or its Board of Directors? What?
Re lubricants, there’s Fair Trade condoms.I wonder if there’s FT lube.Hrmm….
I’m a big Pollan fan and will continue to be…but Michael – no one boycotting WF believes they’ll bring a $5 billion juggernaut to its knees. We believe in buying consciously and our dollars are better spent building our community’s healthy living infrastructure (farmers markets, veggie stands, small grocers and local health food stores). Besides – the PR people at WF insist that store traffic is unaffected – so, it’s win-win: we shop where we want, Mackey gets the Glenn Beck/radical libertarian/tea bagger crowd. No problemo. I only miss the “365″ brand fig newtons and the employees at my former store.
but as a producer who wholesales to WF I have mixed feelings.
i have many other options for wholesale but in some regions WF is a major option. so hurting the small producer is not the intent of the boycott but it could be an end result.
Mike teaches journalism at UC Berkeley. Not exactly a growth industry.
So, he’s looking to build an online presence that is starting to smell like Jerry Springer. Somebody asked me if Pollan was channelling Stewie from “Family Guy” when writing “Omnivore.” It does have that breathless, shocked-naif air about its prose. Kind of a New-Yorker-endures-hoi-polloi in that priceless pig hunting scene. The vapors! The horror!
Mike also never gets around to recalling that it was Mackey who narrowly missed an SEC indictment for securities violations a few years back during WF’s acquisition of Wild Oats. It was widely publicized that Mackey signed himself as “Rahodeb” (wife’s name spelled backwards) under venomous attack pieces against WO on the ‘net.
If Pollan has decided to court controversy in this way, then he’ll end up as a third rate Upton Sinclair knock off.
It’s too bad. He had a choice.