[Sosfbay-discuss] whole foods boycott side effects

[Jim Doyle]

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John Mackey’s views on health care, much as I disagree with them, will 
not prevent
me from shopping at Whole Foods.

I can understand why people would want to boycott,
but it’s important to play out the hypothetical consequences of a 
successful 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. How? Because if
health insurers can no longer pick and choose their clients, and throw 
sick people out,
they will develop a much stronger interest in prevention, which is to 
say, in changing the
way America feeds itself.

When health insurers realize they will make thousands more in profits 
for every case of
type II diabetes they can prevent, they will develop a strong interest 
in things like corn
subsidies, local food systems, farmer’s markets, school lunch, public 
health
campaigns about soda, etc.

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.

source: http://www.newmajority.com/a-reply-from-michael-pollan