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Pollan Debate Gone Civil
After nearly a year of trading public missives about the state of sustainable food, author Michael Pollan and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey met face-to-face at the University of California, Berkeley earlier this week. Their thoughtful, two-hour-long discussion touched on a number of philosophical, ethical, and economic issues around food, but the civil tone didn’t sit well with Mr. Cutlets of Grub Street, who had insinuated that the event would involve some angry chair-throwing. As he asks in his postmortem:
What exactly is up with Michael Pollan? We sat up late into the night waiting for him to put hard questions to Whole Foods CEO John Mackey in the discussion we previewed the other day. Part of Pollan’s bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma was devoted to unmasking Whole Foods’ claims to sustainability and the like, but when the author finally sat down with Mackey, he was as cordial and giving as the publicity-obsessed CEO.
Thing is, this debate stopped being contentious months ago, during the letter-writing phase; as Pollan put it, in this week’s meeting he was “not interested in scoring points so much as having a conversation.” And that’s pretty much how he should be approaching it now—because his earlier criticisms of Whole Foods (that “organic” doesn’t always mean sustainable; that the rosy picture the grocery chain paints of its produce-purveyors doesn’t necessarily conform with reality) have caused Mackey and his company to pay a lot more attention to where their “whole” foods really come from.
The webcast is worth checking out when you have a few hours to spare; it may involve less insanity than the other beef occupying the food world right now, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.
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| Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 5:08pm
| 1 comment
Tagged with: michael pollan, john mackey, whole foods, local food, uc berkeley, jeffrey chodorow, the grinder, media
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As a resident of Austin, and being politically congruent with Mackey, as well as a consumer that regularly shops the Flagship Store, downtown, I have followed this "correspondence" since its inception. My initial interest was fomented by an assignment in economics, though my interest and motivation changed when I fell ill and started looking into my diet.
IMHO, the clear and very present division resides in the socio-political arena...that is to say, Pollan's position is so far left that it is right; whereas Mackey's position is so far right it is left. Naturally, it serves, that both men meet at "their" created middle.
On one hand, Pollan has been instrumental in fleshing out the varying denotative and connotative definitions and meanings of the industry; on the other, I initially questioned his motivation to do so because Pollan made much hullabaloo about Whole Foods' staunch stance against BIG LABOR.
Where Mackey is concerned, if one evaluates the context and history of Whole Foods, you realize that Whole Foods has been an industry leader in food choice, and moreover, the consumers' right to certain disclosures when choosing foods, sourcing, process, and procurement. Though Mackey did not invent this lifestyle, he certainly has to be credited with developing it, considered as its most strategically-minded champion.
20 years ago, "Organic," "GMO," etc were not in the every-day lexicon of the general population, thus relegated to usage by the text-pert experts, only. This is no longer the case.
As Whole Foods continued to gain momentum and usurp market share, other grocers and retailers took notice and followed suit. This is a good thing as it promotes healthier living, better quality of life, broader and deeper food choices, and in the long-run-- a more knowledgeable and conscientious consumer-base, thus allowing the proverbial invisible hand to empower the consumer, as opposed to the other way around.
And this knowledge has a ripple-effect: Though my case is not like my neighbor's, the more and more that people are aware of their diets and the consequences of poor choices, there is a lessened detrimental reliance on Western Medicine, [theoretically] lower insurance premiums, and an empowering trend for those dietary anomalies that were once simply told to grin and bear it, or continue to do as they were doing, only to impede their quality of life, and most certainly shorten it.
And though Pollan has certainly made a name in elevating himself as the quintessential pundit during this whole affair, his place is just as necessary in the marketplace to ask that producers, retailers, and consumers alike constantly evaluate and reevaluate this very primary necessity to our day to day lives. After all, he, too, though to a lesser-extent is a catalyst.