Whole Foods CEO Denies Climate Change

Whole Foods Market has long dominated the natural and organic food scene, and most liberals who shop there believe they're putting their money where their mouth is. But the grocery's CEO, John Mackey, has used the bully pulpit the store's success has provided to oppose first labor organizing, then health care reform, and now to deny human-caused climate change.

Mackey's Wall Street Journal op-ed eschewing health care reform made waves this summer, spurring protests and a Facebook group calling for a boycott. But now Mackey has gone a step further, telling the New Yorker that he thinks the science on climate change is still unsettled.

Mackey, a libertarian, echoes a familiar conservative talking point when says he worries that climate "hysteria" will lead the government "to raise taxes and increase regulation, and in turn lower our standard of living and lead to an increase in poverty." But he goes even further, hypothesizing that warm temperatures cause prosperity -- instead of, you know, the opposite.

Of course, Whole Foods, as a company, continues to do some pretty trailblazing things, including powering its stores with renewable energy and engaging in conversations about the environmental impact of the food we eat. To this extent, Mackey's customers have successfully wielded the power of the purse.

But they've also bought and paid for Mackey's climate-denying bullhorn. And the company has conspicuously declined to join business groups that are forming to push for sustainability and, yes, even climate regulation, which is where the rubber really hits the road.

So Whole Foods fails as a model of doing well by doing good. Does it deserve a boycott?

Photo: Joe M500